by "Slant6" (slant-6)
Published 09/13/2017 at 10:12
by "Slant6" (slant-6)
Published 09/13/2017 at 10:12
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STARS: 8
Might not be what y’all are into but it’s a solar car race team with my university. The thing is, we don’t have an engineering program at my university, we’re a liberal arts school.
Despite this the team has been successful and we’re in the process of designing a new cruiser class car. I’m a junior in the industrial design program and I’m hoping to find a place working on the interior and ergo-dynamics departments of the new vehicle. I’m also a marketing minor with design experience so I’m helping out with printed materials and other business related things.
I think this will be worth my effort and look good on my resume/ portfolio in addition to being fun. I also like the cross disciplinary experience that I’m getting and feel it will translate well to the design world where I have to work with engineers and marketers frequently. It will also be a nice experience in sustainability which will be useful in the future.
Here’s the Facebook page for the team, please like it. Shameless plug: https://www.facebook.com/appstatesvt/
Trying to get to 2000 likes.
I’m still a new member, so I don’t have much say in the design at this point, but expect some query to the Oppo hivemind if I run into anything I don’t know and need outside help with (going to be a lot).
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
09/13/2017 at 10:17, STARS: 1
Nice! Wish I would’ve joined in on a team like this while I was at UMR (now Missouri S&T).
"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
09/13/2017 at 10:19, STARS: 1
Cool! I know quite a few people that joined the Solar team at my university (Eindhoven University of Technology) and they all say it’s a great experience. Which event are you going to compete in? (Australia?)
Also Cruisers are great!
One question though, how do you guys make sure the car is mechanically/structurally sound, if you guys have no (trained) engineers at your university?
"66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash" (66671)
09/13/2017 at 10:19, STARS: 1
I am not exactly into this type of thing and don’t closely follow it, but can definitely appreciate the work that goes into it, and I think is useful for the advancement in renewable energy technology for sure. Liked!
"Slant6" (slant-6)
09/13/2017 at 10:23, STARS: 0
I really don’t have a good answer to that last question, but I do know several of our physics faculty and some of the design faculty are engineers. We also have an engineering physics graduate program that is involved with the team, so I think they do our certifications.
The team is planning for Australia 2019, with the American Solar Challenge in 2018. Short time to make a car from scratch, but the team is a driven group.
"BvdV - The Dutch Engineer" (dutchengineer)
09/13/2017 at 10:32, STARS: 1
Ah, you’ll probably will be fine in that case!
Should be doable. The Eindhoven team builds a cruiser from scratch (with minor parts reuse) every 2 years.
In any case, good luck!
"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4)
09/13/2017 at 10:38, STARS: 1
That’s awesome! One of the best things I did in college was join my school’s SAE Supermileage team.
"promoted by the color red" (whenindoubtflatout)
09/13/2017 at 10:47, STARS: 0
Ergo is often overlooked on these design projects. My school-built race car had zero thought towards ergonomics, so you had a steering column nested between your legs and and a steering wheel angled like that on a bus.
"Slant6" (slant-6)
09/13/2017 at 11:01, STARS: 0
It will be a challenge, safety (arguably driver comfort is part of safety, but that’s another conversation), efficiency, and performance come before ergo, but it is possible to get everything just right.