McGill University Solarcar Team
Encyclopedia
History
McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
's Solar Car
Solar car racing
Solar car racing refers to competitive races of electric vehicles which are powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface of the car . The first solar car race was the Tour de Sol in 1985 which led to several similar races in Europe, USA and Australia...
Team is composed of students from the faculties of Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
and Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. For the past ten years, the team has been building and perfecting solar powered vehicles for road racing in international competitions. The team learn and exercise teamwork, personal initiative, and responsibility - not only in the engineering disciplines of design and analysis, but also in construction, marketing, project management, and promotion. Team members make an effort to promote engineering and computer science careers in their frequent meetings with elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
, high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
, and CEGEP
Cégep
CEGEP is an acronym for , which is literally translated as "College of General and Vocational Education" but commonly called "General and Vocational College" in circles not influenced by Quebec English. It refers to the public post-secondary education collegiate institutions exclusive to the...
students.
Team iSun
Data:
Name:
No. of Passager: 1
Speed: Drove at 109 km/h during NASC, top achievable speed 130 km/h
Weight: 340 lb without driver; 520 lb with the driver.
Battery: 30 kg lithium polymer battery pack from Kokam
Motor: New Generation Motors at 6 hp
Size: 5 m long X 1.8 m wide
Power from Sun: 900 Watts
Max Driving distance at night: Expect 300 km at 40 km/h.
Worth: $600,000 without labour cost
Major cost:
- Models for top shell, bottom shell and canopy
- carbon fibre and other composites
- Batteries
- printed circuit board
- autoclave time
- precision metal fabrication
- titanium and other metal
Race:
- FSGP (Formula Sun Grand Prix)
- NASC 2003 (North American Solar Challenge)