Sun Speedster: High School Solar Car Makes Debut at Town Day

The team: About 20 Belmont High School students make up the Belmont Solar Car Team.

The project: Build a really-fast solar car, like 30-to-40 mph fast.

The goal: Race the sun-powered speedster to glory in the US and around the world.

But before they can put their project on the track and road, hopefully at least one of the builders will have their driver's license.

The public will get its first look at a mock up of the car at Belmont Town Day, Saturday, May 19 in Belmont Center.

"That's another big step because we need team members to drive the car and so far none of the students has (a license)," said Leon Dyer, the technology engineering teacher at the Chenery Middle School who is the team's academic adviser.

That's because the crew is made up nearly entirely of high school sophomores. 

But Leon said the team's youth is actually a strength as the dozen-and-a-half members will continue as a team as the solar car project transforms from a  rough concept on paper into a finished racer in the coming year.

The goal is to be one of only a handful of high school teams nationwide – there is only one other high school solar team in New England – to compete in the annual national solar car championships held in Texas in the summer of 2013.

The team is now actively raising the $50,000 it will need to compete in the Winston School Solar Car Challenge by December.

The team will be accepting donations and sponsors – both individual and corporate – at Belmont Town Day on Saturday.

To get there, the team is working on creating a working vehicle in their spare time.

Using rooms in a modular building located behind the High School adjacent to a hidden parking lot and the commuter rail line, the team is broken down into groups with specific tasks to take on.

Gathered around one computer students use a donated computer software that allow the students to view models of the car's frame in 3D, rotating the car to view it from every imaginable angle. Others are discussing how to get the most out of an electrical motor and the most efficient battery to use.

On another end of the room is a mock-up of the car, allowing the student to experiment with design and mechanics. Nearby, a few students are emailing steel suppliers on the availability and price for a specific metal that would be used for the frame.

"You can see that we're beyond just thinking about a car and now moving to designing a working model," said Dyer.

Dyer said he thought of the project as an extension on classwork he performs at the Middle School involving solar power, including creating small solar-powered model cars.

"I could tell that many (of the students) were interested in the science and engineering building the (model) cars so this project is a natural extension from what the students did in my class," he said.

Five students came Dyer's informational session at the High School in November but that number has quadrupled as more of Dyer's former students caught wind to the project.

The team has benefited from help from parents and resident as well as having a mentoring relationship with MIT's Solar Electric Vehicle Team, one of the powerhouses in solar racing.

While the Texas race is the team's primary goal, Dyer said the team would like to raise an additional $60,000 to be the rare high school team to compete in the World Solar Challenge in Australia in October 2013.

"That would be a landmark accomplishment," said Dyer.

The Belmont Solar Car team is made up of senior Adam Belkadi, sophomores Austin Heye, Ben Giber, Bryton Lawrence, Colin Stievater, Henrik Rhodin, Jack Rushe, James Stadler, Joe Fitzgerald, Kyle Brown, Lilah Doblin, Mahesh Yarasi, Mark Zhu, Michelle Hayner, Oliver Hansen, Phobe Mesard, Sam Burt, Shyam Sukumar and freshman Robert Phillips.