 "Photo: Hayley Austin")
At least 15 UT students will pilot a solar car across the continent from Austin to Calgary, Alberta, in Canada.
In July 2005, the UT Solar Vehicles Team will join more than 40 other groups in the 2,100-mile North American Solar Challenge. But after a University of Toronto student was killed while he was driving the team's solar car Aug. 12, teams across the continent are reviewing their designs and taking extra safety precautions. Canada police called it a "freak accident."
Gary Hallock, an electrical and computer engineering professor, said he thinks the cause might have been a problem with design.
"We don't have a lot of details about the cause of the accident, except that there was some kind of failure, and the solar car driver veered into an oncoming van," Hallock said.
After the Toronto team's crash, reliability is a top concern, Hallock said.
"The situation emphasizes the safety aspect we have to consider in building a reliable car," Hallock said. "Very rigorous regulations are in place, and we're going to make sure our car meets or exceeds all of them."
Because of the new precautions and outdated technology, the 2005 car has to be built completely from scratch.
"We don't have much design from the previous team," said project manager Cody Conger, an aerospace engineering senior. "When I joined the team my sophomore year, things were kind of falling apart, so now we're trying to pull it all together and build a car from scratch with absolutely no experience."
Rodrigo Trevino, an aerospace engineering senior, joined the team after seeing a poster on campus and attending a meeting last year.
"I didn't know anything about solar cars before I joined, and very few of us have experience building cars," Trevino said. "We're trying to bring the whole thing to life."
If all goes well, the team hopes to have the car completed in time to show it off at Explore UT next March.
"We need to have some time for test drives before we're ready to race to make sure it will hold up," Conger said.
The team has been working for a year, but they still have a long way to go.
"Building the car is highly technically challenging," Hallock said. "The real-world engineering, business and other things it takes to make this happen really make it a satisfying endeavor."
Building a safe, energy-efficient, competitive solar car will cost more than $75,000, Hallock said.
"The hardest part isn't really building the car itself, but actually getting the money we need to build it," Trevino said. "Our budget estimate is extremely high, so we get the money from wherever we can find it, mostly from corporate sponsors."
Although the team isn't expecting to win, they do plan to leave their mark.
"The more realistic goal, the one we're shooting for, is to be competitive," Conger said. "It would be extraordinary for a couple of guys with absolutely no experience in this field to take an organization which was pretty much in despair and actually be competitive in the race.
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