February 2008 Archives

Photo credit: Bob Phelan

As some of you know, this past weekend was Engineers' Week at the St. Louis Science Center. Most of the Student Design groups came out to display their projects. Our team was a big hit at the event, seeing as Missouri S&T / Rolla is well know for it's Solar Car Team. Many people asked about the car, asking general questions along the lines of speed, weight, etc; while others who were more knowledgeable asked more detailed questions about the array or batteries. Both Matt Bloom and John Oster were there answering these questions and showing off the car to the masses the entire weekend. A lot of people were impressed with the car when we told them that the car on display was the 2003 national champion in the NASC race. A lot of kids wanted to sit in the car, and we were happy to oblige, leading to a bunch of parents taking photos of their child in the car. All in all, it was a successful and rewarding weekend, and a good opportunity for the university to get more recognition of the new Missouri S&T name.

Engineer's Week (eweek.org) is approaching soon, in just over a week, on February 17th - 23rd. Of course as part of an engineering university we have to do something for that. We will be showing the car again in St. Louis on the weekend of February 23rd and 24th at the Science Center (slsc.org). I know we were just in St. Louis, but if you have kids or didn't make it out to the Auto Show, you may enjoy this much better, especially because admission is free. The big celebration for us will be on March 15th for St. Patrick's Day, who has been unofficially named the patron saint of engineers.

As Phon-a-thon finishes up here, we would like to thank everyone who pledged a donation. Your support is necessary for us to go on the 9 day race this summer, with a cost of over $20,000.

If you haven't already heard, we will be unveiling Solar Miner 6 at 3:00pm in Leach Theatre in Castleman Hall. We invite anyone who is interested to come see the new car first hand. You can also meet the team members and advisors, both before and after the show.

Of course for us to have Unveiling, we need a car. Last week we got the aluminum for the chassis and began assembling it. We are still sanding and filling the body in preparation for painting. Work is also coming along on the new drive electronics to work with our new motor and controller.

We understand that some of you cannot make it here to Rolla for unveiling, so if you would be interested in seeing the event either live on the web, or just posted later to the website, please leave a comment or email us at solar1@mst.edu to let us know.

UPDATE: The time for unveiling has been moved from 2:00pm to 3:00pm on March 15th.

UPDATE 2: You can watch the event here