U-M Solar Car: Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge

Winning the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge

A Happy Early Birthday For Chuck Hutchins 

Chuck Hutchins is an icon of the U-M Solar Car Team. He is a common thread, a mentor and our biggest cheerleader. His eyes often well up with pride when he talks about his favorite Solar Car Team memories.

  In 1990 when he told his wife he was going to fly from their home in Florida to Detroit to watch the team cross the finish line in their first race, the GM Sunrayce, she called him crazy. He responded, “how many of our friends fly to California for a Rose Bowl? For this kid, this is far better than any football game.” 

  Leading up to Abu Dhabi, he proudly explained that this trip was going to be how he celebrates the last month of his eighty-first year.

  “I feel perfect. I got over nine hours of sleep…my battery was running down. This team is tops—number one. This trip met every bit of my expectations. I can’t believe that I’m here. I can’t believe that we’ve won. It’s mind-boggling. I can’t wait to tell Dave Munson.

  This is a celebration of the last month of my eighty-first year. I figured I’d celebrate all month.

  I love the name “alumni solar squad.” I think the alumni have come through strong. I hope it has influenced the students with us. I also hope it impacts the next car because we have got to do something outstanding. I mean really outstanding, because the other teams are not going to stand still. See you in Australia.”

A Solar Car State of Mind

This is way more than we ever expected. We came here to just have fun and run an older car, exhibition style—and then Michigan Solar Car set in. We couldn’t help it. We were going to do whatever it takes to win. It testifies to the spirit of our team. No one said we were going to come compete for first. Then we got here and something happened. This morph just started to take over, and then everyone was right back in race mode. By day three everything just clicked.

  It was kind of crazy before the award ceremony. We knew that we were either first or second, but no one would tell us anything: what was going on, who was going to be here, what places anyone was in. We didn’t start to get the hints that it was for sure going to be us until about an hour before the ceremony. One of the guys accidentally said congratulations, and we said “for what?”

  When we moved the cars over to the awards area, they put ours in the center. Then we rehearsed how we would all stand. Finally someone came over and said that the Crown Prince needs to shake the hand of the winner first and that we should move over to the end. That’s when we figured it out. All the officials came over to congratulate us and said they were really impressed. We ran a smart, clean race and won. So, congratulations everyone!

University of Michigan Solar Team Wins Inaugural Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge

Starting in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, the ADSC required three days of fierce racing through city streets and unending desert. By only a small margin, the team was the first to cross the finish line on the last day of the competition. Overall, Quantum finished roughly two and a half minutes ahead of the second place team, Petroleum Institute. 

The team has a history of strong performances in global solar competitions, but this is the first race they have won on an international stage. Bringing students and alumni together on a team is another first for this student run organization. “What’s really neat is that we’ve taken a legacy car that was never intended to be competitive at this point, a team of people who have never raced together and came out here and battled hard against some amazing competitors,” says Joe Lambert, crew chief and 2004 U-M aerospace engineering graduate. “It speaks to the depth and the integrity of the program that we’ve built. You can step back in, and the heartbeat is still the same. The idea is still the same.”

  One more layer of firsts was the team’s partnership with Abu Dhabi University, ADU.

More than a dozen ADU engineering students joined the U-M squad throughout the event. These students spent countless hours working alongside the team, learning about the technology, mechanics and strategy that define a successful solar car organization. “This was a really, really good experience, and it was fun learning about how the car works,” says Mohamed Mukhashin, a fourth year mechanical engineering student at Abu Dhabi University. “Everyone was very friendly and it was impressive to watch their work ethic. Hopefully in two years we will have our own car and be able to be in the race with our new friends.” 

  “Watching the Michigan spirit pull through and people pull closer and closer together has showcased exactly what we’ve got out of this program—and exactly what we’ve build this program to do,” explains Jeff Ferman, team manager and 2008 U-M graduate in computer science engineering. “One of the things that drove us to come here was the opportunity to help grow the community. The chance to come back and help get another team started, and then be able to see them compete would be really exciting.”

Learning From A Legend

Today was super intense and exciting. We crossed the finish line first, but have to wait for the final timings. This race is too close to call.

  In races, each team has a lead vehicle driving ahead, and a chase vehicle following the solar car. The chase car is where all the action happens. Today was no exception. We actually had to do some extreme maneuvering to protect Quantum at one point in a round about. Chase is where all the direction comes from, so whatever everyone should be doing—it’s all coordinated form there.

