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After weeks of waiting, the dates and route for the 2012 American Solar Challenge are now available.  And to make things interesting, Ann Arbor, home of our beloved Solar Car Team, will host one of the stage stops. The first phase of the race begins with scrutineering from July 6 to July 9 at the Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, New York.  The race itself, departing from Rochester, New York, commences on July 14 and finishes in St. Paul, Minnesota on July 21.  The following is the-day by-day race schedule:

·         July 14 – start in Rochester, NY; end in Erie, PA

·         July 15 – start in Erie, PA; must reach checkpoint in OH (TBD)

·         July 16 – end in Ann Arbor, MI

·         July 17 – start in Ann Arbor, MI; must reach checkpoint in Kalamazoo, MI

·         July 18 – end in Normal, IL

·         July 19 – start in Normal, IL; must reach checkpoint in Madison, WI

·         July 20 – end in LaCrosse, WI

·         July 21 – start in LaCrosse, WI; end in St. Paul, MN

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After 5 days, 1800 miles, brush fires, dust storms, heavy winds, rain, and extreme temperature swings, Quantum finished 3rd in the Veolia World Solar Challenge.

It was an extremely close race, as for 3 days we kept pace with 1st place Tokai, and 2nd place Nuon. To put this in perspective, we camped out within 1 KM of Nuon 3 nights in a row. Unfortunately, heavy cross winds caused technical issues with the fairing mechanism, requiring repairs on the side of the road. Tokai and Nuon, spent zero time for roadside repairs, which was a key factor in the race outcome.

Further followup regarding the race outcome will be posted in the coming days.

We look forward to celebrating in Victoria Square with the other top teams tomorrow morning. We are all proud of our accomplishments, especially knowing that we are the first US team to win 2 consecutive top 3 finishes.

Go Blue!

Gerald making minor changes to the fairings

Gerald Chang, Quantum’s crew chief, knows all about commitment and its value.  Gerald has dedicated countless hours to the Solar Car Team since the Fall of 2007.  At that time, he was looking to join a team, and a friend steered him to one of the Solar Car meetings.  Thereafter, Gerald attended the mechanical division meetings and began to learn the ropes in Ann Arbor while the race crew was competing in Australia.  For the next several years, he became immersed in the solar car world.

Gerald making sure that the taping on Quantum is perfect before it takes off.

Gerald is a first –year grad student studying mechanical engineering.  As crew chief for the team, he makes sure the car is prepared to drive.  His experience for the last three years earned him the votes for the position, and he is certainly exceling.  Nevertheless, he does expect there to be challenges with the job.  For instance, he predicts that racing the car 100% of the time will definitely be difficult, and he knows that when Quantum won’t be racing, the competition will be gaining ground.  But Gerald is also very excited to battle the top teams from around the world and to see the work put in over the last two years finally pay off.  Regarding his time with the team, Gerald reflects, “It has been priceless. It isn’t something I could give up or trade away because it was my life and it left room for not much else. I learned and experienced things I will use for the rest of my life – as a person and as an engineer. Because of this I suspect it won’t take long for me to get acquainted with the industry I want to enter.” And he does indeed have an internship lined up in the future.  After the race, he will travel around Australia for about a week and then will start his internship with SpaceX.

The post was written by team blogger, Carrie Schoeneberger.

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COE Updates University WSC Control Panel

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After 3 hard fought days of racing, Day 4 brought with it a key decision to make. With roughly 1200 km of racing left, and first place Tokai gaining ground, we decided to make an aggressive strategy call, by increasing our set speed, to move from 3rd to 1st.

Quantum performed very well for the first half of the day due to having a nice charge in the battery pack from running conservatively earlier in the race.

However, by mid-day, strong crosswinds combined with our high set speed, eventually caused us to have technical difficulties with our windowed fairings. This resulted in significant time on the side of the road to swap in spare fairings, and tweak the system to cope with the conditions.

By the end of the day, the team finished roughly 1.5 hours behind Tokai, and 1 hour behind Nuon at the Glendambo control stop.

We will resume driving tomorrow at 8 AM, with hopes of finishing the remaining roughly 600 km of the race by the evening. While our chances at improving our placement are slim, we are still optimistic, as Tokai and Nuon will be battling to the limit for first place. With significant cloud cover expected tomorrow, this could lead to one of them draining their battery, forcing them to stop and charge on the side of the road.

We will take tomorrow in stride, with hopes of being the first Michigan team to finish in the top 3, two years in a row.

Go Blue!

