ENGINEERING
PHOTO
The first Adelaide to Darwin Solar Challenge was run in
Professor Anthony Zander, Head of the School of
Some of the University’s
World Solar Challenge team
1987, long before engineering student Daniel Haynes
Mechanical Engineering.
and his mates were even born.
over a week from 18 October, from Darwin to Adelaide.
Adelaide team he leads, which is building a car to race
It’s for customised cars, running on sunlight captured
in this year’s event.
by a maximum six square metres of solar panels and
For a start, as the University’s first ever entry, it’s all new
transformed into electricity.
for everybody involved. But that is what makes it so
This is research where the rubber really hits the
engrossing for team leader Haynes and the 11 men
road, generating far more than innovations in energy
and two women who are working on the project as part
efficiency. The race is about transforming the technology
of their engineering studies. “It is sometimes difficult to
that drives all electric vehicles, be they hydrogen cell-
focus on other subjects when the car is so interesting
powered, hybrids driven by fossil fuel and renewable
and full-on,” Mr Haynes says.
energy, or cars that run on power from solar cells.
Work started last year, with a group of senior students
The Adelaide team is competing against researchers
beginning with concepts for the car. While the 2014
team members have all graduated they are still on the
grid, advising their successors who will see the project
out of the workshop and onto the road.
20
ADELAIDEAN
Now in its 28th year, the World Solar Challenge will run
But it’s a monumental challenge for the University of
and racers from all over the world, with 41 competitors
from Europe and Asia, the Americas and Africa, the
Middle East and Australia. Well over half are from
education institutions, including other prestige marques
“It’s a great application of the skills they are all learning in
like Stanford, Cambridge and the Massachusetts
their various undergraduate programs,” says Associate
Institute of Technology.