Students use Solar Power for "Sun Grand Prix"

     
         Friday, June 28, 2013, was featured the hottest day of the year, defining that it was also one of the best days to solar race at the Circuit of the Americas track in Texas. The event was known as the "Formula Sun Grand Prix." The cars are made by college students from 11 universities, who are putting their young engineers to the test.
         "If we had another month and another $10,000, it would probably look slick, but we had neither of those things so we use duct tape," Raul Molina with the University of Texas Solar Team said. The students design, build, and raise funds for their teams, just as any other business technique would be used for their own products.
          "There is a reason that the company is having you look at this and it's to make profit for the company and not for you to test out your cool little widget," race organizer Gail Luek said. Joel Thongson with Western Michigan University had to combine his book knowledge with a little elbow grease to get the job done. "This really applies to what most of us are going to do in our jobs so it is really great real world experience," he said.
            The solar cars have the capacity to reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour, but they were only hitting about 35 on Friday. The race continues today (Saturday, June 29, 2013) at the track from 9am to 5pm EST.