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1996 Event

Results and Awards from SOLAR SPLASH 1996

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1996 Event Photos

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The 1996 SOLAR SPLASH Collegiate World Championship was held from June 20 through June 23, on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The four day event drew 15 teams from around the U.S. and one team from Japan. There were five events in which the teams competed. The Technical Report event was an in-depth report that covered the team’s entire project, including budgets, design tradeoffs, engineering analyses, scheduling, materials selection, and testing. The Visual Presentation event was a way for the teams to show off their project to interested spectators. After a team had completed the technical inspections they had to qualify their boat before they could compete in either of the competition events. The Endurance event was held on Saturday, June 22, where each team competed in two 2-hour events. The final event of the competition was the Sprint event, where only the 4 fastest boats made it to the finals to determine the Sprint Champion.

The following are the final results from the 1996 Event and the awards that were presented to the teams for outstanding achievements.

2-Hour Endurance Event

The 2-Hour Endurance Event was held on a 1 km closed course. Each boat competed in two heats. The top eight boats from the first two heats Qualified for the Championship Final and the remaining eight boats competed in the Consolation Finals. The Endurance event winner was the boat completing the greatest distance in the Championship heat. A boat’s total distance from both heats was used to calculate its Overall Score for the Endurance event.

1996 Endurance Results
Championship Final
Place Boat # School Distance (miles)
1 16 UMass-Dartmouth 18.60
2 3 Marquette University 18.45
3 1 Kanazawa Inst. of Technology 16.28
4 7 U.S. Coast Guard 15.04
5 88 Univ. of Rhode Island 13.49
6 2 Univ. of So. Maine / Artisans College 12.25
7 6 Grand Valley State 12.25
8 20 Univ of So. Carolina 12.25
Consolation Final
Place Boat # School Distance (miles)
9 11 Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock 18.45
10 8 Univ. of Maryland 15.81
11 12 UCSB 11.16
12 5 Columbia Univ.  8.99
13 00 Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock  0.62
14 99 Univ. of Michigan  0.62
15 69 Univ. of New Orleans DNS
16 4 Univ. of Minnesota / Marquette DNS

300m Sprint Event

The 300m Sprint event was held with four boat heats, with all boats running a minimum of two heats. In the first round, the fastest boat from each heat was given a bye in round 2. The four fastest boats from round 2 qualified for the semi-finals. The top four boats from the semi-finals competed for the Sprint Championship Final. Times from the best two heats were used to calculate the Overall Score for the Sprint event.

1996 Sprint Results
Championship Final
Place Boat # School Time (sec.)
1 99 Univ. of Michigan 25.73
2 1 Kanazawa Inst. of Technology 30.06
3 6 Grand Valley State 35.11
4 5 Columbia Univ 36.20

Overall Event Scoring

Teams scored points in the following five events: Technical Report, Visual Display, Qualifying, Endurance, and Sprint. Points were awarded based on a team’s performance relative to the other competitors. The team with the highest point total was crowned the Collegiate World Champion and presented a trophy. Second, third, fourth and fifth places were also presented trophies.

  • Technical Reports were judged by a committee of members of the ASME Solar Energy Division and were ranked against the criteria distributed with the March Newsletter. The team with the best report received 100 points and a trophy. Five (5) points were deducted per place, i.e. 2nd place=95 pts, 3rd place=90pts, etc. Second and third place also received trophies.
  • Visual Presentations were judged by a panel made up of event sponsors. The presentations were targeted toward secondary school students and the general public to help them better understand the event. The criteria for
    the judging was overall visual appeal, clarity of message, and ease of understanding. The Best Visual Presentation received 50 points and an award. Three (3) points were deducted per place.
  • Qualifying requires that teams run the qualifying course successfully. Teams using more than one attempt were assessed a penalty based on the number of attempts. The fastest qualifier received 150 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was done using the following formula:
                  Fastest Qualifying Time (seconds)
        Points = ---------------------------------- X 150
                      Qualifiers Time (seconds)
    
  • Endurance requires teams to travel as far as possible in both of the 2-hour events. The winner of the endurance event was awarded 400 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was
    done using the following formula:

