The University of Michigan Solar Car Team’s second car, Maize and Blue, was built three years after it’s inaugural car, Sunrunner. With three years, the team was able to focus on design and funds and by strengthening ties with the University, Maize and Blue was able to incorporate local companies into its high tech design.

The University helped in many ways, especially in contacting companies for support. In this article from the Argus-Press in 1993, MagneTek of Owosso receives recognition for supporting the team with a MagneTek DC Brushless motor.

Maize and Blue before the World Solar Challenge

The team went on to win the American Solar Challenge, but unfortunately, did not fare as well in the World Solar Challenge. Even though Maize and Blue beat Sunrunner’s record by over seven hours, problems with the array resulted in an 11th place finish. Check out this article on “Outback Flu” and non-car related challenges Maize and Blue faced in Australia: http://goo.gl/ayfYM

Despite these challenges, Maize and Blue and the team members who worked on the project have helped each of the following project cycles, contributing to the successful program and years of excellence. Take a blast into the past and check out specs as well as pictures from Maize and Blue: http://solarcar.engin.umich.edu/pastteams/maizeblue/

Follow Generation on our path to the World Solar Challenge. Like us on Facebook or tweet @umsolarcarteam

Roxanna looking at directions trying to direct the driver on the wrong side of the road in Australia

I’m from Arlington Heights, IL.  Before getting to Michigan and before I had even heard about the Solar Car Team, I knew I needed to find a team-based engineering project to join.   You see, In high school I was on a F.I.R.S.T. Robotics team,  Team #111 Wildstang, and until my first Monday night General Team Meeting, Wildstang was the coolest team I had been a part of.  When I first arrived in Ann Arbor, I wanted to be a mentor for a F.I.R.S.T. Robotics team in the area, mainly because I had decided to focus my academic career in the humanities but didn’t want to lose touch with engineering and the competitive team atmosphere I’d enjoyed so much with robotics.  And so, the fall of my freshman year I went to a Monday night meeting to learn more about the team.  I joined the team that night.  I dabbled in the different divisions until it became clear that the Operations Division needed the most attention.  The Ops slowly grew; we had a team of students who would meet regularly to contact potential sponsors as we tried to secure supplies and resources for upcoming domestic events and the World Solar Challenge in Australia.

When Race Crew selection for the 2007 World Solar Challenge (WSC) came around, I was selected to be part of Continuum’s Race Crew and help the Ops crew plan the logistical effort involved in moving our people and goods to, within, and from Australia.  It was then that I talked more and more with 2005 Ops Director Maggie Hayes, who became a wonderful mentor throughout my time on Race Crew.   As the logistics lead, I planned, a lot.  While no amount of planning could have mentally prepared us for what happened on day one of the 2007 WSC when Continuum crashed, our team nonetheless remained focused.  Continuum was up and running the next day thanks to our team’s steadfast work ethic, the willingness of well-placed strangers to lend a helping hand, and the support of friends and family who were literally following the race or doing so half way around the world.

Continuum 2007 Race Crew at Uluru in Australia

During the two years I spent on Solar Car I learned a lot of things that you won’t find on my transcript.  Like how to ask people for money, a skill I went on to use my senior year when I joined the board of and fundraised for the Latino Students Organization, doubling the previous year’s budget.  I also learned how to get free stuff, a skill I used immediately after my time on the team to send a group of Michigan students to a conference in New York City.  Those skills are all very useful and in one way, shape, or form I’ll continue to improve them throughout my life.  However, the most important take-away are the teammates and mentors I met.   One person is both, Chito Garcia has been an unwavering advocate for Michigan Solar Car teams for several decades, his experience as a mentor and dedication as a teammate made him one of our team’s greatest assets.

Racing is exciting and glamorous, but at the end of the day, my fondest memories involve long hours of cold-calling strangers in a small trailer located outside the Wilson Center, the drive to the workspace while playing imaginary instruments, and meetings at the overcrowded house on 5^thand Madison.  Although my Solar Car Team days are behind me, the friends I met on the team remain an important part of my life.  From running marathons to globetrotting, I have had and will continue to have trusty old friends at my side who I met on solar car.

Michigan’s tradition of excellence is epitomized in the Solar Car Team, and still, it is common to get wrapped up in the challenges that face us throughout our time on the team.  Each new team gains a generation of knowledge and experience, and it shows.  My advice to the current team members and future teams is to question your predecessors, challenge their decisions, and improve on their work.  Oh, and forever Go Blue!

