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CU solar boat team champs again

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CEDARVILLE — It’s a four-peat for Cedarville University.

The school’s solar boat team won its fourth straight title at the World Championship of Solar Boating June 5-9 at the Clark County Fairgrounds Lake at Champions Park. Cedarville edged out the University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez for the championship. This is the 11th victory for Cedarville in its 15 years participating in the event. Cedarville is the most successful program in the event’s 25-year history.

​“They [The University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez] suffered a difficult year with the hurricane damage but still managed to bring a great entry to solar splash,” said Dr. Tim Dewhurst, senior professor of mechanical engineering and co-advisor to the Cedarville solar boat team.

Solar splash tests the engineering design and production skills of each team through a technical inspection and a series of on-water contests. Each team builds a piloted boat up to 6 meters long, powered by 480 watts of solar power and 1.3 kilowatt-hours of stored energy in batteries.

Teams earn points based on their performance in a qualifier, high-speed sprint race, long-endurance races and a slalom event. The event judges also review technical reports submitted by each team and a visual display, which factor into the final score.

Part of the educational experience of solar boat is also on-the-spot problem-solving, just like real-world engineering,” said Dr. Gerry Brown, associate professor of electrical engineering and co-advisor to the Cedarville solar boat team. “This year, while demonstrating the boat for a local TV morning show, the electric motor shorted out. It was toast a day before competition. If we hadn’t put on the demo, the problem wouldn’t have popped up until we got to competition, and that would have been rough. As it was, we had a 24-hour notice. We were able to take it apart, find the problem and fix it that night.”

Other schools competing included the University of New Orleans, the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada), Carnegie Mellon University, Stevens Institute of Technology, the University of New Mexico, Middle Tennessee State University, Lamar University, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal-Poly Pomona), the University of Dayton, and the University of Southern Indiana.

“We had teams from California to New Jersey, and from Canada to Texas,” Dewhurst said. “It was an honor to host such a great group of students from a wide range of backgrounds. Some of the teams that traveled the furthest brought the most people. About 15 came with the team from Lamar University in Texas, and the same number from the University of New Mexico.”

This year’s Cedarville team consisted of five recently graduated seniors: Josh Heanssler of Maine; Will Heinig of Plain City; Andrew Nelson of Michigan; Josh Schroepfer of Virginia; and Jonathan Cox of Brazil.

“We’re trying to provide senior design students with a worthwhile senior design experience,” Brown said. “Every year we’re looking for some aspect of the boat project for each one of them to improve — propellers, motor, weight reduction, electronics, etc.”

Submitted photo Cedarville University’s solar boat team captured its fourth-straight title at the recently completed World Championship of Solar Boating. Pictured are Dr. Tim Dewhurst, senior professor of mechanical engineering and solar boat co-advisor, graduated seniors Joshua Heanssler, Josh Schroepfer, Will Heinig, Andrew Nelson, and Jonathan Cox, and Dr. Gerry Brown, associate professor of electrical engineering and solar boat co-advisor.
http://www.xeniagazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2018/06/web1_Solar-Splash-4-Peat.jpgSubmitted photo Cedarville University’s solar boat team captured its fourth-straight title at the recently completed World Championship of Solar Boating. Pictured are Dr. Tim Dewhurst, senior professor of mechanical engineering and solar boat co-advisor, graduated seniors Joshua Heanssler, Josh Schroepfer, Will Heinig, Andrew Nelson, and Jonathan Cox, and Dr. Gerry Brown, associate professor of electrical engineering and solar boat co-advisor.