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Illini Solar Car (Ongoing)

Description

Illini Solar Car is a multidisciplinary engineering student design team that designs, builds, tests, and races fully road-legal solar electric vehicles in cross-country competitions around the world. We have completed two cars thus far - Argo, in 2015, and Brizo, earlier this year. The team has previously received support from SSC, and our continued improvement at each competition we’ve attended. The team is currently working on designing and then constructing our third vehicle to be the most efficient Illini Solar Car yet. 

Background

Argo and Brizo have represented massive steps forward for the Illini Solar Car team, providing invaluable applied engineering experience to hundreds of top-calibre students. Additionally, they each represent further progress towards a more sustainable future in transportation, as each car uses components and technologies that are on the cutting edge of efficiency.

Constructing and racing vehicles such as ours not only gives over 250 students every year incredible exposure to applied engineering but advances the University’s commitment to sustainability through engineering competition. We seek to build another Illini Solar Car - the best one yet - to return to and compete on the world stage in 2023.

This new vehicle specifically will incorporate the following components:

  • A new three-wheeled design to allow for less aerodynamic loss and less weight overall
  • New higher efficiency solar cells paired with state-of-the-art, custom-designed maximum power point trackers to harness solar energy
  • A custom designed and actively balanced pack with more capacity than ever before
  • A sleeker and more aerodynamic shell shape to reduce drag

We produce some of the most striking vehicles on campus - whenever they are on the roads or simply on display, Brizo and Argo are eye-catchers, and our third car will be no different. The cars are valuable resources for outreach and education, allowing us to further the conversation about our sustainable future with people across the country and

No description has been provided yet.

Project Team

  • Primary Contact:

    Tara D'Souza

    Project Leader:

    Tara D'Souza

    Team Members:

    • Rishi Mohan
    • Michela Luebbers
    • Alex Chmiel
    • Daniel Wong
    • Hongbo Yuan
    • Jeremy Shaffar
    • Alvin Means
    • Arijit Banerjee

Themes

Project Location(s)

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