Solar car racing team works toward the future of clean transportation
The future of energy is headed toward utilizing renewable resources, and the same can be said for transportation. USU is home to a solar car racing team called Aggie Solar Racing, which is joining other parts of the country in getting behind this new technology and learning how to best implement it.
Solar cars are electric cars that convert sunlight into electricity using solar panels. This differs from conventional cars, which burn fossil fuels in order to run.
Daniel Ashby, a senior studying mechanical engineering and mathematics, is the project manager for the team. He started in the fall of 2022 after attending a cross-country solar car racing competition.
“I thought Utah State needed a team to do this because it was way cool,” Ashby said. “Especially with all the research that’s been done here.”
USU’s College of Engineering has a relatively new Electric Vehicle & Roadway Research Facility and Test Track that was completed spring 2015. According to Ashby, this made the solar car racing team a perfect addition to campus.
Once Ashby began the process of setting up a team, he began recruiting.
Cayden Leary, a junior studying electrical engineering, joined the team last year to work with the electrical plan mechanical teams.
“It just looked like a really cool opportunity, and I wanted to try and get into it,” Leary said.
Mason Chudleigh, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering, got involved recently and is now the mechanical team lead.
“I saw the car and Daniel there at Day on the Quad last semester,” Chudleigh said. “ I met them and decided to go to the team’s first opening social meeting and then was hooked from there basically.”
In the beginning, there weren’t a lot of members, which made the work difficult.
“I was basically the only electrical guy, and I don’t know a lot either, because I’m so early in the program,” Leary said.
According to Leary, the team was thankful the University of Kansas donated an old car the team could modify.
“We’re redesigning the frame,” Leary said. “Right now, we’re in the middle of testing a lot of the electrical systems and trying to redo that.”
The main goal of the team is to modify the car to get it competition-ready.
“There’s two main competitions that we compete in that are solar-car-specific,” Ashby said. “We also are aiming to go to another one that isn’t solar-car-specific.”
The first is the Formula Sun Grand Prix, a track race that lasts for three days.
“For eight hours each day, you go around the track and just try to get as many laps as you can,” Ashby said.
This race acts as a qualifier for the second solar car race, the American Solar Challenge, a cross-country race that happens every two years.
“The distance is roughly 2,000 miles,” Ashby said. “It’s not only logistically challenging, but also like a test of the limits of your car.”
The final race is Bonneville Speed Week, which is held at the Bonneville salt flats, and it’s open to both solar and non-solar cars.
“We plan on taking our car to that to engage in more of the community involved,” Ashby said. “To test more of the limits of our cars because the other two races focus more on efficiency and distance.”
According to Ashby, the social environment of the races is something the team is looking forward to, since this will be their first competition season.
“There’s stories of people saying a part of someone’s car breaks,” Ashby said. “This other team gives them all these materials to help their car. They’re competing against each other, but that’s not really what people are focusing on.”
The team just had their winter social, which included a Mario Kart tournament as well as a segment to get to know the team. They’re going to continue recruitment as they look for students who want to have hands-on experience.
“I really like making an impact,” Chudleigh said. “When I joined the team, I saw that there was a lot that needed to be done, so I knew if I helped a good kind of change a lot.”
According to Chudleigh, being part of a project like this has been worthwhile.
“A lot of times you just go to school and you just do the practice problems,” Chudleigh said. “That’s great, but if you actually apply it, it really kind of brings a new dimension to it.”
Leary added that the team is focused on building something new, which can be exciting.
“We’re making a car basically from scratch to run differently than 99% of the cars on the road,” Leary said. “That’s really what I think is unique about it. It is so different from what’s normally out there.”
Ashby said the team is open to anyone, even those not going into engineering.
“You don’t need to be an engineer to do engineering. We can teach you how to do it,” Ashby said. “But we’re also looking for people to manage our funds and social media.”
For more information on Aggie Solar Racing, visit linkedin.com/company/aggie-solar-racing/.
“If you want to focus on more electric vehicles and cars, I think that’s where technology is going,” Ashby said. “It’s a great opportunity.”