Unfortunately, National Geographic has been forced to cancel both the university and high school contests because of technical issues with the voting platform that compromised the voting process beyond repair. All participating schools will be awarded a grant of $350 in recognition of their teams' efforts. Thank you for your support!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
WE@RIT Hot Wheelz Team at Brockport High School
The WE@RIT (Women in Engineering program) Hot Wheelz team is made up entirely of female engineers from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology), in 2012 the team took first place in the Imagine RIT E-Dragster Race. These students are designing a vehicle to compete in the "E-Durance Challenge" devised by RIT president, Dr. Destler during the Imagine RIT event on May 4th. Team Hot Wheelz traveled to Brockport High School to meet and exchange ideas with our very own Blue Devil Racing Team. We're rooting for team Hot Wheelz to take the banjo again! Go Girls!
Friday, April 12, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Shell Eco-Marathon Day Four
We got an early start today in order to move our car to the queue to ensure we would be one of the first cars on the track. With our car near the front of the starting queue, Nicole hit the throttle when the green flag was waved. After the first lap, she noticed something was wrong with the car. The battery seemed to be dead. Last night, we plugged our charger into the battery pack just as we had always done. At some point in the night, the fuse blew in the charger and immediately turned into a battery drain. Knowing it would take four hours to fully charge our battery, we were desperate for a solution to get us back out on the track.
Eastern Hospitality:
Yesterday, we experienced true southern hospitality. Today we have to thank our neighbors from Cicero North Syracuse, also competing in the Eco-Marathon. They just happened to have an extra 48 volt lithium-ion battery with a battery management system. We quickly fashioned an adapter to connect their battery to our system and we were ready to race! Thank You CNS!
Competition Summary:
First Attempt: A fuse blew in our battery charger overnight leaving our battery with very little energy. The car made two complete laps before stopping completely.
Second Attempt:
Thanks to Cicero North Syracuse, we were able to make a second attempt within an hour of leaving the track. Nicole kept a great pace throughout the entire attempt and crossed the finish line with over forty seconds to spare. The brakes held and we finally had an OFFICIAL RUN!!!.
Energy Consumption (J): 301,990
Energy Consumption (m/kWh): 71
Third Attempt:
With over 30 miles of driving experience, Nicole worked to minimize the energy consumption during the third attempt. She focused on coasting through the corners and keeping a constant pace on the straightaways.
Energy Consumption (J): 248,276
Energy Consumption (m/kWh): 75
16th Place:
There were 45 high schools and university teams competing in the Battery/Electric division of the Shell Eco-Marathon. Brockport's very own Blue Devil Racing team finished 16th in this category! It was well worth the time and effort! Goodnight!
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Shell Eco-Marathon Day Three
Yesterday, we learned our brakes were not going to provide the clamping power required to hold our vehicle on the ramp during technical inspections which left us scrambling for a solution so we contacted a local bike shop (Daniel Boon Cycles) to ask for advice. What happened next is a true testament to southern hospitality! The salesman, Donny spent nearly a half hour on the phone with us trying to gain a better understanding of our issue. We ended up purchasing new brakes from them and he kindly threw in extra brake cables for free. The problem was that the bike shop was going to close in less than 20 minutes and there was no way for us to get there on time. A team from Louisiana, also competing in the Shell Eco-Marathon just happened to walk in the bicycle shop at that time. When they heard we were also in need of new brakes, they immediately offered to bring our brakes back to the competition. This allowed us to finish installing the new brakes overnight and pass technical inspection this morning. This is just one of many examples of kindness and generosity we have been so touched by during our short stay in Houston.
Competition Summary:
First Attempt: The students wheeled the vehicle to the pre-race tent where the officials reset our joulemeters prior to the race. When Nicole was given the green flag, she accelerated around the turn and continued to round the course for a total of ten laps (six miles). She finished in well under the 24 minute maximum time leaving our team eager to hear the reading from the joulemeter. The official bent down to read the meter, squinted, bent down closer, lifted his glasses and said nothing. He eventually said "ZERO". Due to a technical issue, the Joulemeter failed to record our energy consumption making the run invid.
Second Attempt: Nicole was following another car when it took the second turn a bit too fast and rolled over. A red flag soon followed and the attempt was officially terminated. The cars were then rolled back to the start line awaiting another attempt.
Third Attempt: This was a great run with our car finishing in well under the max time and our joulemeter recording. However, when the brakes were tested on a sloped testing device at the finish line, our rear brake failed to securely hold the vehicle in place leaving us with yet another invalid run.
Fourth Attempt: We switched drivers for this attempt. Ashlee would make her maiden voyage around the track while competing at the same time. She did a wonderful job navigating around other cars and obstacles along the way. When we crossed the finish line, the official said our time was 30 seconds over the limit. The meant, yes, another invalid run. This is a true lesson in perseverance!
Wrong Time: Ashlee was flagged down by another official in the paddock area who asked her if she heard the good news. The official told Ashlee that the time had been read incorrectly and the true time was well under the maximum time. The meant our last run was OFFICIAL! This was a great way to end the day. Goodnight Everyone!
UPDATE: (4.7.2013) Our transponder (an electronic device that detects how many laps we completed) was not detected on the finish line making this run invalid. BUMMER!
Please check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BlueDevilRacing
Competition Summary:
First Attempt: The students wheeled the vehicle to the pre-race tent where the officials reset our joulemeters prior to the race. When Nicole was given the green flag, she accelerated around the turn and continued to round the course for a total of ten laps (six miles). She finished in well under the 24 minute maximum time leaving our team eager to hear the reading from the joulemeter. The official bent down to read the meter, squinted, bent down closer, lifted his glasses and said nothing. He eventually said "ZERO". Due to a technical issue, the Joulemeter failed to record our energy consumption making the run invid.
Second Attempt: Nicole was following another car when it took the second turn a bit too fast and rolled over. A red flag soon followed and the attempt was officially terminated. The cars were then rolled back to the start line awaiting another attempt.
Third Attempt: This was a great run with our car finishing in well under the max time and our joulemeter recording. However, when the brakes were tested on a sloped testing device at the finish line, our rear brake failed to securely hold the vehicle in place leaving us with yet another invalid run.
Fourth Attempt: We switched drivers for this attempt. Ashlee would make her maiden voyage around the track while competing at the same time. She did a wonderful job navigating around other cars and obstacles along the way. When we crossed the finish line, the official said our time was 30 seconds over the limit. The meant, yes, another invalid run. This is a true lesson in perseverance!
Wrong Time: Ashlee was flagged down by another official in the paddock area who asked her if she heard the good news. The official told Ashlee that the time had been read incorrectly and the true time was well under the maximum time. The meant our last run was OFFICIAL! This was a great way to end the day. Goodnight Everyone!
UPDATE: (4.7.2013) Our transponder (an electronic device that detects how many laps we completed) was not detected on the finish line making this run invalid. BUMMER!
Please check out our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BlueDevilRacing
Shell Eco-Marathon Day Two
The team safely arrived in Houston yesterday and spent the day unpacking and preparing our car for competition. Many of us woke up at 3:30 am to catch the plane making for a very long day. We arrived at the "George R. Brown" ,as the locals call it, in perfect time to begin the process of setting up our paddock area. Please check out the Photo & Video tab to see what we've been up to!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
"Houston, The Eagle Has Landed"
We would like to thank the incredible staff of United Airlines for providing our team with a discounted rate and a comfortable flight from Rochester to Houston! Please check back frequently to see what we've been up to at the Shell Eco-Marathon.
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