                 Total distance for 2 events (miles)
    Points= ----------------------------------------- X 400
            Winners total distance for 2 events (miles)
    
  • Sprint requires teams to cover the 300 meter course in the shortest time. Organized in a series of heats all boats had two heats in which to qualify for the semi-finals. The fastest four boats competed for the Sprint Title. The winner of the sprint event was awarded 300 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was done using the following formula:
             Sum of Winners best two times (seconds)
    Points = --------------------------------------- X 300
                 Sum of best two times (seconds)
    
Overall Event Results
Place Boat # Competitor Tech. Report (100 pts) Visual Display (50 pts) Qual. (150 pts) End. (400 pts) Sprint (300 pts) Total (1000 pts)
1 1 Kanazawa Institute of Technology 70 44 126.7 400.0 251.8 892.5
2 6 Grand Valley State Univ. 55 47 148.3 267.2 225.3 742.8
3 16 UMass – Dartmouth  0 14 90.5 400.0 208.3 713.3
4 7 U. S. Coast Guard Academy 100 50 68.9 309.3 84.6 612.8
5 11 Univ. of Arkansas, Little Rock 50 23 87.9 320.6 104.0 585.5
6 99 Univ. of Michigan 80 41 122.1 30.8 300.0 573.9
7 20 Univ. of South Carolina 90 35 46.7 267.2 117.5 556.4
8 3 Marquette University 85 32 27.9 398.4 0.0 543.3
9 2 So. Maine / Artisans College 40 29 0.0 272.1 192.7 533.8
10 5 Columbia University 95 38 80.7 93.9 221.3 528.9
11 88 Univ. of Rhode Island 30 17 82.0 278.5 70.6 478.1
12 00 Univ. of Arkansas, Little Rock 60 23 150.0  13.0 157.3 403.3
13 12 Univ. of California, Santa Barbara 75 20 74.6 139.3 54.9 363.8
14 8 Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore 45  0 257.5  0.0  0.0 319.2
15 69 Univ. of New Orleans 35  0  0  0.0  0.0 95.7
16 4 Univ. of Minnesota / Marquette Univ. 65 26  0.0  0.0  0.0  91.0

Awards and Trophies

Congratulations to all of the participants in SOLAR SPLASH ’96. Several awards and trophies were given out for the various categories of the event. The following is a list of the awards presented.

TROPHIES
Technical Report
Best Overall U. S. Coast Guard Academy, New London
Second Place Columbia University, New York
Third Place University of South Carolina, Columbia
Qualifying
Fastest Qualifier University of Arkansas, Little Rock (00)
Second Place Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids
Third Place Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Endurance Event
Endurance Champion University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Second Place Marquette University, Milwaukee
Third Place Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Sprint Event
Sprint Champion University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Second Place Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Third Place Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids
Overall Scoring
Overall Champion Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan
Second Place Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids
Third Place University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Fourth Place U. S. Coast Guard Academy, New London
Fifth Place University of Arkansas, Little Rock (11)

 

AWARDS
Award Presented To
Design Achievment University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Outstanding Solar System Design University of Southern Maine, Gorham
Outstanding Electrical System Design Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids
Outstanding Hull Designs Artisans College, Rockport & University of Rhode Island, Kingston
Outstanding Drive Train Designs University of Michigan, Ann Arbor & University of South Carolina, Columbia
Best Visual Presentation U. S. Coast Guard Academy, New London
Best Rookie Team University of California, Santa Barbara
Rookie Team w/ Best Overall Score University of Rhode Island, Kingston
Sportsmanship Award University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
EDS Sportsmanship Award Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Japan

Sponsors

Prime

UPS Battery Center

Gold

ASME Solar Energy Division

Silver

In memory of Dr. Norm Asper

Bronze

PELS company Logo

Contributors

UA Little Rock department of engineering technology
IEEE Evansville-Owensboro section
Dock Side Service LLC

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309 Newridge Rd.
Lexington, SC 29072
803-920-9231
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SOLAR SPLASH Technical Manager
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