American Solar Challenge

[SNGX1275]

American Solar Challenge is a solar car race across a large portion of the US, many universities try to compete in it, few qualify, and even less finish the race.
Several days into the race University of Missouri-Rolla is in first place, this can all change within a day but as of now UMR is doing well.
Why post this? Well first some of you may be a slight bit interested in this, second 2 of your TS moderators are alumni of University of Missouri Rolla, myself and Poertner_1274. And there are also a couple others from that school that post here: Goalie, gfries_1280, and gx1298.
One of my grad school professors is the main dude for overseeing the students in this competition so I get to hear a lot about our solar car team in class.

Here are the standings so you can follow our progress: http://www.americansolarchallenge.org/daily_race_standings.html
That page has lots of other links to further explain and show how well the teams are doing.

 

[Arris]

Missori Rolla - Car 42

Car number 42, come in please, your time is up

Your uni seems to be holding onto their position rather well.

 

[SNGX1275]

Originally posted by Arris
Your uni seems to be holding onto their position rather well.

its amazing, our sports here are not followed by anyone, our sports teams arent' that good but some like soccer are competitive to watch. Yet we have a SOLAR CAR team and EVERYONE gets excited about their performance. Hell I'm really excited, but I find it amusing people care more about a bunch of "nerds" than they do the schools athletes.

 

[poertner_1274]

Sad but true SNGX. I hope they continue to do well and finsih strong. That is a grueling competition to make sure you pass inspection, and manage to keep your car together for the whole race without problems.

 

[Goalie]

Yeah.. UMR has had national champion swimming teams, nationally ranked roller hockey, and a few other high up sports.

Most people don't know we have roller hockey. They know we have swimmers if only because the swimmer house hosts parties. Football is only known in Rolla for points for the fraternities. Not the team's points, for sure (UMR folk know what I talk about).

Solar car is up by 4 hours as of today, with basically two days left in the race (550 miles, with a stage stop tomorrow and a short leg on the final day that's basically ceremonial barring a major breakdown/accident).

Other funny thing: UMR doesn't get much alumni money when compared to many other universities, especially those of comparible size. But the alumni rally for the solar car team, sae, concrete canoe, etc. The solar car team's gotten free dinners/lodging/repair equipment from alumni along the route. Plus when they go to WSC, the fed-ex president (UMR Alum) in the past has shipped the car to Aussie land for free. I don't wanna know what that'd cost.

Now this post isn't meant to take anything away from the car team, but to point out that UMR has several other really respected teams out there. And I didn't scratch the surface (they've got mucking, sae airplanes, bridge building teams that rank/win nationally fairly regularly too... just ot name a few). Each has it's difficulties and merits.

From what I understand, scrutineering for ACS is a pain in the censored sitting location, and just finishing the race is an accomplishment. It's fun to watch the events that transpire (like the rash of fires this year) and how all teams cooperate unlike most any other competition. Even a first place team will pitch in where they can.

Oh well. I seem to be getting pointless and random in my paragraphs. Good luck UMR, and everyone else save UMC...

 

[SNGX1275]

UMR Wins American Solar Challenge

UMR wins ASC race by nearly 5 hours!: http://www.americansolarchallenge.org/daily_race_standings.html
Next challenge WSC in Australia.

 

[JSR]

i think solar

is going to be the next .........big thing..............solar rooftops are now being contemplated here in cali..........each home generates a surplus, sold back to the power company................considering what dire straights california's been under in regards to power,......i think, it's the next step, because the technology is there, now.........this is a bit off subject, but i couldn't help but think of the technology that fuels this sport, and what other ramifications it could have......man, roll a solar carpet across your rooftop, and so long power bill, maybe get paid?.......it's the schiznak :grinthumb

 

[young&wild]

Congratulations to University of Missouri, Rolla! That was a complete dominance....5hrs ahead of the second position. Well done.

 

[poertner_1274]

Yes, I am glad to hear my old school has done so well. Like SNGX has said our sports teams might not be the best, but our nerdy engineering teams sure know what they are doing

 

[JSR]

can you imagine

we affectionately call missouri, misery, in our state...........good to see they are doing something with all that spare time and hey, you guys even won a super bowl! (even if it took our ram's to do it) hehe :grinthumb

 

[Vehementi]

That is definitely cool, but it would have been even cooler if poert or sngx were involved in building it

 

[poertner_1274]

Now that I have graduated I wish I was part of one of those teams, but unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it now.

 

[SNGX1275]

The race is back on. This time its called the North American Solar Challenge, because for the first time in solar racing history, the race involves crossing a country border.

UMR is doing well again, but not winning yet. I heard from Goalie who heard somewhere part of the reason UMR was behind after day 1 was because we got lost at one point. They can build a solar car, but can't read a map, heh.

Follow the teams here -> http://americansolarchallenge.org/event/asc2005/standings/race.html