Cambridge University Eco Racing » Outreach

Ardingly College meets CUER

Lucy Fielding — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:00:42 +0000

On Saturday the 21st of January, CUER played host to an extremely enthusiastic – and possibly crazy – group of students from Ardingly College who are hoping to start up their own solar car engineering project. Despite a 30-minute long presentation describing exactly why they shouldn’t attempt such a time- and soul-devouring endeavour, they were as adamant and keen as ever. They had a tour of the Engineering Department and a chance to talk to several members of the team about their specific areas of interest. We were impressed by their attitudes and wish them the best of luck. Hopefully, ALP Solar will become the fourth such team in the UK.

: CUER and Ardingly College at the end of a tiring day

We leave you with a selection of comments and photos from the students themselves.

“My experience at Cambridge University certainly extended my academic knowledge about the CUER’s solar car. It was in fact an excellent journey and I really enjoyed taking part in it. I learned a lot about CUER and how they built the magnificent solar car…

…to sum up, the visit to Cambridge University was remarkably exciting and I really enjoyed visiting the CUER’s solar powered car.”

Sabrina, Year 7

“On the 21st January 2012, I was invited together with 13 other students from the school to travel to Cambridge University to visit the famous CUER solar car, which will one day race in the mighty Australian outback. When we arrived there, we were warmly welcomed by the CUER team, which was then followed by a useful speech on the key aspects (time, money, manpower, space and experience) to building a successful solar powered car. From this speech and the tour they gave us, I learnt a great deal especially about the structure of the car, how they get money for the project and the difficulties they will face when they eventually take it to Australia….

…Overall, I really enjoyed going to Cambridge University as it was an incredible experience I will never forget.”

John, Year 10

: “…and then we wait four hours before Fluent tells us that our CFD has failed to mesh properly…”

For a small group of students to get the full attention of senior members of the Cambridge University Solar Car team, was of immeasurable use and help in our ambitious project. Many thanks to the whole team.

Oscar, Year 11

The Cambridge solar car project has inspired me and the team to build this project, I was amazed how so many of the Cambridge team gave up their Saturdays to talk to us, I am so excited over what the future holds for us. Thanks Cambridge and will hopefully see you again soon.

Patrick, Year 11

: Students taking notes in lectures was something many of us had not seen before.

“It was a mind blasting experience! We were enthralled by the techs and green power put into Endeavour. Hopefully, with all the enthusiasm from The Ardingly Love Physics Team, we will be sitting in our own solar car soon!”

Sabrina, Year 12

Just to say thank you so much to you and your team for a brilliant day. I was truly amazed that so many of your team gave up their Saturday. The students were totally inspired, prep are giving a presentation to their school, the seniors are already sourcing their design computer. Absolutely brilliant I could not have hoped for more.

Head of Physics, Ardingly College

: We do occasionally leave miscellaneous items in the wind tunnel by accident. Luckily this one was wearing a hard hat.

Outreach at Park Street Primary School

Lucy Fielding — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:39:41 +0000

Last month we sent our head of Composites, Lucy, to Park Street C of E Primary School to talk to a class about engineering. The children had been studying “Inventors” as their topic and were very excited to meet a real-life inventor! Lucy was just as excited to be described as one. The class learned about the different stages of an engineering project (brainstorm – design – reject – brainstorm – design – reject – panic – design – build – break – rebuild – test – break – rebuild – test – end), and put their newly-discovered skills into practice designing their own solar car. Powered by crisps.

They also saw pictures of the build and race of Endeavour in 2009, and got to have a hands-on session with some components and materials used in the car.

Talking about the skilled, precise, not-at-all-sticky composite work

It's a SPACESHIP!

One interested student examines our composite materials while another considers becoming a sponsor.

CUER's Sponsorship Team Leader of the future meets CUER's Electrical Team Leader of the future

Time spent playing with tyres and wind tunnel components: 2 minutes. Time spent playing with rubber gloves: several hours.

The demonstration model undergoes some unplanned loading conditions.

The staff enjoyed the day and teacher Miss Battersby commented that never before had she seen her class willing to sit still for so long. She sends her thanks to us:

Just to say - a huge huge thanks for coming into Park Street to talk to the children, it was a fantastic presentation and they are all really enthused about engineering!

So, heads up, CUED – expect an influx of locals in about 12-13 years’ time, all of whom “want to be an engineer just like you when I grow up.”

Outstanding.

