The Solar Competition for Earth Day at Reid Park had students from many schools. A large number came all the way from Tempe to compete. The competition judges and other personnel consisted mostly of volunteers. AzRISE Fellows Scott De Valle and Esfand Mazhari were judges for both the solar cars and the solar houses.
The solar car's all began from the same kit. The kit contained a small, electric motor, four solar cells, and some wheels. The rest was up to the ingenuity and creativity of the student. Most students opted to use the given wheels, while some employed parts from lego’s or other prefabricated parts. The majority of the bodies consisted of balsa wood and styrene foam (mostly in laminated poster-board form).
The cars were judged before competition based on how they were predicted to perform. The ones that appeared to have strong electrical connections, a robust, yet simple design and drive components, lightweight, and efficiently positioned cells were predicted to do well. The race was performed four cars simultaneously, guided by strings. A design flaw that became apparent during the competition was the mechanisms used to guide the cars on the string. Some cars that were efficient/powerful were running off the track and being eliminated. The cars that were successful all had at least effective guiding components.
The Solar Houses were developed from a kit consisting of four solar cells, a battery, a light-bulb, and a switch. The houses were judged based on many criteria: The student's design goals and implementation, aesthetics, the design's energy efficiency (insulation, use of natural lighting), the student's knowledge of power consumption in a typical home, the use of reused, recycle-able materials, and whether the light-bulb functioned. Some ideas that set students apart from their peers were subterranean living areas, water collection/solar heating capabilities, light collection/concentrator for the solar cells, and knowledge of where and how solar energy can be most effectively gathered by the four-cell panels.(i.e. Southern-facing, at an angle, high enough to not be shadowed by neighbors, trees, etc.).
