SOCKEYE has finally returned from the 2024 Solar Car Challenge, marking the end of an amazing two years for our team. All the hard work put in by team members in planning, fundraising, and building the car has made SOCKEYE our most energy efficient car yet, completing over 1,160 miles over four days and, after a close and exciting race, securing first place in the Advanced Division for the 2024 Solar Car Challenge. 

We knew that running a race with half the allowed solar area would be challenging, but our team had poured countless hours into the car and continued to push through problems as they arose during the race.

For our team, the challenges started before scrutineering. When SOCKEYE finished its journey of over 2,000 miles from Seattle to Fort Worth, we found that the high voltage system no longer worked. Through swift troubleshooting as a team, we found and repaired a bad connection within the battery. 

The next day, we regrouped to solve the various issues that the judges brought up during scrutineering. For instance, they mentioned that though we weren’t breaking a rule, if the battery caught on fire, the driver would not be able to egress without climbing over a flaming battery.

We knew it would be nearly impossible to move the battery to another location, but we came up with the alternative solution of creating a fire shield. After speaking with the judges, they agreed that it would be adequate to add aluminum sheets and fiberglass fire blankets to make a fire resistant cover for the battery.

Additionally during scrutineering, we replaced a blown MPPT fuse, and faced difficulties with our organization while recovering SOCKEYE from the track in the recovery test. When we had extra time, we gathered solar data, and the results showed that we were getting nearly double the solar output we accounted for in our strategy. This was a massive morale boost for us, where new strategy predictions were much closer to where we wanted them to be.

After successfully passing scrutineering one day early, we used the time wisely. We made sure all team members knew how to safely recover the car by practicing loading the car on the trailer, modeled our solar performance, and refined our strategy calculators.

In the first day of racing, the record breaking 29 teams on the track made it difficult to keep a consistent pace. While the drivers and spotters worked the best they could, our strategy team continued to create new models of the car’s performance under traffic and reworked the strategy to account for the times we were forced to lift off or brake. After day one, we came out with a confidence inspiring 204 laps; first place for day one. 

Day two was the hardest day for our team. Despite less teams being on the track, making it easier to keep pace, we lost data halfway through the day. This left us driving blind, and we were relying on past data to guess how much power we were using. Additionally, we made the last minute decision to take our lunch break early, which gave us slightly less energy in the long run, but eliminated the risk of a penalty if the race organizers decided to end the race day early due to a high heat index.

No such cancellation happened, and we managed to keep going by manually calculating the status of the battery and motor. We weren’t out of the woods yet though, because in the last half hour of the day, SOCKEYE stopped on the track. While the recovery vehicle entered the track, SOCKEYE began working just enough to get off the track, but no faster than a couple miles per hour. 

This finished the day for us with 197 laps, but while the day was over for SOCKEYE it was not at all over for us. We found that the microcontroller had overheated, breaking the sd card and creating our telemetry issues. Additionally, our main fuse had blown, so SOCKEYE exited the track on solar power directly from the MPPTS. We replaced the fuse, added a fan to the microcontroller, and reduced the peak current on the motor controller to prevent these issues from reoccurring.

After the challenging day two, we bounced back for a massive success on day 3, completing 219 laps with no issues due to our new fans to cool down our microcontrollers and a limitation the motor controllers peak amperage to avoid blowing a fuse. In addition, due to the day being completely sunny, we managed to build a buffer of energy to use the next day, which we knew would be extremely cloudy. 

Going into day four, we had around 60% battery left, and the sky was overcast, limiting solar charging to almost none. We would be relying nearly entirely on our battery reserves from now on. In this environment, SOCKEYE outperformed our expectations. With close to half the aerodynamic drag of our old car, SOCKEYE was able to complete 149 laps, despite the day ending early due to expected rain and the energy limitation, securing the victory for our team.

Overall, the challenge went very well for our team. We worked as a team to overcome challenges and react to unexpected obstacles each day. Coming away from this, everyone was uplifted not just by the challenge, but by the teams and people we met. Perhaps the most surprising thing for many of us was the way that instead of being a highly competitive atmosphere, people were willing to share materials and expertise in order to help other teams get on the track.  

Coming back to Seattle was a massive change of pace after spending so long at the challenge, and we would like to say a massive thank you to all the teachers, parents, mentors who put in their time and effort to help supervise and teach us. We would like to shout out once again Trish Mcguire, Lisa, Josh, and Marva for making it possible for us to race in Texas. Additionally, we would like to offer our gratitude to our mentor Alain Semmet and our advisor Therese Tipton for supporting us over the past few years. 

We also owe a massive thank you to all the sponsors who donated financial resources, materials, and services to help us build SOCKEYE. Without all of these people and companies, we would not be here. 

With the race over, and Texas in our rearview mirror, we look to start working on getting ready for the coming year. While we are still unsure exactly what our main project will be, we are already planning for outreach events and onboarding new members. Despite this hopeful time, we also have to say goodbye to our graduating seniors. The experience and leadership they have brought to the team have been invaluable, and we hope that they find success in their university careers and beyond. 

Once again, thank you to everyone who has helped and followed along with our journey, and we hope to see you again next year.