The 2021 IEF Solar Car Conference went virtual Feb 18-27, 2021 to prepare teams for solar car events. This 10-day period allowed us to spread out the workshop sessions and one-on-ones over a longer time period to reduce the online meeting fatigue of a single marathon weekend event. 32 solar car teams attended the conference, which included:
- Workshops covering a range of topics from technical to business aspects
- One-on-one sessions with presenters/IEF staff
- Advisor roundtable
- Team Leader roundtable
- Networking opportunities
- Opportunities to keep the conversation going beyond the workshops
- And more!
The majority of the sessions were held on the two Saturdays, Feb 20 & 27. Additional sessions were held throughout the week. One-on-ones were primarily scheduled so as to not conflict with the workshop sessions, allowing participants to dive into individual, team-specific topics with the inspectors and other presenters.
Workshop Sessions & Materials
We lined up a mix of inspectors, alumni, and sponsors to bring attendees a wide variety of workshop sessions. Many of the presenters were solar car alumni – having walked in the shoes of the solar car teams, they spoke from first-hand experience. Here are some of the sessions that were offered during the conference. Some presenters have chosen to make their presentation slides available for download.
- Aerodynamic Development of the 2019 Durham Solar Car
- Battery Technology for Solar Teams
- Battery Protection System
- Core Decisions of “Metadesign” – The Thick Work
- Data, Driving, and Dreaming about Racing
- Dealing with Curved and Shaded Solar Arrays
- Design Considerations Defining a Solar Car Series
- Design for Reliability – Vehicle Electronics
- Effective Leadership
- Electrical System Design
- Fundraising and Project/Team Management
- Getting Started for New Teams
- How to Build a Pack
- Learning from Mechanical Failures
- Liquid Composite Manufacturing for Lightweight Vehicle Components
- Managing a Solar Car Team: Things I did wrong and a few things right while on PrISUm
- Mechanical Report
- MOV Energy Meters & Scrutineering
- On-road Operations
- Regulations
- Scrutineering 101
- Solar Array Materials & Manufacturing
- Solar Array Testing & Troubleshooting
- Strategy
- Suspension Design
Sessions offered by partners/sponsors:
- How to Win Using Modeling and Simulation (MathWorks)
- Altair’s Virtual Wind Tunnel for External Aerodynamic Analysis (Altair)
- Altair Inspire for Design, Analysis, and Optimization (Altair)
- Hit the Trail! A 2021 Route Preview for the ASC and the Santa Fe Trail (National Park Service)
Thank You to our Hosts!
Thank you to KU Solar Car for serving as our Discord Host, including setting up and managing the private server we used during the conference.
Thank you to the Missouri S&T Student Design & Experiential Learning Center for serving as our Zoom Host, including setting up and supporting all of the Zoom calls that were used for the various sessions.