On weekends S&T's campus usually gets pretty quiet, but that certainly doesn't apply to the Miners' vaunted student design teams. This weekend started with SAE uber-judge Steven Fox giving a fascinating, insightful and humorous 3-hour seminar about race car vehicle dynamics, design approaches, strategy, and the evolution of rule-making at major SAE competitions. With Steve's decades in the auto manufacturing you might think he'd concentrate on an engineering design that might save the industry. Instead he focused on the design process; how a team accomplishes its goals, the best way to stay focused on the design challenge at hand, and the importance of bringing in new team members at the early stages of design so the team's entire knowledge base doesn't suddenly disappear on graduation day. He stressed the old saying that "those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it", emphasizing that design teams must know the history of design so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated at great cost in time, materials, performance and money. Another old saying that crept into his talk was KISS, and if you don't know what that means, well.................
After dinner at world-famous Alex's Pizza, the Miners hosted a shop tour and turned the table on Steve by presenting the design approach that recently earned S&T Racing world-ranked recognition. Team members showed Steve their plans for a wheel mounting system that will reduce the component count by 40% and save considerable weight at the corners. This after-pizza was an excellent rehearsal for the design presentations that are a critical part of most student design events; you might win all the races, but if you can't explain how or why you did it you probably won't win the event. If you were in industry you won't be able to get the financial backing to put your project into production, and you might not have a job any longer so it pays to do your calculations and test and verify at each benchmark. 
Steve frequently praised the S&T FSAE group for its commitment to growth and innovation, their strong emphasis on pre-race testing, and their ability to stay ahead of schedule.
FSAE wasn't the only student taking advantage of the class-free time. The Concrete Canoe Team went into full-scale production Saturday with a new and far less labor-intensive method for building the unlikely craft. Mark Ezzell, Patrick Tilk and a few others were the mix-preparation squad, keeping a soup-like concrete slurry ready for Matthew Struemph's spray gun. 
Their new system, the results of which haven't yet been tested in water, should strengthen the boat because it will eliminate seams that can lead to cracking. The actual (proprietary?) mix includes fine glass beads to help reduce weight and make the craft more buouyant, and anyone who has tried to carry a concrete boat will agree that's a great idea.
Mixing the material in finely-measured small batches had another advantage. A group of very bright engineering students from Atlanta happened to be visiting campus and when told they'd see a boat made of concrete they were quite incredulous. The boat builders took a few breaks to host the potential transfer students, explain how the Miners often work in open-ended design challenges, and show their guests the fun and appeal of a S&T education.
Lastly, S&T'S baja and solar car teams both were toiling away in the background. Casey Boyer stayed busy producing car parts on the SDELC shop lathe, while Dan Welty and several new team members toiled away on plans for Solar Miner VII. The spring semester is when the teams, who typically design the systems in the fall, get into full production.
Recently in Solar Car Category
It would be too easy to say that Michigan won the race as usual. but of the last five American Solar Challenge races you could just as easily say that the score has been Mighty Michigan 3, Missouri S&T 2.
S&T upset Michigan in rainy '99 and shattered the Wolverines' Route 66 record in 2003; Blue won '01 (with then-UMR breathing down its neck), '05 (with Minnesota, MIT, and S&T close behind), and now '08, holding off a heroic charge from S&T progeny Principia.
The Miners ran across the ceremonial finish line in 7th place, joined by S&T Provost Kent Wray, the guy in the white hat (in more ways than one).
The final rankings are: Michigan, Principia, Bochum (Germany), Waterloo, Minnesota, Calgary, and then Missouri S&T. Rounding out the field finds Iowa State, Red River, Arizona, Kentucky, Queen's, Northwestern, Dunham (England), and finally heroic Oregon State with its lovable home-built plywood trailer and $60K day-to-day budget. Oregon State finished ahead of Texas-Austin, MIT, and a long list of other notable institutions that came up short and weren't able to get a car in the race. You can find the actual race times (and plenty of S&T provided photos) at americansolarchallenge.org.
S&T's decision to trailer Monday afternoon, even under sunny skies, worked out to be an excellent strategic decision because they were able to pour just enough energy into their battery pack to keep their grip on 7th place and run ALL of Tuesday's final stage under SMVI's power, even though roughly 40% of the Medicine Hat-to-Calgary route was not very sunny. They must have calculated their power just right because Solar Miner Vi coasted across the finish line on electrical fumes. No power left at all, they tell us.
The '08 Miners has a rough year but still managed to complete the grueling, sometimes sunless race, in the middle of the pack, taking 7th place out of 15 teams to hit the road. Their lack of experience (except for Chris Pieper's race-time leadership and '05 alum Tim Robillard's sacrifice of his vacation time) meant that when things went wrong the students were less likely to understand the myriad of electronic hints that Solar Miner Vi threw at them. When array connections broke the students mistook the lowered output as a result of cloudy weather rather than the broken sub-array connections that were discovered on the last two days of the race, and who knows how long the sub-arrays were compromised. When your array is incomplete you are racing (fighting?) with one arm tied behind your back, and no amount of battery excellence will save you. S&T's decision to manufacture their own circuit boards in-house may also have held back the team as there were hundreds of potentially fault connections that could have been been the reason for their telemetry and turn signals problems. The crew has already started a long list of things to change in the next car, so there has been a tremendous amount of learning that has taken place, and that's what S&T's experiential learning programs are all about.
