UMTRI Sponsors U-M Solar Car Team

Posted 02/26/2007
UMTRI, whose mission includes participating in the education and training of students, has become a silver-level sponsor of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team. This year's team is preparing the car, Continuum, for the World Solar Challenge race in Australia in October.

The University of Michigan (U-M) Solar Car Team is a non-profit, student-run organization whose purpose is to design, finance, build, and race a solar-powered vehicle in competitions around North America and the world. Corporate sponsors, such as UMTRI, provide the team with the necessary material and financial capital to remain at the forefront of technology.

For the last year and a half, over a hundred U-M students have been working on the development of the University’s ninth-generation vehicle, Continuum, to compete in the Panasonic World Solar Challenge (WSC) in late October, 2007. The team is working on the second prototype of the Continuum, which represents the most aggressive vehicle redesign in the team's history. The team is also addressing recent changes to WSC regulations that require additional design and safety modifications. UMTRI will participate in a safety design review and provide input into overall vehicle safety.

The previous U-M solar car, Momentum, won the 2005 North American Solar Challenge, a competition to design, build, and race solar-powered cars in a cross-country event. The U-M team completed the 2,495-mile race from Austin, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in 53 hours, 59 minutes, and 43 seconds.

Students who volunteer for the solar car team are typically undergraduates, and they come from a wide range of academic disciplines, including majors within the College of Engineering, the Ross School of Business, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Each project operates on a two-year project cycle with as many as 200 participating students. Although nearly all team members opt to volunteer, participants can receive credit for their work through the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.