Chris speaking at the Traverse City Management Briefing Seminars (2011)

Chris Hilger, the team’s business director, confidently considers joining Solar Car to be his best choice in college.  He joined on the first day of freshmen year and never looked back.  His interest lay mainly in the hands-on nature of the team’s projects, especially that which related technology to the business world.

Chris, a chemical engineering major, earned the position of business director after four years of hard work with the team.  Previously, he was head of sourcing, where he learned many general principles of sponsorship, sales, and business development.  In Australia, he is in charge of the team’s external image.

Besides business and the Solar Car team, Chris enjoys watersports, sailing, boating, reading, world events, and traveling.  And he plans to travel to Japan after the race.  In the fall, he will work at Ricardo doing business development.

As a veteran member of the team, he can safely reflect on his experiences, and he has shared: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Being part of such a dedicated team allows for incredible accomplishments. ..Solar Car is by far the best experience of my college career; the doors it has opened are second to none.  I hope Quantum can join the list of very accomplished teams that have come before it.”

Chris talks with Alan Mullaly and Jack Roush at the Pure Michigan 400

One of Chris’ favorite memories with the team is successfully completing the fundraising goals for the Quantum project because the success influenced improvements for Quantum that the team had never experienced before.  Another great personal experience for Chris was having the Roush race weekend at MIS, where he met Jack Roush, the Roush Fenway Drivers, and Alan Mulally.

At the WSC, Chris is most excited to take home the trophy for America.  He stresses, “No U.S. student team in history has ever won the race.  The U.S. is in trying times right now, especially in regards to our competiveness in science and technology.  This is a model for the U.S. as what can be achieved when very talented and determined individuals come together for a common goal.”

The post was written by new team blogger, Carrie Schoeneberger.

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COE Updates University WSC Control Panel

4:45 AM – some of the team woke up in our large maize tents to the sound of a drum accompanied by a soft pipe or whistle. We weren’t out of the tent fast enough to investigate whether the music was being made by the local Aborigine people who live in Wachope, where we were stopped the afternoon before due to brush fires farther down the road. The music was soon drowned out by the sound of speakers blaring from our competitor Nuon’s camp just on the other side of the parking lot.

This morning felt something like the stage stops we see in the American Solar Challenge. It’s very unusual to have the top three teams in WSC camping at the same place, charging next to one another and leaving just minutes apart in the morning.

As we set out 30 minutes ahead of Quantum and her caravan (which left the makeshift control point 13 minutes after Tokai and 5 minutes after Nuon) in the weather vehicle, we drove toward the smoky haze that had been sitting to the south and west of camp since we arrived yesterday afternoon. It would be less than a two hour drive to Ti Tree, where officials were waiting with another makeshift control stop.

After about 45 minutes we were approaching Barrow Creek, where there was originally supposed to be a stop. Last night we were told that that stop was cancelled because the tiny town was surrounded by the wild brush fires and some of the buildings may even be on fire. The grey-brown haze became thicker, blowing dense smoke across the road at some points where the fires were close. Right before reaching Barrow Creek there were fires burning right next to the road and a large tree was in flames less than 10 meters from the left side of the road. The wind was blowing toward the east, so some of the flames licked the left side of the pavement and we had to drive by cautiously on the opposite side of the road.

Post by Rachel, driving weather vehicle typically about 45 minutes ahead of main caravan.

Read about the delays due to bush fires on Day 2 of the World Solar Challenge and how it will effect the team in the New York Times

Check out other recent coverage on our In the News and Press Releases pages

Produced by Evan Dougherty

Produced by Evan Dougherty

“Today was the most exciting day of racing in my solar car career”, said our Crew Chief, Gerald Chang during the evening team meeting. This is a very powerful statement given that Gerald is our most experienced member, having been on Race Crew for over four years.

The day was filled with heavy traffic, strong wind, and fierce competition. Multiple lead changes and passes took place throughout the day, as Tokai, Nuon, and umsolar all jockeyed to get past slower moving traffic. However, the team managed to brave it all, finishing the day just 4 minutes behind 1st place. In regard to the total distance traveled, we are in 1st place! See full results here: http://dashboard.worldsolarchallenge.org/20111016_1702

It appears that our three teams will be battling it out for the remainder of the Veolia World Solar Challenge. The winner will most likely be chosen by who chooses the best race strategy. With this close of a race, reliability is critical. We are off to a great start on this front as zero minutes were spent on the side of the road for repairs.

Check out pictures from day 1 here!

Check out video here!