This was a year that many schools fielded inexperienced teams because of the three-year gap in state-side racing, and at least another dozen schools (some quite well-known) didn't even get their cars completed in time or make it through qualifying trials in Texas. The late announcement that Toyota's sponsorship rescued the event shrunk a two-year build and test cycle to a mere 7 months. S&T's solar superstars barely got the car finished in time and had no where near the hundred (thousands?) of miles on the car necessary to work out all the kinks. During this race nearly every top-grade team, such as Minnesota, Bochum or Principia, had sudden breakdowns that kept the runner-up order in constant turmoil, so even if you've completed your shake-down testing there is still no absolute assurance that you'll sail through at top (legal) speed.
The University of Calgary will host the awards ceremony at noon today, and as soon as all the t-shirts are traded and hamburgers consumed, S&T will hit the road to Great Falls, Montana for the night.
They'll arrive Friday evening in Rolla and clean out all their gear before disappearing until semester's start in three weeks.
The weather for today's return trip? Cloudy! Go figure..........
Somehow it is a fitting end to this race that we have lot of clouds today. This has been the least-sunny race since the '99 rain-fest from D.C. to Orlando won by upstart Missouri S&T, the first of our TWO national championships.
'08 won't be our year, obviously. Yesterday's standings have us in a respectable 6th place, considering that nearly all of the faster teams have been running in the Australia's World Solar Challenge in the non-NASC years. There are also several listings where the higher-ranked team has a longer elapsed running time than lower-ranked teams, so we are are confused in that matter. The Miners have fielded a simple and reliable mechanical chassis that has run beautifully, but the electrical side hasn't held its own. Late yesterday they found that three sub-arrays had somehow lost their connections so the car has been running on only 70% of its potential power. They don't know how long that has been the case because they were attributing the low power to so many cloudy days. Add to that the gradually shrinking battery back and you'll understand the Miners may be arriving at Calgary on solar fumes, so to speak.
We'll have more from the S&T Gypsy Caravan in the morning.
The Solar Miner VI crew had high hopes of running all 300 miles to Medicine Hat, Alberta today, and were well on their way to doing it. No breakdowns, no clouds, no rain, no traffic, no nuttin'.
They were maintaining just the right speed that would put them into Medicine Hat around dinner time, and were running in a loose pack of Waterloo, Bochum, Minnesota and Calgary so it really seemed like racing. Why then, did they pack it in? Very simply they could have run all day but that would have left their battery pack too low to recover in just a few evening hours, and that strategy would have forced them to trailer tomorrow to the eventual finish line. Embarrassing choice, that.
S&T has had to make this choice several times on this race. Our best showing was the run to Sioux Falls, when they placed more importance in getting to the stage point just under the wire. The strategic cost they paid the following day was that clouds prevented them from rebuilding the pack while they were running. Not only did it hurt them that day, but it put them in a hole all the way to Winnipeg and even on to Brandon, Manitoba.
Tomorrow we'll head to the finish line in Calgary, 187 miles away, if we remember correctly. Michigan appears to have vanquished the field, as has oft been their history. As of early this morning Principia had a very slight chance of catching Big Blue, and it looked like Hochshule Bochum, Waterloo, Minnesota and Calgary in that order were going to be the bridesmaids (again). Today's racing threw that book out the window when Principia suddenly vanished from the radar and Waterloo was flying along VERY strong. Rumor had it (and trust us, this event LIVES on rumors until the standings are published each morning) that wundercar Principia hit a big pothole and was sidelined, but the RA VII crew arrived in Medicine Hat around 7:00 p.m., quite late for such a fast runner.
We haven't had time to recognize all of the other teams in this event, but the Brits from Durham University have finally been spotted on the road. Durham, possibly along with Oregon State and its shoestring budget, has had the toughest time on the race. They've done had a lot of trailering because of various problems, but they've kept their ubiquitous stiff upper lip. We wonder if they'll party like their '01 English counterparts did at the end of that race. Hope so, 'cause they will have earned it.
It is a cool, quiet morning on the Canadian prairie, and there is strange unbroken shade of pale blue from horizon to horizon. No one seems to know what to make of it.
At least one Miner nearly came jumped of his sleeping bag when a freight train rolled by at 2:00 in the morning. We promise you, when a train roars by just 50 yards away, it sure feels a LOT closer in the dark.
