Recently in Car Showings Category

As part of Missouri S&T's annual Earth Day celebrations, we had Solar Miner VI out in front of the Havener Center and let the kids get in it. We also had two students, Adam Lewis and Cody Massar, showing off an older car at the Missouri Energy Summit in Columbia.

On Friday Cody Massar and Daniel Welty, along with two members from the Solar House Team, Luke Sudkamp and Cory Brennan, and Dr. Hirtz, the Interim Director of the Center, presented during the lunch for the University's Engineering Advisory Board.  We discussed how both teams work to improve systems related to renewable energy problems. Covering production, storage, use, and optimization, the presentation went very well. Some of the members attending included high ranking officers of both the University and well know corporations.

I know it has been a couple months since our last update.  After using the month of August to rest up and prepare for classes, we have begun design of Solar Miner VII for the expected 2010 North American Solar Challenge.  The first step was to go over the many problems of Solar Miner VI.  Expect to hear more about that in the upcoming month.  We have also just about finished dealing with some leftover problems from the race, the biggest being getting out of the red from overspending during the competition.

Thursday three of our team members (Caleb Bredlow, Adam Lewis, and myself) went with a team advisor (John Tyler) to a presentation and car showing at Central Methodist University in Fayette, MO.  We gave a short presentation to their Science and Math students, as part of their weekly Thursday seminar, and then had the car outside for people to come see.  Of course all of the little kids enjoy climbing into the car, and sometimes convince their teachers to try it out.

In December of last year Bob Phelan, Chris Pieper, Nathan Steckel, and John Tyler took Solar Miner IV down to Miami for a video shoot. It was for a Chevy Aveo commercial in Europe. Just recently we have found the resulting video and you can see it below, or at YouTube.

Did you miss it? Watch carefully at 0:20. For all the money they spent, the car is on screen for less than second, and being pushed no less. Since you probably don't get the humor, he is pushing the car because it is in the shade of the bridge, but that doesn't stop us.

Champion Solar Miner IV was brought out of retirement for the 100th annual Best Ever parade in downtown Rolla. Even though the weather was in the forties, breezy, and threatening rain the turnout was great. Gladly the rain never came, and a freshly charged battery pack powered the car along the half mile route. We even got a band to play for us on the whole route. Afterwards we quickly prepared Solar Miner 6 to be unveiled.

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.

The show has gone very well so far, but we still have the busiest days to go. In the picture you can see the contrast between our car and many of those at the show. Ours is a few years old, while most cars there are new. The Solar Car runs on electricity from the sun while the others run on fossil fuels from thousand year old plants, which did get their energy from the sun. Those other cars also have their bodies attached while ours is up on a seperate stand, revealing the aluminum chassis. And finally, we should win an award for the car with the most miles at the show with over 5,000 miles. I have not personally checked but I figure the other cars there have very few.

Update: I have been notified that there are some classic cars there, so they are much older and probably have many more miles. Also at least one of those is a very old electric car, not to mention there are some new alternative fuel vehicles.

We will be between Suzuki and Hyundai in the Edward Jones Dome. See the map below for the layout of the Dome.