Student ProjectsEquipment for NUsolar Battery
Project Manager
Oliver Yocum, Student
Amount Requested
$5,000
Summary
The Northwestern Solar Car Team (NUsolar) is a student run organization that designs and manufactures fully-functional, road certified solar vehicles. Our team is made up of over 40 undergraduate students across Northwestern’s many schools, and our mission is to enhance the education and career preparation of Northwestern students by providing hands-on engineering, design, manufacturing, and management experiences. We provide students with an outlet to demonstrate their practical skills and commitment to potential employers, while also promoting future technology advancements in sustainable energy transportation by demonstrating the feasibility of solar power.
For the 2023-2024 academic school year, our team is focused on designing our next generation solar vehicle: SC8. After proving our performance by passing scrutineering and racing at the 2023 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, we are intent on bringing our next vehicle to a highly competitive level. As our team continues to grow in both size and knowledge base, NUsolar hopes to improve its workspace in several key ways, especially for our electrical team. By investing in a sophisticated power supply, we would provide easier and safer use of our 240V outlet to charge our new and old battery box, giving greater control to our electrical team as we train in a new year of freshmen during the fall, and as we design an improved version of our battery box for SC8. Moreover, the addition of 3D printers to our space would increase our ability to sufficiently house our custom Printed Circuit boards, as well as greatly benefit our mechanical team when constructing attachment clamps for unique geometries. With funding from the Murphy Society for the power supply and 3D printers, we would be able to contribute greatly to the success of our 13-person electrical team in addition to all members of NUsolar, as we would be able to participate in the FSGP at a more competitive level. All in all, these leaps in the quality of our workspace allow our team to most effectively pursue an efficient next iteration of our high- voltage Li-ion battery box in the safest and most approachable manner possible.
Planned Activities/Investments
For NUsolar, each generation of our solar vehicle is a culmination of countless hours of research, revision, manufacture, and testing. To ensure our team can meet the specialized demands imposed by our design, and that our members can successfully integrate these complex electrical systems, testing at scale must be employed to build experience and knowledge. The power supply is a key component for predictably charging and testing our next generation of high voltage battery box, giving us a much more user-friendly and long-lasting tool that requires far less onboarding, risk, and potential for knowledge transfer losses.
Impact
The main priority of our organization is to give a hands-on, educational experience that cannot be found in any university coursework or independent study. Designing and manufacturing interior, exterior, and electrical components of our car creates opportunities for students to immerse themselves in the intricacies of automobile design and manufacturing. As solar vehicle integration remains largely disregarded by the commercial automotive industry, the work done by our students represents the forefront of solar vehicle technology, pushing them to develop leadership, project management, and technical skills in a field where existing knowledge is limited and students must generate and apply much of their own knowledge. Through this project, more members of our electrical team can experience a robust introduction to work at the intersection of electrical and mechanical engineering. Lastly, this will give the whole team the opportunity to work on the latest, most efficient electrical technology for solar cars, which will help with integration of future applications in future projects.
Sustainability
This project will be self enclosed within the bounds of the Murphy Society funding, with the benefit from equipment included in this grant lasting years into the future. This transition to an organizational supported project would occur at the conclusion of the coming year, and would represent the project becoming a permanent feature of our design cycle that builds on the knowledge and equipment developed throughout the year. Our organization continues to receive funding from both university and corporate sources, providing robust support for our endeavors beyond electrical workspace revitalization.
Deliverables
- New member assembly of Prusa MK4 3D printers
- Installation of and training for existing members on Elekro-Automatik EA-PSI 9200-25 DT power supply for usage on Li-ion battery box.
- Introductory projects for PCB design
- Combined 3D printing training with the mechanical team, creating 3D models of custom enclosures
- New electrical member usage of Prusa printers to complete their first project with NUsolar
- New mechanical member usage of Prusa printers to assist in their introductory projects
- Safe charging and cycling of new iteration of ~100V battery box with EA power supply
- Usage of new battery box iteration in 2025 FSGP and ASC competition (2 year design cycle)
Previous Projects
Our team has previously received Murphy Society funding for our solar vehicle project, but has never before applied this funding to 3D printing or reliable power supply, both of which would be new in- house capabilities for the team. Previous funding has contributed to the full-scale manufacturing of our vehicles, acquisition of necessary equipment, and an optimization study of the integration of composites into the car. In general, previous Murphy Society funding has been critical towards gathering and understanding data in regards to using carbon fiber within the vehicle, in addition to buying lithium-ion batteries. These investments helped provide a multi-year design project for members of the NUsolar Car Team to participate in and gain hands-on experience working with composites. Likewise, we hope that these requested contributions to the workspace of NUsolar will bring creativity and innovation alongside the new manufacturing process availability.
Budget Overview
- $3,026 EA-PSI 9200-25 DT Power Supply: Fully integrated power supply reduces safety concerns and allows for efficient testing of batteries.
- $1,598 Original Prusa MK4 3D Printer Kit: $799 per unit. 3D Printers allow for in-house access to rapid prototyping and ensure reliable prints for unique clamp/housing geometry.
Total: $5,000
Advisor Sign-off
NUsolar- Michael Rubenstein, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, and Jeremy Keys, Mechanical Engineering