Design Contest

Lucy Fielding — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:19:03 +0000

At Cambridge University Eco Racing we design, build and race cutting edge solar powered cars. Our racing cars showcase sustainable engineering and demonstrate the potential of electric vehicle technologies. A big part of what we do is promoting these values in the community. To achieve this, CUER runs outreach events at local schools and across the country, aimed at educating and inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Our cars are developed to race in the biennial ‘World Solar Challenge’, the ‘Formula One’ of eco-friendly motorsport, which is a 3000 kilometre race across the Australian Outback. In 2009, we entered the race for the first time as the only UK team. This year, we have developed a much improved car and, in May, we will be unveiling our new design at a special event in Cambridge.

To celebrate our new design, we are launching a competition, for school pupils aged from 6 to 14, to design a car for the future. Unlike our car, the designs will not be restricted to solar power, but we will still be looking for some exciting and innovative ideas (no idea is too silly!).

Entries will be judged, in three age categories, by some of our technical team. We will then shortlist entries from each category and those shortlisted will be invited to our design launch and ‘solar fun day’ in May. Category winners will be announced at this event, alongside our new design, and the overall winning design will feature on our completed car when it races in Australia in October.

Materials and information on the competition are attached and can be found at www.cuer.co.uk/future.

Outreach

Lucy Fielding — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:04:19 +0000

In spite of a hectic term trying to co-ordinate the technical team and finalise the plans for the design of the 2011 car, our design director Tom still managed to find the time to do some outreach work. In November the Engineering Department here in Cambridge organised an event for families to build mini ”crazy-kit cars’, and Tom was on hand to plug CUER shamelessly tell them all about solar car racing and electric vehicles. The audience of budding engineers (projection much?) enjoyed his talk and enjoyed grilling him with some very tough questions even more. What a bonza bloke (as they say in the very small part of Australia that was actually accurately portrayed by Crocodile Dundee. Or possibly not).

Sunshine for Stoke College

Dan Wilkins — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:47:21 +0000

Hey kids! Buy your very own remote controlled solar car, and wow your friends as it cruises along at walking pace, occasionally bursting into flames! Don't miss out!

Pupils at Stoke College were delighted to find Affinity on their playground when they arrived at school on Wednesday 22nd April. After a presentation in morning assembly years 6, 7 & 8 students were given a chance to build their own solar buggies. In the midday sunshine there followed a thrilling solar race, whilst the CUER team took advantage of the good weather to demonstrate Affinity in action.

Cambridge Precision joined us for the visit and the Haverhill Echo covered the story, which you can read here. For more photos take a look at our gallery (photos by Dan Rodgers).

- Emma

Cambridgeshire Kids Thrilled by Affinity!

Dan Wilkins — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:40:03 +0000

As part of Science Week the CUER outreach team visited three local schools last week, giving pupils the chance to see Affinity and build their own solar buggies. We were lucky with the weather and managed some seriously competitive solar buggy racing! Perse Prep School in Cambridge, St. Anne’s C of E Primary in Godmanchester and Thriplow C of E Primary School all gave us a very warm welcome and we had a great time answering hundreds of questions, from ‘How does it fly?’ to ‘Can you recommend any books on aerodynamics?’. Maybe we’ve inspired some of the engineers of the future!

- Emma

Solar Buggies at Catz!

Dan Wilkins — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:05:19 +0000

CUER students were delighted to be able to hold another series of Solar Buggy workshops yesterday for groups of school pupils visiting the University. Around 80 pupils participated in the events which were held at St Catharine’s College, and supported by the University’s 2009 Fund. The workshops allow pupils to design their own model solar car and encourage them to think about everything from aerodynamics to wheel size, in order to build the most efficient and ultimately the fastest car. Despite the less than ideal March sun, the teams’ impressive designs were surprisingly fast and we hope that all had fun whilst learning a little about solar power.

It is as yet uncertain whether the kids or the CUER lot had more fun with this! Certainly the competition between team members was fierce, and prompted the creation of the Outreach Cup, to be awarded at the end of the year to the team member with the most outreach wins.

Scandal abounded when one team member - Hannah who will remain unnamed – was discovered cheating by using TWO solar cells instead of the allotted one! Charges were later dropped (pun intended) when it was revealed that the wiring up was of such poor quality that the advantage was negated. The eventual winners were Lucy’s team, with the aptly named Eco-Slap.

- Emma

For more information about our Solar Buggy Workshop, please email outreach@cuer.co.uk