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SEVT will compete in the 2009 World Solar Challenge in Australia. Team members, some of whom are already in Australia, will race across the outback from Darwin to Adelaide. You can follow the team's progress by visiting our blog.

SEVT drove across the nation in June with Eleanor. By test-driving on highways, team members gained valuable experience and knowledge. In addition, SEVT conducted outreach events at museums and spoke to many children about Eleanor and solar car racing. We also visited sponsors and the solar car teams at Michigan, Minnesota, and Stanford.

SEVT will host a table at MIT's Earth Day Fair on Thursday, April 23rd. Stop by the Stata Center to see our poster and find out more about the team.

SEVT paraded alongside Eleanor in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Huge crowds of people saw Eleanor, and team members had an unforgettable time. We'd like to thank the South Boston Arts Association for having us participate in its unit.

The Solar Electric Vehicle Team is pleased to announce that they will be taking their newest car Eleanor on tour of the United States from June 7th-21st. We will be visiting the following locations:

• Boston, MA
• York, PA
• Detroit, MI
• Minneapolis, MN
• San Jose, CA
• Los Angeles, CA

If there is somewhere you'd like us to visit, whether a school or a science museum send us an email. Keep checking our website for updates on dates!

Our new vehicle, Eleanor, was unveiled at a ceremony on Friday, February 27th in MIT's Lobby 13. SEVT sponsors, the MIT Community and the public were invited to join us for food and a presentation at 3pm, and a short test drive afterwards. More information can be found here

Come young, come old! SEVT will be an exhibitor at the Boston Children's Museum Green Fair on Saturday November 22, from 11am to 4pm. We'll have activities for children to teach about solar cars and alternative energy, plus we'll have one of our cars on display!

SEVT will again be participating in MIT Energy Club's Energy Night. The event will take place on Friday September 15 at 5pm at the MIT Museum. SEVT will have two of its vehicles, Tesseract and Eleanor, on display at the event. Please join us to see our cars, poster, and other energy initiatives at MIT.

On Monday September 15 at 5:30pm in MIT's Room 4-270, SEVT will showcase its progress in developing solar cars alongside a presentation by Louis Palmer and his Solar Taxi. Mr. Palmer is visiting by MIT as part of his drive around the world. We are honored to have been asked by the Swiss Consulate to be featured alongside this achievement, so we hope you can join us to learn more about the Solar Taxi and our efforts.

On Sunday June 10, Tesseract was displayed at the Northeast Junior Solar Sprints Championships in Springfield, MA. Junior Solar Sprints is a miniature solar car race organized by the NESEA for middle school students. We were honored to have the opportunity to show off our car as inspiration to younger students, and we were inspired by their ingenuity and creativity.

Tesseract is featured on the front page of the recently published MIT Undergraduate Research Journal Energy Issue. MURJ is a widely distributed semesterly publication that showcases student projects and research.

SEVT displayed Tesseract and the prototype Flevobike to large crowds on a beautiful spring day. Team spirits were boosted by the support of the community, and by the chance to interact with young children.

For MIT's prospective students weekend, the team will be at several events to talk about SEVT and show displays. On April 13 from 3-5 pm, team members will be on hand to answer questions about the team and share a poster at the Edgerton Center's Open House in Room 4-402. Then on Saturday April 14, the team will be displaying Tesseract and available for discussion at the Activities Fair in Johnson Athletics Center from 1-3pm.

For the past two days, SEVT has been exhibiting Tesseract at the NESEA BuildingEnergy Conference Trade Show in the Seaport World Trade Center. The conference this year apparently had record breaking attendance. Many people who stopped by the booth offered words of support. It was encouraging to us to see so many companies and organizations striving to provide alternative energy solutions and efficiency improvements to building owners.

We displayed a prototype for our next generation vehicle at the Energy 2.0 Friday Night Showcase. The event was a great success, with huge attendance. It was a great opportunity to show off our recent work and to provide publicity for our sponsors.

