A team of seven students from the Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Algarve (UAlg) reached 2nd place in the “VS-Solar Challenge – Race of Cars Powered by Solar Energy”, promoted this Sunday, June 20, by the Municipality of Sintra , on the track of the Real Sport Clube field, in Massamá.
«The VS-Solar Challenge project aims to make participants aware of the richness of solar energy, offering them the possibility of getting to know instruments and techniques that allow them to act critically and proactively in the field of this theme, in order to promote behaviors and habits more sustainable,” says UAlg.
According to Raul Lana Miguel, professor responsible for coordinating the project, this type of initiative is important because it offers «the possibility of replicating situations in the professional life of future graduates, even in an academic context, and allows the dissemination of sustainable technologies among science students and technology and the general public'.
The race, in which 19 teams participated, had the free category, without restrictions, and formula A, with four categories, depending on the vehicle's operating voltage, 60, 48, 36 and 24 volts. The UAlg team competed in the formula A category, that is, 36 volts, where it reached second place.
About the results achieved, Raul Lana Miguel says that they went “beyond expectations”, explaining that this “was our first participation in an event that is already in its sixth edition and we had a very tight deadline to implement and test our project”.
Students Diogo Sequeira, Diogo Gonçalves, João Garcia, Gonçalo Ribeiro, Pedro Pinto de Andrade, Joel Duarte and Guilherme Cardoso took part in the University of Algarve team, within the scope of the 3rd year project curricular unit.
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