UT Dallas just finished up a solar car camp that featured
Coppell Solar’s Aurora solar car.
Campers were middle and high school students from around the state. Over 3 ½ weeks, the campers learned about
solar cars, rewired Aurora, installed a new motor, panels, controller, power
tracker, computer management, and cut 40 pounds out of the car. At the end of the camp, they drove the car on
a 100-mile cross-country route that went from Terrell to Mineola and back.
Some challenges with the authorities in Terrell caused a
delay and restart in Will Point. An
unforcasted rain storm stopped the drive short, but the car did cover Van Zandt
County on highway 80.
I am very proud of the accomplishments of our past team
members on their design and construction of Aurora. It has held up over 4 years and been through
a lot of work and is still going strong.
I want to give extra praise to past team members Rishi Samani and Saagar
Patel. In 3 ½ weeks, they got all of the
students and other counselors up and running on solar cars, welding, brakes,
etc so that the car was able to get on the road.
