This summer, 30 high school students from across the state of Arkansas participated in a week long residential camp entitled the 2010 Alternative Energy Summer Academy. The camp is an Arkansas Science & Technology Authority sponsored project being funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s College of Engineering hosted the event, which introduced students to the rapidly growing fields of alternative energy, solar technology, and electrical engineering. The camp is designed to prepare students with the necessary scientific background for understanding practical applications of these fields. Students were split into teams to design, build, and race remote controlled solar powered boats.
The students stayed on the campus of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and participated in team building programs designed by the university’s Office of Pre-College Programs. These programs built camaraderie among the students outside of their specific teams.
The teams themselves were split into two groups, one group learning the mechanical engineering side of designing the boat and the other learning the electrical engineering side. Students were mentored by UAF Engineering majors and taught the science behind the solar boat design process in a series of guest lectures from researchers and practitioners in each field. The mechanical engineering students learned how to properly design the boat’s hull and motor while the electrical engineering students learned how to run circuits from fabricated solar panels to operate the mechanical equipment. The students then designed, cut, and tested their own boats and solar panel boards.
The week culminated in a competitive race between all of the teams. Each team was timed racing their boats through both a slalom course and a sprint at Lake Wedington outside of Fayetteville. The intense level of competition between the students was apparent as teams continued to test and tweak their boat designs up until race time.