After graduating from Michigan in 2009 with degrees in Political Science and Spanish I moved to Washington, DC for graduate school to study foreign affairs at Georgetown University.  I currently work for the U.S. Department of State where I focus on public diplomacy initiatives for youth audiences around the world.

Sarah Napier (right) and me (center) running the 2011 Chicago Marathon, we ran into Max Ross and his snazzy sign. Who is taking the picture you ask? Doug Lambert, naturally.

This post and all captions were written by former team member, Roxanna Vigil.

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

Charging on mock race

In 2009, teammates made a birthday cake for Dylan out of airplane food

The team at Ford

The team at Pint and Punt

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

Jeff Rogers finished his education in Ann Arbor only two years ago, but he hasn’t been disconnected from the Solar Car team yet. Jeff was an alumni mentor in this past fall’s World Solar Challenge (WSC) as well as the 2010 American Solar Challenge (ASC). What he misses most is “working with such a tightly knit group of people hell-bent on winning. It isn’t nearly as fun working for a real company.”

Jeff grew up in Rochester Hills, Michigan and studied computer science engineering receiving a Bachelor’s degree in 2008 and a Master’s in 2010. He joined the Solar Car team immediately during his freshmen year because he had so much fun with FIRST robotics in high school and because he marveled at the sound of a solar car competition (who doesn’t?). While he was new to the team, he worked on the micro-electrical system and figured out a rear-view camera. By 2007, he was in charge of the micro-electrical system and had started to redesign everything besides the rear-view camera. In 2009, he maintained his technical role as the lead micro-electrical engineer and was also a senior leader.

Jeff raced in WSC 2007, NASC 2008, and WSC 2009 as well as the two in which he mentored. One of his favorite moments was pulling Continuum out of its trailer for the first time in Darwin, and since the solar concentrators were kept confidential, he remembers that the reaction from the competitors was priceless. Moreover, he recalls, “I think the best part of any competition was being with all of the other teams in the pits before the race. In 2008 we all rallied together to help out Oregon State get their very first solar car running. It was great to work with people from other teams with a common goal.”

Today, Jeff is developing software for SpaceX. He believes that the technical challenges from Solar Car actually overlapp a lot with his work, and he felt that the teamwork experience was invaluable. He was very impressed with the latest race crew even though many of the members were rookies. To the next generation, he shares this advice: “Don’t take the competition so seriously that you don’t enjoy it.”

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

Vedant Agarwal was born in India and his childhood dream was to build a race car. When he realized that his dream could actually come true, he joined the Solar Car team in September 2005. He also respected the fact that Solar Car was the most professional organization on campus.

Vedant graduated in 2009 with a degree in mechanical engineering. During his time on the team, he worked as a mechanical engineer designing and analyzing the rear suspension. He raced in the 2007 World Solar Challenge. One of his favorite memories with the team was seeing the workspace for the first time. He also really enjoyed race crew initiation at the Big House. Of course, he can’t forget the numerous achievements on Continuum, such as the entire team’s lower surface layup session, getting the rear suspension installed, and watching the car drive for the first time.

Continuum

What he misses most are the unique senses of humor of the race crew members and doing hands-on engineering work. Today, Vedant is beginning to pursue his MBA at the Indian School of Business. He comments about his experience on the team, “Solar car taught me how to be a leader, work in large team projects, become accountable for my work, and push myself beyond my comfort zone.” To the current team, he proclaims, “Dont be afraid to try new ideas and keep taking help from ex-team members.”

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

I’m from Okemos, Michigan.  I graduated in December 2009 in Industrial & Operations Engineering with a minor in music.  I joined Solar Car in the spring of 2006, which was my 2^nd semester at the University.  I was majoring in engineering, but all of my extracurricular activities were music related: Michigan Marching Band, pep bands, campus bands, etc.  I decided to get involved in something more applicable to my major, and picked Solar Car due to their outstanding past record and their quest to be the best in the World.

I joined the Operations Division and eventually became Operations Director for WSC 2007.  For NASC 2008 I was Operations Director and also got the opportunity to be one of the Solar Car drivers.

My all time favorite memory was when we approached the finish line in Calgary during NASC 2008.  I was driving the solar car and there were hundreds of people along the sides of the road cheering us on (I had no idea so many people even knew about the race!).  Lead and Chase pulled away from me and at first I didn’t know what was happening because I didn’t realize we were already at the finish line.  Then all of a sudden my entire team was running alongside of me as we crossed the finish line and won the National Championship.