The Miners will head back toward Regina a few miles, set up the car and charge exactly where they stopped last night. They should be through Regina's check point shortly after nine, past Moose Jaw by early afternoon, and into Medicine Hat, the race's final stage point by suppertime. If they don't make that they'll have to trailer in to participate in tomorrow's last stage start, and it probably won't be until then that we'll know what the race standings are. We hope the final standings will have S&T at the head of the middle pack, but there us no way to tell at this point. We are sorry to report that Principia's amazing run at race leader Michigan will probably fall short, as Ra VII is reported to be 60 miles farther east than S&T. Principia has run a very clean and organized race, and should be considered the event's best performing team, in our opinion.
Just so we don't forget, we want to recognize the contributions of Jennifer Claybrooks of Mizzou's Hydrogen Car Project. The Tigers' demonstration car was one of several that didn't manage to qualify for this tremendous race, so she joined the Miners and proved a ray of sunshine when it was most needed.
Lastly, we thought we'd post a photo of Jennifer, because without her help.............
The toughest job on this race today must be that of the race officials, because solar cars are scattered from west of Regina to who knows HOW far back toward Winnipeg. One frustrated organizer said at Regina that they really needed some COMPETITION!
Today's start from Winnipeg was, of course, under cloudy conditions and only about half the field actually drove from Red River's campus start line. Solar Miner VI has been running for days on low batteries and the lack of sunny weather has denied the Miners the chance to refuel en route. To make matters worse a battery module failed last night, dropping the pack's capacity about 8%.
S&T made the decision this morning, as did many other teams, to trailer their car from Winnipeg to the Brandon check point, where they FINALLY caught up with open skies. They figured the trailer penalties were better than driving the Trans-Canada Highway at 15mph, and we're sure our Canadian hosts would agree.
At Brandon the Miners got about two solid hours of charge time, enough to feel confident enough about the available sunlight to hit the road, and under partly cloudy skies they struck out behind Michigan and Calgary.
From that point we didn't hear a thing on the team's radio, and in this race no news is scary 'cause you never know which car will emerge from the distant prairie horizon. Much to our delight it turned out that Solar Miner VI, under the care of Nathan Steckel, sailed about 200 miles from Brandon to very close to Regina with just two quick stops to fix loose wires. In terms of physical placement S&T ended up third in line at evening time. Where a team ends up each night has virtually no bearing on the official standings, but we can tell you it sure feels better to have more cars behind you than ahead of you.
Meanwhile the real drama unfolded among the teams that drove from Winnipeg. Michigan, Waterloo, Principia, Red River, Bochum, valiant Oregon State and maybe one or two more challenged the clouds, probably because there was a tiny glimpse of blue sky way off to the west. Michigan, of course, took off, with Bochum and Waterloo close behind. A dozen or so miles down the road Principia roared past 
Waterloo as if they were standing still, and then disappeared. Unfortunately Principia turned up later on the side of the road, peering into their battery box with great concern.
At that point News Chopper 1870 headed up the road to find the Miners charging at Brandon, and at day's end eventually found them charging under COMPLETELY clear skies! WHAT A RUSH!!
At the dawn's early light, there is very little light unfortunately. Clouds and showers blanket the Trans-Canada Highway from Winnipeg to the first check point in Brandon, but the fact that today's green flag is a stage stop means the race leaders' advantage will be a bit muted because all cars will have a chance to reach the sun fairly early in the day. That is good because the race pace has slowed due to so many clouds over so many miles. We'll report any news as soon as we can.
P.S. At 7:00 a.m. big, noisy thunderstorm is sweeping through Winnipeg, very close to the stage start at Red River College. There is a glimpse of relatively clear sky well of to the west, so let's keep our hopes up.
As expected, the the clouds were thick and low early this morning behind Mac's Hardware in Winnipeg.
The usual round of re-checking yesterday's problems kept a few S&T folks busy so the rest of the Miners, who had become so practiced at the daily loading plan, took some time for jump rope fun.
Meanwhile Solar Miners' brain trust distributed the day's route changes, but sometimes when you have a late change of plans not everyone gets the message.
S&T didn't expect to go very far or fast today because of rain, heavy cloud cover, and their low battery power, but they certainly didn't expect to get lost (stupid route changes!). About 25 miles north of WInnipeg slow-moving SMVI missed a turn and lost about seven miles one way. By the time they figured it out and got back on course it was pretty much time to load the car in the trailer and haul it the rest of the 225+ miles to Manitoba's capitol city.
The Miners weren't at all happy with the course of events because this was the first time since 1999 that the car had to be trailered on a race, but it did get them far enough north to find some clearer skies and get several good hours of charging under their belts. This writer is not sure of SMVI's power status, but there is at least another day of cloudy weather ahead so no matter who wins this race the 2005 race record is probably safe.
Tomorrow starts the second-to-last stage start of the big race. We'll leave Red River College at 9, and head west until we hit the Rockies some 600 miles later. It's tough to tell the standings right now, but a lot of teams trailered into town today, and we don't know when the trailer penalties will be announced.
A quick glance out the window reveals bad news for solar cars, so look for very slow racing today. Thick, low clouds, with rain to follow will give the Miners headaches today because their batteries are not in such hot shape, so making it north to Winnipeg won't be easy. But at least all the cars around here will have the same problem.
Stay tuned.