  My thoughts on strategy and what I’ve focused on up until this race was a very technical and analytical approach. But that’s only part of what strategy is. It has to have an element of gut instinct and competitive drive. To do whatever it takes to win. I’ve defiantly learned a lot about those things from watching Joe.

  I’d never met Joe, but everybody’s heard of Joe. He’s a legend. He had this reputation of being extremely intense. I thought he would be really intimidating and crazy. He was the crew chief who kicked the Michigan Solar Car team into gear, at least from my understanding.

  He’s been extremely helpful to me over the past week. I’m coming into a leadership role on the team, and I value his perspective on what it was like in the past—what worked and what didn’t—what might be a good direction to go in. Everyday I feel like there is a new thing that I learn from these guys—a lesson of the day. It’s been great being around these alumni. We need to do more stuff like this.

Leading The Pack

Day Two: Update From The Crew Chief

Day one put us in second place—about eleven minutes behind the leader.

  Here’s the thing about solar car racing. You drive faster if you have a better car, a better strategy and a better caravan. In this event, the strategy part has been a little less important, unfortunately. All of the top five cars are capable of going the speed limit for the entire route of each day. So the question is, who can go the closest to the speed limit without going over (to avoid penalties), and who doesn’t break down?

  Today, instead of strategically racing solar cars, we were playing Russian roulette with our judges, the speed limit and traffic—which lane you end up in. So it’s not really the kind of race we’re used to. However, we did make up a little bit of time today.

  If this race were the same event but three times as long, it would have been amazing. In fact, the original race route was longer and had an extra day. They should have done something like limit charging time to get some strategy back involved.

  At this point our strategy is don’t screw up and defend second place. We can’t make up eleven minutes tomorrow on our own, so drive conservatively. We’ll be ready to capitalize if anyone makes a mistake, but by ourselves we have no means of closing that gap.

  We came here to have fun. We came here to finish in the top three. We’re doing well on both of those. It has been a really great event, just not as much of a “race.”

The Good, The Bad And The Smelly: Qualifying in Quantum!

Quantum is a very good car to have on a race like this. It’s a terrible car to sit in for five and a half hours. The technology does what it’s supposed to do, and does it very well. The drivers just have to live with it.

Today was great, then not so great—then sucked. My butt feels like crap and I’m tired. It got hotter, and hotter—and my butt hurt more and more. Then my feet started to hurt really bad so I took off my shoes. Then the cabin smelled really bad from taking off my shoes. Mostly my tailbone is what hurts, but also my brain because I haven’t had anything to eat since this morning.

That being said, I’ve always wanted to be a racecar driver. Bryan Mazor, who was a driver alongside Troy in 2011, taught me the bells and whistles. I’ve only ever driven Quantum, but at one point our solar car didn’t even have a steering wheel. We had steering levers. The driver position has changed a lot over the years too—from a seat, to a bed and now somewhere in between, like it is in Quantum. 

Arguably Quantum is the fastest car we’ve built. If Quantum raced Momentum it would be interesting to see who won. Solar cars are getting faster and faster. It won’t be surprising if design regulations are put in place to keep this trend from getting more dangerous than it already is.

 There were some close called out there because people were driving pretty aggressively. Some cars weren’t honking like they were supposed to and there was some passing on the right. At one point I was passing another car on the left, and kept honking but they kept moving towards me. This was pushing me off the track, so I had to accelerate to avoid getting sideswiped. A couple other cars had some really close calls: wheels off the track and spinouts.

 I was really looking forward to driving on the Yas Marina Circuit because it is one of the top five most prestigious tracks in racing, at least in Formula One and I’m a big F1 fan. Getting to race on the same track as my favorite racecar drivers, my racing heroes, is pretty awesome.

One way I prepared for this race was by playing a video game called Formula One 2012 on my computer. It has this track and it’s extremely accurate. For the first few laps it really helped me feel comfortable about where I was. Then in last few laps when my vision was blurring and my mind was going crazy, my time with the game helped everything feel a bit more instinctual.

Noah Kaczor

Sustain it, and then ace it...

And there it went… the chequered flag signaled the start of a Formula one race…. No No I was indeed at the Yas Marina circuit but for another challenge. A challenge that seems to brag about sustainability, harnessing of what can be reused and again reused. Yes, I was at the qualifying round of the Abu Dhabi Solar Car Challenge.

As a senior student of the Mechanical Engineering Department at ADU, this event presented itself as a great opportunity for me to learn about the varying concepts regarding the solar car and its operations. Collaborating with possibly the best guys in the business, there was a lot to gain from Michigan University students and alumni.

