The University of Michigan Solar Car Team invited friends, family, sponsors and community members to the Michigan Theater Friday evening to unveil their new car, Astrum. Astrum, along with a team of 21 students selected to represent Solar Car, will be headed to Darwin, Australia in October for the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a race that will require the car to traverse the width of Australia from Darwin — Australia’s northernmost city — to Adelaide on the nation’s southern coast.
Susan Fancy, who led the University’s first solar car team 34 years ago, welcomed audience members to the event. Standing onstage beside the cloth-covered Astrum, Fancy recounted her experience leading Solar Car to third place in world during its first-ever competition season and said she believes this team has the potential to place first at the Bridgestone Challenge, something no U-M Solar Car team has done before.
“Our team tonight, I think, has a really really good chance of breaking the glass ceiling that the solar car team has been experiencing for a few decades of not being able to get past second,” Fancy said. “I think that this team has a really good shot at taking first.”
Rising LSA junior Adam Jankelowitz, business director of the team, thanked team members along with the team’s supporters before introducing a prerecorded video of University President Santa Ono. In the video, Ono expressed pride at the accomplishments of the team.
“Remember that you are building far more than a solar car,” Ono said. “You are nurturing a dream that will inspire future generations of Wolverines to break through boundaries and make a profound impact on our world.”
Rising Engineering senior Will Jones, the team’s project manager, introduced the race crew of 21 students — chosen from over 150 members — who will be traveling to Australia this fall.
“I’ve expressed to our team on numerous occasions, this is the best team I’ve ever been a part of,” Jones said. “Being a member of the race crew is extremely difficult and it requires a group of extraordinary individuals committed to pursuing this dream.”
Members of the race crew gathered onstage, standing behind Astrum, as a short video about the making of the car played behind them. By the end of the video, the maize and blue car was before them on the stage, uncovered.
Engineering alum Terry Li, the lead vehicle engineer who graduated this spring, introduced the car to applause from the audience. Li described watching this year’s solar car team work to meet their goals through close attention to detail and high ambitions throughout the design process.
“Our goal was to reinvent engineering on the University of Michigan Solar Car team,” Li said. “And as a result, we have designed one of, if not the fastest solar car in our team’s recorded history.”
Rising Engineering senior Nate Gustafson, crew chief and mechanical lead, said Solar Car updated its manufacturing process to build Astrum. In previous years, real-world parts have not always matched the designs made on computers, but this year, a partnership with Roush Advanced Composites helped change that.
“In the past, we as a team have struggled to bridge the gap between the designs we create in the virtual world and the parts that we eventually manufacture, particularly when it comes to the vehicle’s composites,” Gustafson said. “So this year, we threw away the status quo, and we rewrote the book, innovating new ways to create complex geometries with precision not simply possible in our old framework.”
Rising Engineering senior Taylor Kessinger, electrical lead, took to the stage to explain how Astrum’s solar array, the amalgamation of solar panels that power the vehicle, will be more efficient at gathering energy than in previous years.
“When (Astrum) is under the sun we will see a 33% increase in module efficiency compared to the previous car with a silicon array,” Kessinger said. “This directly translates to a 33% increase in power delivered to the car, accomplished with the most efficient silicon solar cells the team has ever used. This in no small part is due to the tremendous support we have received from First Solar, the leading American solar technology company and our first premier sponsor, whose guidance has been invaluable in the design and manufacture of our array.
Nick Strevel, vice president of Ohio-based solar company First Solar, spoke about his company’s support of U-M Solar Car. Strevel expressed disappointment at the lack of solar power companies providing support to solar car teams, but was proud of First Solar’s new partnership with the University’s team.
“It’s actually with large regrets and with incredible excitement that we’re just getting involved in this, and just getting involved with these students and seeing the incredible efforts, the capability that they bring,” Strevel said.
Jones concluded the evening by thanking Solar Car’s supporters, including sponsors, teammates not in the race crew and friends and family who were understanding of the long hours worked by Solar Car members.
“We would not be here without you,” Jones said. “You have positively changed every single one of our futures, and we are in your debt.”
Summer News Editor Abigail VanderMolen can be reached at vabigail@umich.edu.