After almost three years of lockdowns, COVID interruptions, a postponed race, makeshift home workshops and online learning, Deakin’s dedicated engineering students achieved a remarkable goal: they designed, built and raced a solar car for the 2023 World Solar Challenge.
The 2023 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge took place from October 20–27 and spanned 3000 kilometres from Darwin to Adelaide. Engineering teams from around the world competed with self-designed solar cars over five gruelling days, crossing one of the planet’s most challenging environments – outback Australia – powered solely by the energy of the sun.
As the Deakin team worked tirelessly in the lead-up to the race, they also reached an exciting milestone: testing the car, an important step in their journey.
'We cannot wait to take this car for a spin,' said Angus McDonald, a Deakin engineering graduate and the solar team's head mechanical engineer, during the testing phase.
'The whole idea of a student-built, hyper efficient, safe, electric solar vehicle makes the whole project so exciting. To be able to drive this car is not only a thrill, but something that makes me really proud.'
In the months leading up to the race, the team fine-tuned their design and measured the car’s power through dyno testing to prepare for the epic journey.
Xander Profaca, who began working on the project in March 2020 – just a week before Victoria went into lockdown – graduated with a Bachelor of Mechatronics (Honours) and continued contributing as the lead mechatronics engineer.
'The thing that excited me most was using so many cool technologies to construct a real, working car,' Xander said. 'Some days coming into the workshop and seeing the car, it hit me – I built that. It gave me such a sense of pride knowing I helped bring the project to life.'
Deakin's entry, codenamed ASCEND, competed in the Cruiser division. The race featured three stages over five days, with the Cruiser division judged on criteria including payload, energy consumption and a subjective element of 'practicality'.
In the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, the cars must meet strict regulations to ensure they are safe for use on the road.
'It was great building a car to compete in the Cruiser class of the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge,' said Associate Lecturer Dr Matt Jennings.
'Deakin's School of Engineering prides itself in teaching students how to solve real-world problems by being innovative and creative, linking fundamental theory to cool new technologies. The Cruiser class was created to do the same thing: bring the innovations from the traditional Challenger class to a car that is more practical and much closer to use by the public.'
The ASCEND car was designed to seat a driver and passenger comfortably and included cargo space. Since the project's inception in 2019, nearly 1000 Deakin students from multiple schools – including Engineering, IT, Communication and Creative Arts, and Business and Law – contributed to its development.
The journey was not without its challenges – two-thirds of the build occurred during Victoria’s extended lockdowns.
Head of Deakin's School of Engineering, Professor Ben Horan, described the project as inspiring, noting how the students and the car evolved in tandem.
'This was such a great project with wide-reaching challenges and experiences for the students,' said Professor Horan. 'These ranged from the technical challenge of getting the car to a point where it can be driven the length of the country, through to the strategy of how to optimise use of power to achieve the highest performance.
‘Seeing the students develop and grow over the course of the project was very exciting. In many ways, I can't imagine a more authentic learning experience for the students involved – and providing these opportunities is what it’s all about.’
The project’s principal sponsor, ACCIONA Energía, partnered with Deakin to showcase the potential of renewable energy.
'We know that renewable energy is able to supply our cities and our businesses with plentiful power and the ASCEND vehicle encapsulates what clean energy is capable of,' said ACCIONA Energia GM of Brand and Marketing Emma Reiners.
ACCIONA Energía's partnership with Deakin stemmed from the Victorian Government's Victorian Renewable Energy Target Auction (VRET2) as part of the bid to build the Mortlake South wind farm in western Victoria.
This article was published by Deakin University. Read the original article here.
