HOUGHTON, N.Y. —Houghton College students taking Professor Mark Yuly’s introduction to engineering class recently applied their text book knowledge to a hands on learning experiment by competing in a solar car race.

Teams of students were each given a sheet of aluminum, a sheet of plastic, some solar cells and motors from which they had to design and a build a car that could run on solar energy alone.

“I think the students learned that there is a lot more to engineering than knowing some equations. When it came down to the last few hours before the race, the students found that some of their plans that looked so good on paper didn’t actually work – that’s when the real engineering work began,” commented Yuly.

“The best part of this project was not only being able to design and lay out the plans for our cars but we also had the opportunity to get into the shop and fabricate them,” said student Kurt Aikens. Each solar car was then put to the test by competing in a timed distance race of 30 ft.

The solar cars were allowed three attempts at the race. After the first run some minor repairs were made to a few solar cars to help them perform better. “I really enjoyed finding ways to get around the problems we encountered,” said student Daniel Haas. “This project showed me how important problem solving can be to an engineer.”