My list would eventually turn in to a long essay if I start in listing my day but learning everything from the usage of programming languages such as python to dealing with unexpected problems at pit stops was quite an extra ordinary experience. The day just got better while I interacted with different members of what seems to be a very versatile team. 

And as the day went on, I did get a bit tired walking around the place, but it counted nothing as compared to what I had earned. We were able to finish third which sounds pretty good for tomorrow. Yes, I was not seeing flying cars, yet something that could change the future of the world we live in.

#GoBlueDhabi

Bilal Ahmad, Senior Mechanical Student

Abu Dhabi, Chapter 1. Putting Quantum through the paces. Scrutineering done! Next stop - the races!

Update From Team Manager

We took green on all but two stations on the first pass of scrutineering (technical inspections). There were just a few minor things that we just forgot, but for the most part it went very smoothly. This gave us extra time to do those “nice to have” things—like optimizing the alignment or helping another team.

Today is the qualifying event on the track itself, which will be the first time we’re actually driving the car on the Yas Marina Circuit. All solar cars were released at 9 AM and will drive until 5 PM. The number of laps you complete determines poll position.

 There has been a big difference between how Michigan typically handles inspections and how this team has had to manage it. Typically, the team has months to practice scrutineering before they arrive at a race—they’re usually way over-prepared. This team hasn’t had that luxury due to the accelerated timing of how this race has come together. Despite that, our team handled the process incredibly well. We’ve all done it before and the car was ready to go. 

I definitely think this experience is going to help Pavan and Leda as they prepare for the World Solar Challenge. This inspection was so much more difficult than what they’ll have in the world race. Now that they understand exactly what preparations went into this race, they should be able to breeze through the inspections in the world race. The most useful things will come during the next few days. Leda will actually have to run the strategy and have an opportunity to test out what she will be doing in Australia.  If it doesn’t work here, the stakes are a lot lower. This gives her a chance to practice in a real event with other teams, because strategy is never done in a bubble.  

A Word From The Solar Array Guru

 I’ve been recruited to do array testing for all the teams here at the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge. I got into solar racing during my experience at Arizona State University. I built the array for the car we raced in the inaugural 1990 GM Sunrayce from Florida to Michigan, which U-M actually won. My team got second to last but that was okay because we had a really good array. I just stayed involved in this “brain sport.” It’s an addictive activity.

  I was working for a solar company when a few universities called and asked me to build them an array. It snowballed from there. I went into business for myself. Eventually I developed a relationship with Michigan and actually developed the solar panels for Quantum. It’s great to have them, as well as the many other top teams, here at the Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge.

  From a technological perspective, it’s been amazing how the arrays have evolved over they years. Characteristics important to an array are: transparency, weight, flexibility, and durability. For example, minor differences in the reflectivity of the cells may increase efficiency by a few percent. In a competitive race, that can make the difference between first and second.

  The culture of solar racing has evolved along a lot of different paths depending on the teams. Some teams have a Continuum, to borrow a name from one of your cars, of passing the knowledge from team to team. That is certainly something more teams should take on. That would be a great evolutionary step for many of them. In all, the solar racing community is incredibly open. Teams help each other out, as we’ve seen time and time again.

Solar It Forward

I was in the pit area figuring out the horn and John from Principia walked over asking if we had a spare battery protection system. I was like…uhh…what? Apparently another team’s system just wasn’t up to the race regulations and they needed a new one. I actually did have all the components for a spare set to make a system, but it wasn’t assembled.

 I was too busy with the horns to drop what I was doing and build it, but I described what needed to happen to Principia and they got started on it. A few guys in Principia’s pits got started and had the bulk of it complete in about three or four hours.

 Once I got the horn working, I went to help them test the system and individual components. Then I went over to the team in need and started installing it in their battery pack, which they had prepared for me to work on. We got it all soldered up around 11PM last night. When we left, the system was working the lights were blinking and it’s in good shape.

 Our team has spent how many thousands of dollars to get out here and race? I’m sure they've spent the same amount of money and time. I would be heartbroken if their car didn’t at least have a chance to start the race. I don’t want any team to have to go through that.

 It was a good learning experience for them too. I’m planning to open-source my system after the race so other teams can build off of it, so this was a good kick-start for that.

