Body Work

It's January! Classes start in February, so we're at the shop every day. One of our major tasks is finishing the body. We're getting buff and getting cut to improve future performance. Chopper del Sol is shaping up to be a lean mean endurance machine, with the ability to last a long time under the hot Australian sun.

In addition to working on the body, we're redesigning the electronics and taking care of details for the race. 9 months to go!

 

Hong Kong Trip

We were invited to visit the Institute for Vocational Education (Tsing Yi campus) in Hong Kong to participate in sharing sessions. IVE has built two generations of SOPHIE, a solar car, and they hope to compete in the 2013 World Solar Challenge.

Alejandro, Rachel, Maddie, and I were honored to go to Hong Kong and help the talented IVE team. I think that everyone learned a lot and came away with a renewed desire to rayce well.

element14 Sponsors MIT SEVT

We are very pleased to announce our newest sponsor element14, who have donated much needed tools and equipment. We give many thanks to Nicole and others for making this happen.

Here is a short description of element14. Please check them out.

element14 is a new, innovative information portal and eCommunity specifically built for electronic design engineers.  It provides product data, design tools and technology information, whilst incorporating web 2.0 functionality to facilitate communication, interaction, collaboration and information sharing between colleagues around the world.  Users can consult experts, discover trends, post blogs, articles and comments in this world-wide forum.

Body Layup!

Our top mold arrived in Cambridge on Thursday, and we are cooking our layup right now.

From top to bottom: waxing the mold, cutting composites to size, and our curing oven.


I'm super excited to see how it turns out.

NovaLynx and Gill Instruments sponsor MIT SEVT

Many thanks to NovaLynx and Gill Instruments, who have donated an ultrasonic anemometer and related equipment to our team.

McKay School Visit and Junior Solar Sprints

In May, some students from the McKay School in Boston came to see Eleanor. George, Mike, and I showed them the shop and the car.

 George and Mike talking with the students.

We also had the opportunity to display Eleanor at the Junior Solar Sprints in Cambridge, which was held at MIT's track.

We enjoyed seeing the mini solar cars that the children built and raced!

Future solar raycers.

SEVT Featured in Technology Review

The May/June 2010 issue of the Technology Review features an article about the SEVT's experience in the 2009 Global Green Challenge.
Racing With the Sun

You can also check out the slide show and video.

Enjoy!


Fiona