Engineering Memory of the Month

Sun Surfing USA

January is the month with the second-fewest hours of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, but in 1989 it was the month when the Stanford Solar Car Project was born. The sun-worshipping, independent student project has been a mainstay of the campus engineering community since then. A full history is available here.

Pictured above is SUnSUrfer, the team’s first car.  The team built and raced the vehicle in the North American Solar Challenge in 1990, finishing seventh out of 32 and second in performace per cost—not a bad outcome for a team of rookies. The team has raced many times since then, sometimes winning in its class (as in 2005) and sometimes crashing (as in 2007).

These days the team is hard at work on its ninth-generation vehicle, Apogee (which means the farthest distance between a satellite and what it’s orbiting). To catch up with today’s team, enjoy this audio slideshow created by student Caroline O’Connor of Stanford’s graduate journalism program.

Photo courtesy of the Stanford Solar Car Project

 

We are interested in your nostalgic photos and the stories they tell. If you'd like to share them with the Stanford Engineering community, e-mail them to David Orenstein , Manager, Communications and P.R.