However, if you’d still like to watch the documentary and cannot wait until Sunday or will not be able to watch it then, enjoy the film below in the embedded youtube video.

Again, we’d like to thank everyone who made the film possible:

Produced by: Nice Work Productions, Jay Nelson, & Jimmy Rhoades
Videography: Bob Berg & Marcin Szczepanski
Editor: Dave Babinski
Audio: Roger Smith
Associate Producer: Mary Kay Berg
Additional Videography: Evan Dougherty& John Walker
Music: Levi Taylor
Graphics: Steve Kimbrell
Additional Maps/Animation: Erik Wright-Olsen
Additional Audio: Karl Cole
Special Thanks: Charles Hutchins & World Solar Challenge Race Officials
Executive Producers: Steve Schram & Chris McElroy
Executive in Charge of Production: Lisa Rudgers (Vice President for Global Communications and Strategic Initiatives)

as well as Rich Homberg, President of DPTV for his support for our team and for making the DPTV airing possible.

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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.

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Ryder Liu from Santa Monica, California is an aerospace engineering student with a minor in computer science.  Ryder is also part of the Michigan Pops Orchestra and the Michigan Symphony Orchestra.  He has been playing the viola for about twelve years, and his favorite composer is Tchaikovsky.

He joined the Solar Car team in fall 2011 as part of the aerospace division because he was looking for an interesting project where he could explore his major and work with unique and innovative cars.  Solar Car turned out the be the perfect place.  His main responsibility as part of the aero division is helping design the 2013 car.  However, during the race this summer, he will be part of the mechanical division and will also be a driver.

One of Ryder’s favorite quirks of the team is the ongoing theme in the aero division in which the aero lead, Michael Elmore, “kicks Ryder off the team.”  According to Ryder, he has been “off the team” fifteen times by now.  Ryder is definitely looking forward to the many memories he will make on ASC.  He is most excited to travel with his teammates.  He comments, “As time goes on, I’ve become attached to my teammates. They are some of my closest friends and I trust them completely.”  Finally, he expects a positive experience as he shares, “Everyone on the team has a role that will be equally important in the coming race. Therefore, we all must stand together as a team to overcome the challenges of ASC and win the race.”

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Sarah Spitzer from West Bloomfield and Mackinac Island, Michigan is a junior majoring in Computer Engineering.  She will be one of the race crew members this summer as part of the micro-electrical division, updating and debugging the car’s systems before and during the race.  She quotes Edsger W. Dijkstra, who said, “Program testing can be a very effective way to show the presence of bugs, but is hopelessly inadequate for showing their absence.” In preparation for the race, she and others are working hard to test many different scenarios. Sarah plans to take an extra semester to complete her degree and minors in Multidisciplinary Design and possibly Near Eastern Studies and to eventually get a PhD.

She reflects about joining the team:

Since I first heard about the team before attending the university, I thought it sounded really neat and interesting and have always considered getting involved; however, I got busy with school and other groups and never got around to joining. At the beginning of this school year, I stood in the student section of the Big House at a football game cheering on the Solar Car Team and wondering why I hadn’t just joined yet. After that, I found the team at Festifall and told them I wanted to get involved; they welcomed me in and I have been involved ever since. I am so glad I found this amazing team.

In her role as a micro-electrical engineer, she mainly works on the electrical systems of the car, such as making circuit boards, programming, and debugging.  But she feels as she, like all the team members, has other roles, too.  She made clear that whenever something has to be done, like transporting Infinium to and from Ricardo, she can still help. Sarah really believes in the team aspect of Solar Car.

Besides Solar Car, Sarah is also involved in the Women’s Glee Club at Michigan.  In addition, she is a representative for the College of Engineering in Central Student Government.  She likes sci-fi books – The Lord of the Rings, His Dark Materials, and the Ender’s Game series are among her favorites.  One very interesting fact about her is that she has had her private pilot’s license since she was eighteen.

Finally, Sarah recalls her favorite moments with the team:

I have loved all of the opportunities to interact with people on the team and I think I have learned a great deal since joining Solar Car. I am really excited to get to devote my whole summer to Solar Car and to get to work on the project without the stresses of classes and schoolwork. I think this is a great opportunity and a great experience and being a part of Race Crew really makes me feel like a part of this incredible team.

