Engineering and computing students at Dublin City University (DCU) have unveiled Ireland’s first solar-powered racing car, ahead of the team’s debut in an international 24-hour endurance challenge in Belgium next month.<\/p>\n
The single-seater car has been designed and built by more than 40 DCU students from mechanical and electrical engineering, software engineering and business.<\/p>\n
The project has involved four years of research, prototyping and aerodynamic testing.<\/p>\n
The vehicle, which is around six metres long, has been designed to maximise energy efficiency and minimise drag.<\/p>\n
It features a custom solar array, lightweight composite materials and bespoke telemetry systems, and is powered entirely by solar energy and battery storage.<\/p>\n
The team carried out a test drive at Mondello Park in Co Kildare this afternoon as part of preparations for the competition.<\/p>\n
The car will be officially unveiled to the public at The Helix at DCU on 9 September at 6pm.<\/p>\n
The students will then represent Ireland at the iLumen European Solar Challenge at Circuit Zolder in Belgium on 19 and 20 September.<\/p>\n
The 24-hour endurance race brings together university engineering teams from around the world, with competitors required to balance speed, energy management and battery efficiency.<\/p>\n
Rian Gill, Team Principal and Lead Engineer at DCU Solar Racing, said the project represented the culmination of four years of work.<\/p>\n
“It’s been incredible to see the work done over the past 4 years and to see all the effort pay off.”<\/p>\n
He said the project was the result of the work of the students, university and industry partners.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Bruton, Executive Dean of DCU’s Faculty of Engineering and Computing, said the project demonstrated the practical and multidisciplinary skills of the university’s students.<\/p>\n
She said the students were showing that sustainable transport solutions could be developed through “dedication, teamwork, multidisciplinary hands-on application, and vision.”<\/p>\n
The DCU team will now put its vehicle to the test against international university teams in one of the world’s few 24-hour solar-powered vehicle endurance competitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Engineering and computing students at Dublin City University (DCU) have unveiled Ireland’s first solar-powered racing car, ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-606417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}