KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - Solar Boat Team Preparing Students for Future
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by Tracy Crockett
Students at K-State Salina say they're getting great experience all while having fun. They're members of the Kansas State Solar Boat Team.
It may be hard to believe that a bunch of college students designed a solar powered boat, but that's what the Kansas State Solar Boat Club is all about. Electronic and Computer Engineering Technology student Todd Smalley says, "We try to design a boat that can compete in both of the major events which are the endurance and sprint configurations."
The club competes in nation wide competitions. They use solar panels during an endurance race. "As the sunrays hit the solar panels they generate a voltage which produces a current, we use that to charge our batteries or ultimately power our motors."
In the sprint race it's all about speed. Pilot Jordan Holthaus sits in the drivers seat because he is the lightest. Holthaus says, "If you have less weight to drag around you can go faster, so if you have a 200 pound person you're not going to go fast." "I have to monitor the current and the power during the endurance see what's coming into the battery, see what's going out to the motors."
To compete each year the team has to alter the design, this year it's the mechanical system, the drive train, and the rutter system. Mechanical Engineering Technology Student Andrew Lofgren says, "It's a completely new design that we're trying, we really don't know how it's going to work or if it's going to improve at all, also it's basically a process of improving the idea without knowing what's going to happen." Something these team members have learned both on and off the water. Holthaus says, "We were racing the Navy one time during the sprint, the Navy was there with their boat and as we're going there boat sunk so we won the race."
But these future engineers say the skills they are learning now will take them far. Lofgren says, "It's just one more skill that i'll have to put on a resume."
The team says it takes a lot of money to keep up the boat. They are currently looking for sponsors and students interested in joining the team.
