EDWARDSVILLE - The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering’s (SOE) Solar Car Team has donated one of its cars to Berea College (BC) in Kentucky.
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“The American Solar Challenge has a rule that you can use the main chassis of the solar car three times, which means competing in three different annual events,” said Andy Lozowski, PhD, professor and chair of the SOE Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Then the team has to build another car.
“Our present car chassis was already in competition three times. So, now we have to build another one. But we still have the most recent car, and we use it for public relations and to train new student team members.”
As a result, SIUE donated its oldest car from 2015 to BC’s Wei Wu, PhD, assistant professor in BC’s Technology and Applied Design Department. Wu is an alumnae of the cooperative engineering PhD program that SIUE shares with SIU Carbondale. As a student, Wu worked on SIUE’s 2015 solar car. She now teaches electrical and mechanical engineering at BC.
“Wei wants to start another solar car team at Berea, and we thought the gift would be a good training tool for their team,” Lozowski said. “She is a highly capable engineer, and we know that she will use this gift to great benefit.”
Lozowski noted that the SIUE team benefited from just such a gift in 2004 as it received an old car from Lincoln Land Community College. “With that, we were able to build our very first car that we competed with in 2005,” Lozowski said. “Now, it is gratifying for us to pay it forward, too.”
The SIUE School of Engineering offers one of the most comprehensive and affordable engineering programs in the St. Louis region with eight undergraduate degrees, five master’s degrees and a cooperative doctoral program. Students learn from expert faculty, perform cutting-edge research, and participate in intercollegiate design competitions. Companies in the metropolitan St. Louis area provide students challenging internships and co-op opportunities, which often turn into permanent employment. Students gain hands-on experience in the School’s state-of-the-art facilities, including the new Student Design Center.
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