On January 18-19, five SEVT representatives visited Ford, our primary sponsor. We were treated to a visit to the North American Auto Show on Thursday. On Friday, we exchanged presentations about our work and research. Then, we were given a tour of Ford's hybrid and fuel cell research programs. Thanks again to Ford for a great trip. We are very grateful for your continued support.

Chris Pentacoff, Craig Shaffer, and Karen Robinson took Tesseract to the Junior Solar Sprints, a competition sponsored by the NESEA where middle school students design, build, and race miniature solar powered vehicles. We hope that Tesseract served as an inspiration. We gave the young competitors a closer look at the car, and did a few laps around the track to show off.

The highlight of the day was when Susan Hockfield took a break from watching her daughter race in the sprints, and came over to say hello. She's excited about energy research at MIT, about the possibility of energy companies moving into the Cambridge area.

MIT has finished the 2005 World Solar challenge sixth, in 40 hours and no minutes, for an average speed of 75 km/h. After the car flipped in qualifying about 40% of the solar array was irreparably damaged, with the remaining panels peaking around 900 Watts. The team replaced 24 cells (less than 1% of the original array) and salvaged what they could from the half-smashed panels to get another hunderd watts, and ran the race with a 1 kilowatt array. While it was disappointing not to run with the fastest cars in the race, the team is pleased with its finish.

The Dutch Nuon team ran away with the race for the third consecutive time, averaging over 100 km/h for the race. Aurora (AU), Michigan (US), Ashiya Tiga (JP), and Formosun (TW) filled out the top five. MIT tussled with Apollo (TW) and Hans Go (DE/UK/NZ) for sixth, and came out on top. We were able to visit these teams almost every night in the outback, which certainly added to the enjoyment and excitement of the race.

Today we packed our shipping container for the return trip to Boston. The next two-year project will be underway towards the end of the month, and we will be holding an introductory meeting soon. We're always looking for new members, and the beginning of the project is the best time to join, so stay tuned for details.

On the eve of the 2005 World Solar Challenge, the team is preparing for a less competitive, though perhaps more challenging, race than it had planned for. On its qualifying lap this morning the car flipped over, wrecking about a third of its solar array, damaging even more, and ripping several holes in the car's Kevlar shell. Thanks to the car's steel chassis and roll bar and the driver's helmet, the driver was able to walk away from the crash with just a scraped shoulder. After surveying the wrecked car and determining the chassis, batteries, and electronics were in usable condition, the team decided to repair and rebuild Tesseract, and go forward with the race.

SEVT would like to thank the other WSC participants and officials for their support and concern today. The generosity of everyone at Hidden Valley today was truly overwhelming, and provided quite a morale bost. Best of luck to everyoned over the next week.

SEVT's preparations for this year's World Solar Challenge in Australia are in full swing, as the early crew (the team members wo are not taking classes this semester) has only a few more days in Cambridge.

After NASC finished in Calgary, SEVT shipped the race trailer, containing Tesseract and all of the race equipment, from Los Angeles to Melbourne. When the members of the early crew arrive in Melbourne early next week, they will pick up the trailer and tow it 2500 miles to Darwin, where the team will spend about two weeks preparing for the race and repairing any damage Tesseract may have sustained in transit or on NASC.

MIT has finished NASC 2005 in third place, trailing Michigan and Minnesota. With a 40-minute cushion between third and fourth place entering the final day, and without a realistic shot at making up enough time to place first or second, SEVT adopted a cautious approach for the last leg. To avoid speeding penalties, we stayed at least 5 kph under the speed limit, and while this resulted in a few extra minutes on the road, MIT was still securely in third when Tesseract crossed the finish line shortly before noon.

SEVT is now in the process of packing for this September's World Solar Challenge in Australia. Exact shipping plans are still in limbo due to a trucking strike at the Port of Vancouver, but the car and equipment should be leaving Calgary for a port on the west coast in the next few days.