On a recent afternoon on the former College of St. Rose campus in Albany, a miniature hydrogen-powered car completed 164 laps on a track — enough to finish second in an endurance race against teams from SUNY Albany and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The car was built by high school students.
They’re enrolled in the New Visions: Emerging Technologies program at Capital Region BOCES, and they also took first in the competition’s promotional category. Call it a sweep, more or less.
The team, which competed under the name E-Tech, was captained by Schenectady High School junior Arron Scott. The rest of the roster drew from multiple districts: Dillon Harlow from Shenendehowa; Kwasi Leitch, Ezekiel Sahai, and Krishna Wright, all from Schenectady. Their teacher, Brian Conway, said the car ran on 10 HYDROSTIKS of hydrogen gas and two NiMH batteries — hardware the students selected, assembled, and raced themselves.
The competition was sponsored by Plug Power and the Center for Economic Growth NY.
Those aren’t incidental sponsors. Plug Power, headquartered in Slingerlands, is one of the foundational names in the green hydrogen economy. Founded in Albany County in 1997, the company created the first commercially viable market for hydrogen fuel cell technology and has since grown into a global operation.
NY CREATES — the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science — is the other co-sponsor, and its footprint is significant. Operating out of the Albany NanoTech Complex, NY CREATES manages what has become a leading center for semiconductor research and development, with more than $25 billion in high-tech investments and approximately 3,000 R&D jobs on site. The organization was directly involved in developing the New Visions: Emerging Technologies curriculum, which means the students who raced that car last month are being trained, in part, by the same institutions building the region’s next-generation tech workforce.
“The students had to consider physics, use engineering practice to make improvements to the model car, collaborate, problem solve, strategize and race the car the most efficient way possible,” Conway said.
That’s a description of a job interview as much as it is a competition.
The New Visions: Emerging Technologies program launched in September and is housed at the new CTE Extension Center on Watervliet-Shaker Road in Albany — the latest addition to a Capital Region BOCES system that has been expanding at a pace that reflects real pressure from employers.
The CTE operation now runs campuses in Albany and Schoharie, with the extension center opening in time for the 2025-26 school year. Capital Region BOCES started the current school year with more than 1,400 students enrolled and a waitlist in excess of 200 students; the Extension Center is designed to accommodate an additional 200-plus. Schoharie’s campus, which celebrated 50 years of operation in 2022, serves students across Albany, Schoharie, and Schenectady counties. The demand isn’t theoretical — it’s a waitlist.
The curriculum in the Emerging Technologies program covers advanced manufacturing, mechanical and electrical systems, hydrogen safety, semiconductor processes, fuel cell systems, pneumatics, automation, cleanroom protocols, and troubleshooting. Students leave with credentials aimed at immediate employment or entry into apprenticeship programs in industries that are, by any honest measure, actively trying to hire people who know what a fuel cell system is.
It’s worth noting who the E-Tech team was racing against. The field included university students — SUNY and RIT competitors — and the BOCES team finished second in endurance by a margin of seven laps. The first-place car completed 171 laps; the E-Tech car finished 164. That gap is close enough that the outcome reads less like an upset than like a proof of concept.
The promotional category — judged separately — went to Capital Region BOCES outright.
