OT(?): UMSolar - WSC Wrap-Up; an article and two videos

A nice article concerning the team, courtesy of Intel: LINK

Two videos; one from Intel, which looks more closely at the team and the World Solar Challenge, and a second, from another corporate sponsor: Siemens. The second video is all about the WSC. If you ever wondered what that race is really like, you'll want to watch this video.

Big props to the current team, for maintaining an amazing winning tradition. The Top 4 teams finished within an hour of each other after 2500 miles of racing (from Darwin, on Australia's northern coast to Adelaide, on the southern coast - basically bisecting the country). The car (Aurum) posted the fastest finishing time, ever, for a UM Solar entry (38:54:09 @ 88.1 kph avg.). For comparison, Stanford University's entry finished 6th, 90 minutes later. The only other US teams (Principia & MIT) finished 17th and 23rd, respectively.

When you think about the Top 3, Dutch teams Nuon (winner) and Twente (2nd) are professionals while third place, Tokai University, has (deep) funding from Panasonic. Fourth place is rather impressive, to say the least. The students that comprise the team take the Fall semester off to compete in the WSC, the race takes up that much of their time.

This summer brings the American Solar Challenge where Aurum will be competing to win it's sixth straight championship. Go Aurum, Go Blue.