Things around EBW 1 have really begun to pick up the pace. Our first major deadline is to have all of our designs loaded onto Pro-E, which is just a short 34 days or so away. We might be cutting it close, but we should make it. Part of the challenge will be teaching Pro-E to a bunch of team members who have never used the program before.

We’re also preparing to make another big purchase (our first, of course, being the awesome carbon fiber 17″ wheels): the drive set. The drive set is essentially the motor for the car, which we’ll need soon to better incorporate it into TigerGen II’s design. The only thing holding us up is the lack of a quote from the company we’re going to purchase it from (they’re still meeting internally to determine a price).

On a lighter note, this Saturday and Sunday we’ll be a part of National Engineer’s Day out in St. Louis (at the Science Center). We’ll be bringing out TigerGen I and some of the team members. So if you’re going to be in the area, you should definitely stop by and visit!

If you’re interested in joining the team, feel free to send me an email at sesmrb@mizzou.edu or stop by a meeting (5 p.m. Tuesdays in Engineering Building West 1– in the basement)!

Hey everyone!

This semester has been a busy one. Just this week we received our new carbon fiber wheels from Motowheels.com. They will inevitably give us a huge edge in competition; they way just under three pounds each, when the other ones we considered weighed around 11 pounds each. So now we have the six wheels (two spares) sitting in our lab.

Another big improvement was the removal of the molds from TigerGen I. Having those gone gives us much more room to store TigerGen I and begin to lay out TigerGen II.

And although the break is quickly approaching, we still have a lot of work to do through it. We'll be continuing to draw out the plans for TigerGen II and begin talking with companies to create new sponsorships.

Happy holidays from the team and see you in January!

So many exciting things have been happening to the team as of late, it’s been difficult to keep up with everyone!

We are currently beginning our design year for TigerGen II. When completed, she’ll compete in the Shell Eco Marathon Urban Concept Challenge. The race takes place in the Spring (the 2009 race will be in mid April) and is in California.

With this new race comes many, many different rules and regulations for us to meet. The first challenge is the actual style of the race; instead of like North American Solar Challenge, this race will be a track race and the winner will be determined on how many miles a car goes on a limited amount of fuel. We’ll again be using a fuel cell stack very similar to the one on TigerGen I.

Also, the next car will be smaller; almost half the size. TigerGen I weighs about 800lbs; the weight of TigerGen II is capped at 300lbs. With this in mind, we’re considering making a composite frame instead of the metal one of TigerGen I. To successfully do that, we may have to look back at what was done on SunTiger VI, our last solar car.

We’ve been busy showing TigerGen I as well. A couple weekends ago, we attended the International Science Festival at the St. Louis Science Center.
A lot of different people came out and saw the car; there were a lot of children and definitely a lot of people interested in science, cars and technology.

And back on campus, we’ve been a part of Meet Mizzou Day and Black and Gold Fridays, where potential students are brought through the engineering buildings and to the student labs.

This Sunday we’ll be holding a special “extra” meeting. We’ll be discussing, among many things, the goals and expectations of the new car, what will happen with the old cars (TG, and the STs), and just be an interesting mesh of putting all our ideas together.

Happy Homecoming everybody, and GO TIGERS!

With a couple meetings for the year already completed, now we’re beginning the real work. Right now we’re looking for new tires and wheels, a new motor and trying to finalize all the large pre-design decisions for TigerGen II. This, of course, is harder done than said. We have a lot of things to consider with our new design; TigerGen II will be lighter– only about 350 pounds, compared to the over 600 that was TigerGen I– and be optimized more for fuel efficiency. Also, we plan on ditching the batteries than gave us such a hard time with TigerGen I and instead use supercapacitors.

But with all this going on, we’re still working with TigerGen I. On Saturday we added the carbon fiber to the styrafoam ribs on the bottom of the car’s body. This will help keep the body stiffer when the frame is attached again.

Today we participated in MU’s activities mart on Lowry Mall and despite not having the car out to show off, we still had a lot of people stop by and check out the team.

Saturday we’ll be at the Sustainable Living Fair at the Columbia College Commons. Hopefully the car will be put back together by then and we’ll be able to bring it out.

Our next meeting is tomorrow at 5 p.m. in Engineering Building West 1. After the meeting we’ll be taking a “tour” of TigerGen I and go over a “Frequently Asked Questions” forum.

As always, feel free to stop by the lab and hope to see you tomorrow!

Wow...

It's certainly been a while! After a little bit of a break, I'm back with two (albeit short) videos from dynamics scrutineering (check it out on our Youtube channel) and 13 or so photos from the race (on Flickr).