Engineering is about collaboration and solving problems. If someone’s design doesn’t work, they need to get over that and work toward a solution. Once you can get through that barrier, the amount of work you can get done goes up exponentially. One thing that Michigan is good at is imparting that culture onto their new members. When someone points out the problem in your system, that’s a good thing. The universe is better off because of that.

 I will be working closely on telemetry with Leda as we get closer and closer to the race. The foundation for a lot of the electrical system in our telemetry is still based on stuff I did in 2006. I had no idea what I was doing then, but I kept the systems simple and it’s mostly scalable with what they’ve been doing. I’ve been using this race as an opportunity to go back and fix some of the weaknesses and do a few things differently. Then I can get the current team using these new tools I’ve made and familiarizing themselves with it so that they can build off of them.

A Serendipitous Reunion

I joined the Solar Car Team in the first week of my freshman year, in 2009. They had Continuum on the N. Campus Diag, and I thought it was so cool. I just had to do it.

I started in mechanical and did a lot of other things. I actually did the brakes on Quantum. I got into race strategy and was the race strategist for Quantum in 2011 and the head strategist for the 2012 ASC.

The word got out about this race through the alumni grapevine right around the time I was supposed to hear where I would be stationed for a three-month training period for my job as a wireline field engineer for Schlumberger. The three places they could have sent me were Siberia, Oklahoma or Abu Dhabi. I lucked out by getting assigned to Abu Dhabi, knowing that I would be there during the race.

The solar car bonds run deep. Some of my best friends are people I met on the team. Naturally we talk about solar car, probably too much; more than what’s a healthy amount at this stage in our lives. I’ve only worked with two or three of the alumni here, but how this multi-generational team has come together is really cool. 

How many student groups have generations of alumni who can come together and work seamlessly because they have the same common experience and can immediately relate to each other? It’s amazing to see how the spirit lives on. It’s the same mentality across the years, which has been big part of our success. This team is made of people who were the leaders of their teams. Everyone understands what’s expected and what it takes to win.

It’s really special to be back at the track with Quantum again. The last time I raced with Quantum was in 2012, and I fully expected it to be retired. Then it comes back again in 2014 and wins another National Champtionship.  Now this race—in a whole new continent, a place Michigan’s never raced before. It’s pretty wild, ground breaking maybe.

You really can’t watch solar car races. Quantum is going to be zipping around 1200 kilometers or so. I’ll have the live blog on my computer and be following that obsessively. This has been the best part of my day—coming back to solar car.

Third Time's A Charm

I think this is the third time I’ve gone through scrutineering (technical inspections) with Quantum, going back to 2011. That being said, I’ve seen many of the same inspections people a number of times.

I admit that it is a bit strange this time. We’ve gone though it so many times. We’ve got a car that’s gone through it so many times - that if there’s a small problem it’s almost like a little joke. The scrutineers laugh about it and we laugh about it. Obviously we will correct the issue, but it’s more lighthearted this time around.

It’s also a little strange to be back with the team. When you do it in school, Solar Car is a lifestyle. You devote so much of your life to it. You get a lot of inside jokes going. Once you leave it, you don’t immediately realize that it’s gone. It might sound cliché, but it really is like riding a bike. It all comes back to you. The whole lifestyle, the inside jokes, the people, the little quirks.  It’s strange but it feels really nice.

Earlier, we were talking about how nice it would be to get just an alumni solar car team together because of how much more enjoyable it is when you’re not in school. This actually isn’t a new idea. Every single time after a race, people half-jokingly talk about how fun it would be to build another solar car. As students, we do these races and get all this experience, and then leave the team at the top of our game. And now that we’re back, and it all comes rushing back, we talk about all the stuff we could have done a little better. And that’s kinda what this is. It’s coming back. It’s having fun. It’s making some improvements, but most importantly—reliving the experiences.

An Early Birthday Present For Chuck

I’m in the last month of my 81st year, and I figure this is a great way to celebrate. I feel so lucky to be as healthy as I am and to be able to travel. Being around these kids has given me a whole new view of the world. I now understand why professors like to be professors. To be with these kids all the time is inspiring. 

I’ve only missed two solar races; I think I’ve been to 23 or 24 of them.

 This trip has been a real surprise so far. What makes this different? We’ve never been in this part of the world. I don’t know what kind of a race it’s going to be. The days are shorter than during typical races—only nine hours. There’s also been a bit of a low hanging haze that could effect how much solar radiation we can utilize. Quantum has raced three races. It’s probably got more miles on it that any other solar car we’ve built. Just keep your fingers crossed.