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Illini Solar Car, 2nd Generation Vehicle

Project Description

Illini Solar Car is a multidisciplinary student-led team that designs and builds road-legal solar-electric vehicles for the World Solar Challenge and American Solar Challenge. Since the founding of the team in 2014 we have researched, designed, and built our first solar electric vehicle, Argo, with some previous support from SSC in 2015. This vehicle took part in the 2017 World Solar Challenge in Australia and placed 7th at the 2018 American Solar Challenge. After traveling thousands of miles, powered by the sun, Argo is no longer suitable for racing in cross-country races such as the World Solar Challenge and American Solar Challenge. These races are at the forefront of sustainable innovation and the fierce competition demands teams to bring their best to each event. This team is currently far into the design phase for our much improved second-generation vehicle. Argo has served as an invaluable learning experience for hundreds of students. The interdisciplinary learning across ISC's different groups such as business and engineering gives students a taste of how workforces operate in the real world. ISC's goal is to bring this brand new solar vehicle to the 2019 World Solar Challenge to compete with the best of the best. Over the next year, this team will finish the design and build this new vehicle using cutting-edge materials and manufacturing methods. The result will be a much more efficient vehicle that will be a look into what the future of sustainable technology can be. Over 100 University of Illinois students will get hands-on experience applying what they learned in class to sustainable technology as well as learn new skills that they would not have learned in class. Argo will continue to be used in outreach, raising awareness, and inspiring sustainable innovation for many years. As this car is built, this team will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with renewable energy and teach others about it.

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Funding Details

Student Campus Environment Fee (SCEF) - 303692
Fiscal Year Status Amount Date Operations
2019 Allocated $35,000.00 12/13/2019 Edit | Delete

SSC Basic Info

Year Started: 2019
Semester: Fall
Status: Active
Student Led? Yes
Project Category: Energy

SSC Project Team

Project Lead:

Nick Zou (nickzou2@illinois.edu)

Financial Advisor:

Beverly Curtis (bcurtis@illinois.edu)

Project Advisor:

Arijit Banerjee (arijit@illinois.edu)

Team Members:

  • Nick Zou
  • Geoffery Ong
  • James Wyeth
  • Jonathan Mullen

Illinois Green Fund - Student Sustainability Committee