Progress Update (Aug 22nd-Oct 27th)

The new car is coming along well. The team came into the semester and got straight to work. We have recruited many new, dedicated members to the team by participating in the August organization fair, visiting founders hall, and participating in a bluff hall freshman event.

A project flow chart, and project timeline have been finished, and project plan assignments were handed out to assigned task leaders. The task leaders worked hard the first couple weeks to finish their project plans. We are all ready and waiting to be able to buy the materials to build each system.  In the mean time, we have been cutting the male foam replica of the body, which is step one of the body process, have built a battery box for the batteries, fixed the parking brake on the old car, and have been making our float for the parade.

The team has also participated in many community events so far. We visited Culvers with the car, and talked to a variety of people, young and old. We worked the family Casino night at the school to raise money as well.

The team also entered the SIUE annual Chili cookoff, and our solar chili won the hottest chili contest. (it wasn’t even entered in that category)

We are currently looking forward to Sunday, where we will bring the solar car to a Trunk or Treat event, and monday, we will be in the Edwardsville/Glen Carbon Halloween Parade. We chose the theme of Wile E. Coyote.

As far as work progress, we thank Evergreen Solar for donating EVA film, Solar Glass, and Taiflex substrate, for the encapsulation of our solar cells.

As soon as we order our materials, the BPS will be programmed, the windshield will be made, the array will be encapsulated and installed, the body project will be able to move to step 2, and the electrical systems will be able to start coming together. It will be a fun month of building =)