University of Michigan Solar Car Team

At the end of last semester, leadership was elected for the 2011 Project. I am pleased to introduce the members of the new Executive Committee:

Operations Director: Ethan Lardner

Ethan is a second year mechanical engineering student from Milan, Illinois. He was a member of the operations division for WSC 2009.

Strategy Director: Santosh Kumar

Santosh is a senior planning on getting his masters in aerospace engineering. He is from Singapore and was a strategist in the WSC 2009 race crew.

Business Director: Emily Tischler

Emily is a junior planning on getting her bachelors in business administration. She is from Los Angeles, California and is a huge fan of the LA Lakers. Emily was the interim business director in Ann Arbor last semester.

Engineering Director: Ethan Stark

Ethan is a sophomore studying engineering physics from Agoura Hills, California. He was a race crew engineer for the Team in WSC 2009.

Project Manager: Rachel Kramer

I am a second year LSA student planning on studying neuroscience. I'm from Ludington, MI and held the position of interim strategy director in Ann Arbor last fall.

 

We're very excited to tackle the diverse challenges that Solar Car presents, work with our fantastic sponsors, alumni and fans, and help in building another world-class U of M Solar Car Team.

At Sunday's awards ceremony, in addition to the team's successful 3rd place finish in the 2009 World Solar Challenge, the team also received the Technical Innovation Award. The award is presented by the Australian Research Institute CSIRO, and is awarded to the team that pushes the envelope with regards to ingenuity in the development and racing strategies of a solar vehicle. We are proud of Infinium's many technological advances in our A123 Systems LiFePO4 batteries, sophisticated race strategy software suite, iPhone telemetry application, and especially lower surface concentrator system.

Unfortunately, the team was unable to finish the race yesterday stopping 10km north of Port Wakefield. Through out the entire day the team battled Nuon for second place which including at least 6 lead changes. The team was able to pull into the Port Augusta checkpoint 5 seconds ahead of Nuna 5. Shorty after leaving the check point Nuna 5 over took Infinium, but a couple minutes later Infinium moved back into second place. Nuna 5 matched Infinium's speed and then eventually passed and put some distance between the two cars.

As time in the race day was coming to an end, it looked like Infinium would finish the day four minutes behind Nuna 5.  Unfortunately, the team ran out of momentum trying to make it up a hill, and was forced to push Infinium to the top and take a 10 minute penalty. This penalty combined with the lead Nuon has created, will almost certainly mean a third place finish for Michigan.

Our hats go of from the team from Tokai University who ran an incredible race with their amazing car. We would also like to congratulate Nuon on their successful recovery and race. They certainly made the last leg very exciting for us back at home.

Lastly, I would like to congradute our team in Australia on running an amazing race. Everyone in the States is so proud of how well the race crew performed. The team should be crossing the finish line this evening. I encourage everyone to follow Infinium into Adelaide using the GPS tracker.

After an intense day of competition, the team sits neck and neck with Nuon for second place. We are currently camped out approximately 2 kilometers behind Nuon, though they ended the day shortly after 5:00 PM while we ended at exactly 5:00 PM. When we pulled off at our campsite, our lead vehicle was directly behind their chase vehicle. Tokai University remains in the lead, already having passed Glendambo. Barring any great misfortune, they will emerge as winners of the race. Our team is excited to be in direct competition with Nuon for second place, who have finished first in all of their four previous races. Never before has Michigan finished higher than third in the World Solar Challenge/Global Green Challenge.

The day started with both us and Nuon just north of Alice Springs. We arrived there shortly after 8:30 with Nuon close behind. A cable was left unplugged at the end of the control stop, which forced us to lose some time at the exit of the control stop. Shortly after leaving Alice Springs, one of our MPPTs malfunctioned and tripped the vehicle's circuit breakers. While we were on the side of the road, Nuon passed us to take second place.

We spent the remainder of the morning pushing on towards Kulgera, and ran across many entries from the Eco Challenge class of the Global Green Challenge. These vehicles were seeking to maximize their fuel economy while competing across the outback, and were running slower than we were! While navigating through the pack of Eco Cars, we even had a chance to run alongside Ford Australia once again. In the midst of weaving through the Eco Cars, we pulled into Kulgera about 10 minutes behind Nuon.

At the end of the second race day, Infinium is currently in second place, positioned 30 km north of Alice Springs. Tokai University, currently in first place, arrived in Alice Springs at 4:06 PM today, so we are essentially 90 minutes behind the race leader. We are 20 km ahead of four-time champions Nuon, although they have gained on us over the course of the day. Once again today, Infinium ran with great reliability, and we spent no time on the side of the road.

Today was marked by dust from a dust storm blanketing the sky for nearly all of our race route. Roughly 80 km into our day we reached the system, which continued all the way to Alice Springs. The dust in the sky limited the amount of power we were able to get from the solar array, forcing us to reduce our speed from the previous day's pace. We anticipate that the dust should clear up tomorrow as we head towards the South Australian border. Once in South Australia, the speed limit will decrease from 130 to 110 kph, making it harder to catch any team ahead of us. However, if we keep a lead over Nuon, we will be in for some great racing for the next half of the race!