¶ Personal Involvement
I joined the Unviersity of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project late in my freshman year at the U of M. For better or worse, I spent a lot more time working on solar cars than I did attending and doing class work. Deeply involved solar car members typically work on a little bit of everything, as did I, but I've documented some of the specific projects I most contributed to here. Other details of my involvement include:
- Electrical Team Lead/Technical Advisor for 3 years
- Strategy Team Lead for 2 years
- Race Crew Member for 3 years (WSC 2015, ASC 2016, WSC 2017)
Quick Tip: If you ever want to kidnap me (or contact me in general), just lure me in with a picture of a solar car, custom motor design, or an open battery box.
¶ Vehicles
There's much more detailed info publicly available on the UMNSVP Website about all of the team's past vehicles, but personally I worked mostly with Centaurus π (improved version of Centaurus 3), Eos 1, and Eos 2.
¶ Centaurus π
Cπ is such a beautiful car. Hats off to the shell designer, Adem Rudin, for making what I still think is one of the top 5 best looking solar car designs imo. Obviously I'm a bit biased, having worked on and driven with the car, but I do think Cπ does have a kind of timeless look and feel that perfectly embodies the "3-wheel/upright driver period" in solar car history.
¶ Centaurus π Driver Interface
¶ Eos 1
Eos 1 is definitely a bit of an ugly duckling in the bunch, and was often a massive pain to race with, but she pulled through in WSC 2015, finishing just 3 minutes before the deadline, against all odds, at 5th place. The lessons learned and experience gained during the Eos 1 build cycle layed the foundation for Eos 2, which really shows.
¶ Eos 1 Dashboard
¶ Eos 1 BMS
¶ Eos 2
Having been designed and manufactured by a much more experienced team, Eos 2 showed a lot of asthetic and general improvement over it's predecessor. I'm really proud of the overall battery design and manufacturing quality, and most of the car's systems are really well designed and implemented. Eos 2's solar array specifically is immaculate considering the encapsulation and module assembly was done entirely by students (shout-out to Garret).
¶ Eos 2 Battery
¶ FullCurrent 2.0 Motor Controller
