The La Cañada Engineering Club landed a near perfect score on a series of writing reports about water and the fineries of its propulsion-driven boat, at the recent Solar Cup 2013.
Although their boat was a tad on the slow side -- the team members' entry was able to reach speeds of 8-plus mph in the sprint, while winning top speeds reach about 17 mph -- their writing skills roared ahead of the competition, said La Cañada High School teacher and team advisor Steve Zimmerman.
Based on the writing and research of Suma Gudipati, Hannah Zimmerman and Ben Blanco, the team achieved a nearly perfect score of 74 out of 75 points in the technical writing. The team won, first place in technical writing for the Veteran Foothill Division, he said of the May 16-18 competition.
Zimmerman explained that the technical writing award includes three reports that each team must prepare about their boat. The first is on water conservation in general, second is electrical systems of the boat and third is mechanical systems of the boat. Each report is worth 25 points. LCEC scored 25, 24, 25 respecively.
Superintendent Wendy Sinnette lauded the team for a job well done.
"Congratulations on the excellent showing! First place on technical writing is stupendous. My sincerest appreciation to you, Steve, to our students, and to all of our volunteers,'' she wrote in an email.
Working since the “Boat Build Workshop” in November of 2012, the team brought a jet drive propulsion system to the normally propeller driven Solar Cup competition. Most have said it was a first for Solar Cup, Zimmerman pointed out. While not performing at the elite level, it finished in the top group of qualifiers in 12th place on May 16. Top on the list for improvements will be increasing the rpm of the electric motor, he said.
"The team is excited to get to work this summer testing new gear ratios and motor configurations. To accomplish this task some time will be devoted to building a data sensing system for voltage, amperage, rpm and speed,'' Zimmerman said in an email.
The Metropolitan Water District of South California's Solar Cup is a seven-month program that begins in the fall. La Cañada students are some of the 800 who build and race solar-powered boats at Lake Skinner, in Temecula Valley. They learn about conservation of natural resources, electrical and mechanical engineering and problem solving. The Solar Cup's website calls it the largest in the nation.
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