Like many alumni, the thing I miss the most is the people.  After the crash in 2007 many of us returned for the 2008 race and became a pretty close group.  We were a smaller team so people really had to help out other divisions to get everything accomplished.  At one point Steve was the only other driver and Richard was my only Ops person.  A lot of people, especially Mike & Sarah, stepped in and helped me get everything done.  There aren’t that many organizations out there that cause you to spend that much time with people and literally trust them with your life.  I miss that.

I felt like the 2008 team went through a lot, culminating in the week before we left for Texas to start the race (I’m sure everyone on that team remembers that week and remembers how awful it was).  The fact that we all came together and not only won the race by a gap of ten hours but also won the Teamwork Award… I felt like that was really telling of everything our team and our car had been through and could do.

I am currently a production manager for Reckitt Benckiser.  I recently moved from Fort Worth, TX where we make Mucinex, to St. Louis, MO where my lines make mainly Woolite, Jet Dry, Finish, Lysol, and Old English.  Being on the Solar Car Team gave me experience in people management and team building that you don’t find in the classroom.  I think this gave me a jump start on my career and made me more comfortable being in a management position straight out of college.

Each team pushes the boundaries and sets new expectations for themselves and future teams.  Every team seems to do something that the team before thought about but for some reason couldn’t execute.  The fact that we’re still doing that after 20 years makes me believe the possibilities for the future are endless.  My advice to the current team is to never stop dreaming because even if your idea isn’t a possibility now, you may be paving the way for future teams.  That and to enjoy every minute you’re on the team because I’m not sure there’s anything else in life quite like it.

This post was written by former Operations Director and driver, Brooke Bailey.

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

Sunrunner

Sometimes, we wonder why we need to worry about history and why the past is important. There are so many sayings that suggest forgetting the past, such as “the past is behind you” and “live in the moment.” And in some cases, those mottos are what we need to hear, but deep down, we all must know that our pasts are significant, that our pasts truly define what we are today. Of course, we also learn valuable lessons from the past. Once again returning to Solar Car’s origins, we can gain insight into how the first team succeeded and how their values will continue to distinguish the current team.

After Michigan’s first team competed in the GM Sunrayce in 1990 and won, the team traveled to Australia for the World Solar Challenge. Among 35 competitors from nine countries, Michigan’s Sunrunner placed third behind Honda Corp.’s Dream and Biel Engineering’s “Spirit of Biel” of Switzerland. This original Michigan team set the bar high for the teams to follow; however, in their amazing achievements, they exuded admirable qualities which successive teams adopted.

For instance, the members of the 1990 team became a family and with such close bonds, they became a stronger team. The team acted democratically as its members reached a consensus on almost all decisions. And even in interminable meetings and harsh arguments, they stuck together. Justin Beres, an aerospace engineering major who designed Sunrunner’s chassis, expressed, “We got to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well – who we could ask to do what, who got upset over what things, and that other people can have good ideas, even if they are different from yours.”

Original Team Manager, Susan Fancy

Practice and preparation were two more of the team’s keys to success. Team manager, Susan Fancy, shared, “The most difficult part was before the race began, but all the practicing paid off. Hoxan’s Phoebus III burned its motor out on Hayes Creek Hill. We already knew how to go up it because we had already done it.” One of the team’s strategists, Jeff Pavlat, added, “Solar car racing is a brain sport, as much like chess as it is like auto racing.”

Finally, believe it or not, paying attention in class pays off! Original team member Mike McAlear confessed, “Taking classes often used seemed worthless to me. I wondered all the time just what good were the things I was learning. Now, I almost wish I could go back and take some of them over, knowing how the material can be used.”

Information and quotes in this post is from “Solar Car Team Excels Down Under” by Peter Seidman in the December 1990 issue of Michigan Today.

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

The 2001 ASC finish line

Michael Yagley graduated with an electrical engineering degree in 2004. He was a part of the 2001 American Solar Challenge and the 2001 World Solar Challenge in which the teams placed first and third, respectively. As a strategist, he determined how fast to drive the car during the races and calculated the energy that could be used before the batteries would have to be recharged. He and other strategists used several software tools in evaluating how to race given race conditions and weather forecasts; he even wrote some of the software. Specifically, he was in charge of short term strategy, monitoring the telemetry form the car and detecting issues with the car.

