Superway Senior Project

A presentation was given today that demonstrated the progress of the design phase for several different full-scale and half-scale teams.  The teams showed off different design concepts, as well as the pros and cons of those design concepts.  The presentations also included expectations for challenges in the future and also a final design concept that each team believed to be ready for prototyping.  The presentations took most of the allotted class time, but there was still some time left for questions in the end.  The recently returned Africa team showed off some of their design concepts based off of the Futran system and was able to give advice on what they believe to be the final design.

Most of today's time was spent conversing with Dr. Furman and Eric about the potential designs for the racking of the panels.  A possible new design that utilizes the racking as support for the entire track was discussed.  Details about the presentation that is due the next class were also discussed.

The 2nd meeting of the Spartan Superway Project began with a series of "lightning talks," in which each team gave a short presentation on their sub-projects.  Each of the teams gave some insight as to the work that had been done on the project so far, as well as what the teams were hoping to accomplish for their project's future.  The lightning talks took most of the allotted class time, so the solar team spent the rest of the class discussing design issues with the class instructors. The actual physical design of the full scale track will be based off of the model seen below.  One of the design parameters that was discussed was the angle in which the solar panels will be aligned.  Ideally, the solar panels will be oriented at an angle in which the surfaces of the panels will be perpendicular to the sun's rays.  However, due to the Earth's tilt, different angles will be ideal in different parts of the year.  The solar team will have to either find a way t...

Day 1 of the Spartan Superway Project proved to be an interesting and productive affair.  I was not expecting the work space to be as large and and well equipped as it was.  Below are some pictures that I took while walking around the location. After an initial presentation by Dr. Furman and an introduction to the two other instructors, groups began breaking off to discuss their own future contributions to the project, my group being the solar group.  After introductions were made, the group decided to make a list that would encompass the main goals of the solar team.  The primary goals were a racking design that would minimize the risk of panels falling off and causing potential harm to pedestrians and vehicle traffic, as well as a design that would be easy to install and maintain.  The group agreed to conduct research as individual members and return the next week with more useful information.