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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

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Jacob Zylema, a freshman from St. Joseph, Michigan, is one of the three micro-electrical engineers of our ASC race crew. And with his passion for electronics and his declared major, computer engineering, he will be more than prepared for summer’s race. He remarks about the race’s challenges: “I think that WSC really showed that we have a car capable of winning, and that the challenge is primarily with making sure that we can rely on every last system in the car by race time. That means running test after test, and making revision after revision, until we have a product that deserves our confidence. ”

After Jacob attended one of the mass meetings in the fall and then started coming to the GTMs, he was hooked. He considers Solar Car the most rewarding thing he is involved in at Michigan. Some of his favorite memories are the core initiation scavenger hunt, ice skating with the micro division, and designing PCBs (printed circuit boards) at 3 A.M. Besides Solar Car, his hobbies include playing the saxophone and reading when time allows. His favorite movies are There Will Be Blood and Dr. Strangelove and his favorite music is without a doubt The Beatles. He also loves the book, Cat’s Cradle.

Jacob has been working with PCBs and has been writing code for them. During the race, he will be responsible for the maintenance of the car’s micro-electrical systems. Once Jacob graduates, he is considering graduate school and research and is happy at the moment to have so many opportunities to pursue.

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Jeff Cwagenberg is a sophomore from Farmington Hills, Michigan. He is part of the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences pursuing a major in Earth System Science Engineering. Jeff shares his story about how he became interested in his major:

“ Surprisingly, growing up, I was always terrified of thunderstorms. This one night at a camp run by my school district, we were sleeping outside in tents as opposed to the usual dormitory. The afternoon was one of those, where you knew that there were going to eventually be storms, but we set up ‘camp’ anyways. Just before bedtime, I was walking through the lodge back from brushing my teeth, and I saw a crowd gathering in the lobby. They were all standing around the TV, which was odd because it was never on. As I walked by, that unmistakable  red warning banner was lining the bottom of the screen. As we went outside to bring everything back in from the tents, I noticed the sky rotating, and something resembling an upside down cone dropping from the sky above us. What I would later find out is that this funnel cloud above us would eventually go on to become a weak tornado. That is how my passion for weather started.”

His future plans might involve graduate school and, ultimately, either forecasting or climate research.

Jeff joined the team in his freshman year since he was looking to join something to which he could apply his major. After hearing that Solar Car had meteorologists on the team, he was immediately drawn in. In this summer’s ASC, Jeff will be the team’s meteorologist. His primary responsibility will be forecasting, which will significantly affect the team’s strategic decisions. One of his favorite memories with the team happened on a night of the typical GTM (general team meeting). Once the meeting ended, he stopped in at the Wilson Center and was able to attach some ribs in the car. He never imagined that he would have the experience to work on building a car, however small a contribution, he adds.

He is really looking forward to the race this summer since he will be forecasting on-the-go, which is a much more difficult task than forecasting inside in Ann Arbor. He is also excited for the stage stop in Ann Arbor as well as to see how the other teams operate. Additionally, Jeff gets excited about Toy Story although watching movies will be a luxury which he will have to live without during the race. He reflected that he always loved the concept of toys coming to life and that the third installment really connected with him as a college student leaving home for the first time. With his skills as a meteorologist, Jeff will be a great asset to the race crew this summer.

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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.”

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Rohan Shah is a sophomore from Mumbai, India. And he has pretty high ambitions. Once he has received his electrical engineering degree, Rohan would like to work in the field for a while before he pursues a graduate degree in engineering and then an MBA. Nevertheless, he, like the rest of us, tries to save time for the pleasures of recreation. Rohan likes to chill with friends and play racquetball. He also watches a lot of TV shows, such as The Big Bang Theory, House, and White Collar. His favorite movies are Star Wars and Iron Man 2.

Rohan joined the team in Fall 2010 as a freshman. His motivation: “I felt that there was a lot of new knowledge and experience to be gained from this team. I also felt that creativity would be accepted well in this team and that people respected and acknowledged my thoughts and ideas.”

As a freshman, Rohan was part of the strategy division. The projects he worked on involved modeling the speed of the car on Australian terrain and organizing a lot of data that was recorded earlier when creating simulations of the car in WSC. In addition, he volunteered to help at team events, such as the Alumni tailgate and Tech Day. Now that Rohan is on race crew he has taken on more engineering responsibilities to prepare him for the unexpected obstacles that arise during the race.

His favorite memory with the team was attending the North American International Auto Show in Detroit where he was able to represent the team and the University of Michigan. There, he could demonstrate the team and University’s professionalism to all people around the world. (This might be worth mentioning – Rohan and I shared a shift at the auto show and isn’t it “the company that makes the feast?”)

Rohan is eagerly awaiting this summer’s race. He is hoping to be selected as a driver for the team. In any case, he is excited to travel around the United States and visit places he has never been before. Of course, he is enthusiastic about the competition itself. He will be acting as a power electrical engineer, ensuring that the array is working fine and is protected at all times. Moreover, he will be monitoring the status of the battery and the high voltage electrical systems in the car. Congrats on making race crew and good luck to Rohan!

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