Type Student Organization Website www.utsvt.com | Location Texas | |
Purpose Design effective alternatively powered vehicles | ||
The University of Texas Solar Vehicles Team (UTSVT) is a student organization at University of Texas at Austin that designs, creates and races solar vehicles. It is the only team from the state of Texas that has qualified in recent years to compete in national competitions. The team's most recent car, the Samsung Solorean, raced at the Formula Sun Grand Prix and the North American Solar Challenge.
Contents
The team is in the process of creating a new car, TexSun [worth approximately $100K], with sponsorship from Cirrus Logic, Lockheed Martin and other technology firms.
UTSVT aims to promote alternatively powered vehicles and spends a great deal of time participating in outreach events to educate the general public about alternative energy.
Samsung Solorean
With SunPower A-300 Silicon Monocrystalline Solar Cells (1218.3 W power output), a Brushless Permanent Magnet Electric Motor and Lithium-Ion batteries, the Solorean is UTSVT's most effective car to date. It successfully competed in three national competitions and was sponsored by Samsung.
Past cars include Texas Native Sun I, Texas Native Sun II and Solar Steer.
UTSVT Department Mentors
Instructor: Professor Gary A. Hallock
Neda Abdul-Razzak – President
Siya Purohit - Head of Solar Cell Division/ Fundraising Chair
Alex Burgess – Batteries Mentor
Dustin Behnke – Head of Mechanical Department
Fred Engelkemeir – Electronics Department Mentor
Benton Greene – Mechanical Department Mentor
Jerome Powell – alumni – currently consulting Batteries and Motor Controller for both cars
Sunny Yeung – alumni – Battery protection system, cRIO
Press/Other Articles
The following list includes some articles that feature UTSVT.