University of Michigan College of Engineering Places Third at World Solar Challenge in Australia
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--Nov. 22, 2001--Champions of American Solar Challenge Finish First Among American Teams
Traveling 1,870 miles across the Australian Outback in just 34 hours and 17 minutes, the University of Michigan College of Engineering's M-Pulse solar car captured a third-place finish today in the World Solar Challenge.
With an average speed of 52.4 miles per hour, M-Pulse was the fastest American car in the race, beating out 34 other competitors from around the world. The race began on Sunday, November 18, and ran from Darwin to Adelaide.
"We are thrilled with our performance in this race," said U-M team captain Nader Shwayhat. "This race attracts the best corporate, private and university teams around, and it took a lot of engineering, strategy and teamwork to finish in the top three in the world."
Today's successful finish follows on the heels of a hard-won victory at July's American Solar Challenge, where a devastating accident three weeks before the start of the race threatened to keep M-Pulse from even reaching the starting line. Working around the clock, the U-M team rebuilt the car in just 17 days to sweep the competition. "After the American Solar Challenge win, we realized how much we were capable of, and became a more focused and driven team," said Shwayhat.
Since July, the team tweaked the car's solar array for a 15 percent increase in efficiency, reduced the car's weight to a lean 350 pounds and designed a back-up steering system. These changes allowed the team to push M-Pulse to its limits and maintain higher speeds of travel. Under ideal conditions, M-Pulse has a top speed of about 80 miles per hour and can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in twelve seconds using the same amount of power as an electric hairdryer.
Ken Kohrs, co-faculty advisor to the team and retired Ford Motor Company vice president, lauded the experience that the World Solar Challenge provides. "The solar car race project is a microcosm of the auto industry," said Kohrs. "It combines business issues, technology issues, leadership, marketing, finance, logistics and engineering."
The first-place team, Alpha Centauri from the Netherlands, drove its car NUNA to the finish line in 32 hours, 39 minutes - a World Solar Challenge record. The second-place car Aurora, with its Australian team from the Aurora Vehicle Association, finished with a time of 33 hours, 12 minutes.
"It is an extraordinary achievement for the Michigan Solar Car Team to have successfully competed in this race against top professional and university teams from across the globe," said Stephen W. Director, the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. "The fact that they placed so well in such a venerable competition is a tribute to the talents of this team - its engineering skills, business savvy, commitment and competitive spirit."
The World Solar Challenge is a biennial event in which participants build and race cars that rely solely on the sun as a fuel source. The University of Michigan has placed third in the race once before in 1990.
About the University of Michigan College of Engineering
The University of Michigan College of Engineering is consistently ranked among the top engineering schools in the world. The College is composed of 11 academic departments: aerospace engineering; atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences; biomedical engineering; chemical engineering; civil and environmental engineering; electrical engineering and computer science; industrial and operations engineering; materials science and engineering; mechanical engineering; naval architecture and marine engineering; and nuclear engineering and radiological sciences. Each year the college enrolls over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students and grants about 1,000 undergraduate degrees and 600 masters and doctoral degrees. To learn more, please visit our web site at www.engin.umich.edu.
World Solar Challenge Web Site: www.wsc.org.au U-M Solar Car Team Web Site: www.umich.edu/solarcar
