Mission and Objectives
Mission
The UNSW Solar Racing Team is a volunteer, student-led organisation dedicated to developing a high-performance solar racing vehicle and in doing so provide a context for practical learning and sustainable development. The project embraces the spirit of excellence, innovation, and pro-active youth leadership to drive the development of energy-efficient technologies.
Vision
The Sunswift Project aspires to be an Australian icon representing the academic pursuit for efficient sustainable technologies. We inspire the general public to make a conscious effort to reflect and act upon the environmental impact that current vehicles have on the environment.
Objectives
Develop Innovative Technologies
Provide Practical Education for Students
Increase Public Awareness of Sustainability Technologies
Promote a Healthy Work Ethic
Develop Innovative Technologies
Advancing the field of sustainable transport solutions through the development of innovative technologies is a key goal of the Sunswift project. Competitive solar racing has provided the impetus for the improvement of a variety of technologies through innovative design and development, pushing the frontiers of state of the art solar car design.
The UNSW SRT has developed numerous innovative technologies. The world's first solar panels moulded into a composite curve (providing aerodynamic benefits); world-record breaking efficiency for a buried-contact solar cell; intelligent, elegant car-control systems; and high-efficiency maximum power point trackers are but a few. The team has worked closely with external companies to develop their technologies, in particular with Tritium and their high efficiency motor controllers.
Other innovations attributable to solar racing (but not the UNSW SRT specifically) include the development of highly efficient in-wheel motors (CSIRO, NTU and NGM), high-efficiency solar cells (UNSW, Sunpower), low-loss solar-cell encapsulation techniques (Gochermann Solar Technologies) and lightweight composite construction techniques. Many of these technologies have resulted in commercially viable products, and have been developed by both corporate and university contestants.
Innovation is a central part of solar racing and an award (originally sponsored by GM and then by the CSIRO since 2003) has been created by the World Solar Challenge to recognise truly innovative technologies. The Sunswift project received this CSIRO Technical Innovation Award in 2007.
Thus one objective of the team is to innovate technologies which further the development of sustainable transport solutions.
Provide Practical Education for Students
The activities undertaken by the UNSW SRT provide students with the opportunity to gain invaluable practical experience and further their own development in a number of different areas. Through partaking in the design and construction of the SRT's solar vehicles the students involved learn key skills for engineering in a real-world environment. Included are the challenges encountered when theory meets practice. Many students from various disciplines are unaware of many of the issues involved with the manufacture of their products, and it is only through involvement in an active project like Sunswift that students are motivated to acquire these skills.
In addition to these opportunities for practical education, students gain a range of skills that are very difficult to learn in lectures, tutorials, or laboratory exercises. These are the skills associated with project management and execution. Managing time, resources, marketing and fundraising while nurturing initiative and problem solving skills, as well as the ability to collaborate with a diverse group of individuals on a team-based project, are all integral challenges presented to all of the students involved. All are skills highly prized by employers.
Increase Public Awareness of Sustainable Technologies
Solar powered cars are among the more widely recognised feats of technological excellence still able to instill a sense of awe and curiosity in the minds of onlookers. High publicity naturally follows any convergence of competitive solar powered cars, and the World Solar Challenge is the greatest event of this kind. Reminding people that the technology exists for environmentally responsible transport is something that Sunswift takes very seriously.
The project aims to promote a balanced and healthy work ethic. This involves the attitude to the physical and social environment in the workshop, the approach and discipline required on races and the balance between university and project work.
In the workshop work activities occur in an environment safe from hazards that could cause physical injury. These are standard occupational health and safety regulations but incredibly important. Adhering to these methods develops safe work habits that will continue on into the workforce.
During a race, participants must understand that, like an athlete, a healthy body creates a more effective and useful team member. The stresses that are involved in participating in a race are extreme and the value of sleep, good food and no inhibiting substances is of utmost importance.
Involvement in the project inevitably leads to less time spent on university work. Although some of this is unavoidable it is an objective of the team to promote a balance between study and Sunswift work by attempting to plan semesters that support high achievement at university by concentrating work to weekends earlier in the semester, to holidays and keeping classes missed through race attendance to a minimum.