Michael is from Sterling Heights, Michigan, and he recently left his job to start his own software company in San Antonio, Texas where he is participating in the Techstarts Cloud startup incubator. He expresses Solar Car’s impact: “Solar car prepared me a ton for this new adventure.  I’ve always viewed solar car as working at a startup. The number of hours are similar, the pressure and fear of failing is there (we are michigan. we don’t lose) and the autonomy.  Solar car is very independent from the university.  We had our own workspace that we paid rent on as the team, not the university. We owned all of our own equipment, tools hi-lo, etc.  We used to joke that there were two filing cabinets in Student Account Services that held purchase orders and receipts, one for solar car and one for all of the other student organizations combined.  So, solar car has really prepared me for what I’m working on now.  I am sure I wouldn’t be as calm…”

Some of his favorite memories were the races themselves, especially traveling all through Austalia. But the routine memories were just as good. He recalls working at the workspace until 5 a.m. once and showing up at his 8 a.m. calculus discussion smelling like diesel fuel and machine oil. His professor relegated him to the corner with a four-desk buffer zone. By this point, he realized his college experience was much different than the rest.

M-Pulse

Michael joined the team in the first month of being on campus in 2000. His grandparents live near the GM tech center, and he remembers that the 1990 Sunrayce finished there. Also, his cousin, Jeff Zoltowski, raced on the 1993 team. It was one of his life-long goals to be a part of the team. He misses the intensity and “blind naivety.” He misses waking up and focusing on one goal and one goal alone, which was to win the race. The two weeks after M-Pulse’s crash demonstrated this exactly. The team had to rebuild completely from scratch, and he remembers even putting things on the car at the start line of ASC. However, after being in third for a large part of the race, Michigan took the lead and eventually the victory.

Prior to 2001, Michigan hadn’t had success for several years, and the 2001 teams wanted to turn that around. Michael feels that the team he was on developed a great camaraderie – one that has persisted in all the teams to follow. Michael and other team members still gather every January for snow-drift, and he is glad that good relationships have lasted.

To the current team, Michael proclaims: “The only real advice that I have is to focus on team culture in addition to the technical challenges of building the car. Times will get tough and you have to like each other or you won’t get through it.  We didn’t have the best car in both races, but I’m convinced we had the best team. And, that was a major part of our success.”

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar

Chris with the Array

Chris Deline, a native of Midland, Michigan, earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD all in electrical engineering at Michigan from 1999-2008. Despite his stellar academic record, he started out like everyone else. He recalls assembling the solar array as a freshman on Maize Blaze but having “absolutely terrible soldering skills.” Some of his solar cell strings were rejected because he constructed it so that all the positive leads and all the negative leads were connected, which shorted everything out. Not sure at that point exactly why they decided to keep him, he clearly overcame his early troubles and contributed greatly to the team over the years.

Chris joined in freshmen year. When he attended the welcome meeting in the Lee Iacoca lecture hall, he remembers Jose′ Alvarez, a current team member at the time, suggesting crazy projects like using depleted uranium as ballast because it might take up less space than lead shot. Although, they never ended up pursuing that, Chris realized that if anything big or high tech was going to happen on campus, it was going to be with this group. He says, “They were dreaming big.”

Chris with Maize Blaze

In addition to the electrical work, Chris also did some sourcing and was eventually selected to go to Australia for WSC to work on operations. One story about the race really stuck with him: “My biggest blunder was when we were looking for a driver and semi-truck to tow our semi-trailer in Australia. We were given an offer by Trevor Philbey who owned his own cab to take the trailer on the race, but I thought he was asking for too much money. So I put an ad in the newspaper and got an offer for a guy who would do it for free. When this guy tried to pick up the rental semi cab, he had no idea how to work the clutch, only had a handful of teeth and one good eye, and was pretty ill-tempered to boot. We had a quick conference and decided to ditch this guy and go with Trevor instead. It ended up being a much better solution. We probably wouldn’t have even gotten to the start line with the other guy.”

Chris was the electrical leader for M-Pulse, and along with the 1999 WSC, he participated in the 2001 ASC and WSC. Some of his favorite memories were the warm nights on top of the trailer and being able to focus 100% of his energy on one certain task, collaborating with some of the most motivated people he has ever met, and achieving impossible goals. One such goal was rebuilding M-Pulse after its crash three weeks before ASC. Moreover, Chris thought the team overcame adversity when the workspace burnt down in 1999. The team had to rebuild the program, recover all the important equipment, and start again in a new place.

Now, he works at NREL in solar panel research and development and says that he owes it to his experience on solar car. Time management and familiarity with power systems were values he learned from his time on the team. He was impressed by the 2011 WSC team, namely the business connections, smooth teamwork, and media coverage. And here is his advice for the team today: “Keep dreaming big, and enjoy the time you have at this point in your careers – the memories will stick with you for your whole lives!”

Visit umsolar.com
Tweet @umsolarcarteam
Like facebook.com/umsolar
Watch youtube.com/umsolar
See flickr.com/umsolar