~50 Students · 3 Subteams
Team
Organized into subteams so every member owns real work.
Sub-Teams
Aeroshell
Due to the nature of being a solar-powered car, efficiency is a top priority, and with that comes aerodynamics. The aeroshell is the outer surface and body of the car that is designed to package the car to be as aerodynamic as possible. Designing this part will require CFD optimization, surface modeling, and possibly composites work.
Chassis
The chassis is the backbone of the car. In the past, we have built our chassis out of carbon fiber sandwich panels, and we have been looking into doing more complex carbon fiber layups and such. This project will dive deep into composites, working on creating hardpoints, molds, fiberglass, and more.
Front/Rear Suspension
The suspension of the car requires lots of design work, thinking about how the car will handle and drive. Lots of CAD work will be required in creating suspension geometry, simulating loads and failures in FEA, creating engineering drawings for manufacturing, and more.
Array Hinge
The array hinge allows access to the inside of the car, as well as tilting the solar array toward the sun when charging the car. This project is a fun geometry problem, as you need to create a four-point hinge and linkages to lift and tilt the array.
Topshell and Canopy
The topshell and canopy are another composites project for the top surface of the car. The topshell mounts the solar panels, along with a hinging canopy for driver access.
Driver Occupancy
The driver cell has many constraints due to regulations and safety, as well as a handful of subcomponents such as a pedal box, seatbelts, steering wheel, roll cage, and more.
Electrical Integration
The car is just a fancy statue without electronics. Electrical integration will work hand in hand with the electrical team and other mechanical subsystems to create enclosures, mounting brackets, wiring routing, and more.
Battery Enclosure
The battery enclosure is a box that encloses the battery pack, battery management system, and battery cooling system while fitting and mounting into the car in a very specific way. This team will work closely with the electrical team to make sure that the battery is properly fitted, protected, and can function properly in the car.
Accessory Tools and Integration
The car cannot function without a team and tools around it. Things like wheel-changing equipment, custom car jacks, and space/trailer upgrades such as making shelves and tables, along with much more, will be required to make the team run smoothly.
We are looking for dedicated students who are excited and eager to learn and excited to work with a collaborative team.
Steering Wheel
The steering wheel is the primary interface between the driver and the solar car. It provides crucial telemetry to the driver and places control of various lights, a horn, cruise control, and several other features at the driver's fingertips. This is a cross-functional team of electrical and mechanical engineers working together to redesign our current steering wheel with the aim of making it lighter and more practical.
Driver Interface
The driver interface combines the functionalities of our current telemetry and button interface boards. It enables the driver to control the low voltage and high voltage power distribution systems, drive mode select, emergency shutdown, and various other car functions. It sits on our main CAN bus and transmits vital telemetry to our ground team via a cellular TX/RX chip.
Body Controls
The body controls team works with the motor controller, lighting system, and horn. Most of their work will revolve around developing a new printed circuit board to control these components. Additional work includes development and optimization of exterior LEDs and calibration of our motor controller settings.
HV Power Distribution
This team works on our HV/LV power distribution system. They will develop a new power distribution board, Battery Management System, MPPT collector, and will be responsible for testing high-current conductors to ensure they meet safety regulations. Additional work will include development of a custom Maximum Power Point Tracker.
Array
The photovoltaic cell array is the heart of the solar car. This team will design, build, encapsulate, and optimize a state-of-the-art solar cell array to power the car.
Software/Firmware
Firmware and software are everywhere on the solar car. Firmware needs to be written for our embedded systems. Software needs to be written for our custom telemetry dashboard and to optimize race strategy.
Business
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What You Get
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What Joining Looks Like
Time commitment
At least 20 hours a week, and more during build crunch and race week.
Experience required
None required. If you come in with no experience, stick with it, and are proactive about learning, you can learn everything you need here.
Your first quarter
A crash course across the whole program, from mechanical to electrical to strategy to race operations.
Leadership
- Hailin TrumanFounder & President
- Grant GallagherMechanical Lead
- Nikhil GargElectrical Lead
- Owen KuwaytiBattery Lead & Admin Lead
- Izzy LavoieBusiness Lead
Leads serve one-year terms.
Where Our Alumni Go
- Blue Origin
- Boeing
- Tesla
- T-Mobile
- Alaska Airlines
- Hendrick Motorsports
- Archer
- Electroimpact
- Teague
- Port of Seattle
- Aerotech
- ATS Automation
- CDM Smith
- Geo Engineers
- Puris Proteins
No Experience Required
Engineers, designers, writers, photographers and business students, roughly fifty of them, one car.
Join the Team