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Running
on sunshine
Engineering students build solar-powered race cars from scratch
It’s a compelling vision: A solar-powered family sedan zooms down the interstate. Photovoltaic cells on the roof capture the sun’s rays and power the car’s motor and charge its batteries, resulting in virtually limitless range. Forget mpg and emissions. Yet, numerous techni- cal and physical hurdles–including sunset and weather issues like cloud cover—still make such a dream largely science fiction. But that hasn’t stopped anyone from trying to make solar dreams real.
The design, engineering and building of fast, efficient solar-powered race cars has been the mission and pas- sion of engineering students the world over for the past couple of decades.
Among the top competitions are the World Solar Challenge, a race across the Australian continent, the America Solar Challenge, a cross country endurance race generally held every two years in the United States, and The Formula Sun Grand Prix, an annual track event, which took place in Austin, Texas, this past summer from July 26 to July 31. A number of high school teams compete in the Solar Car Challenge in Texas.
One team of aspiring engineers designing, building and racing solar cars are members of the University of Kentucky Solar Car Team.
Students run the show
The team is fully student run and managed and involves students in schools of study from a broad spectrum, including all the engineering fields as well as social science.
“Everything from the management to the engineering to the fabricating and design are all done by students,” said Joshua Morgan, a junior studying electrical engineering who is the electrical team leader for the solar car.
“Our team encompasses all the fields of engineering at UK–chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical, and all work in a different capacity,” he said. “We also have business majors, media majors and fine arts majors on the team.”
In addition to the practical work experience with the hardware and software, the solar car team provides
an outreach to younger students involved in Science, Technology and Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. They visit elementary and middle schools to show off the car, talk about the project and generate interest in STEM.
“The visits show them some of what they can do in col- lege,” one team member said.
New car every 3 years
The team builds an entire new car every three years. That enables each group of aspiring engineers to gain experience creating a car from the ground up–from designing and fabricating, to installation electrical and mechanical systems to refinement and racing.
Much of the development, and the most visible and exhilarating, involves drive time, either on a parking lot at the Lexington campus or wheeling down the streets down town or out on the backroads of Kentucky.
According to Morgan the car can run about three hours off of batteries only and another six to eight hours if
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