The College of New Jersey Logo

Apply     Visit     Give     |     Alumni     Parents     Offices     TCNJ Today     Three Bar Menu

TCNJ Solar Boat

The Summer Splash competition is an annually held design competition that challenges colleges and universities to design and fabricate an efficient and working solar powered boat. This year’s team from The College of New Jersey consisted of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering seniors: Russell Jones, Sean Anderson, Brad Shensky, Ryan Van Antwerp, Chris Durando, and Jim Quigg. The team competed against fourteen other schools including universities from Mexico and the UK.

The competition involves engineering management, design and fabrication, teamwork, and inter-disciplinary skills. The competition takes place over five days with possible points earned in over seven categories. Off-the water categories are awarded for Visual Displays and Workmanship as well as Technical reports which are submitted prior to the competition. On-the-water events begin with a Sprint and a Maneuverability qualifier. This is followed by an event called the Solar Slalom, which is a combination of speed and maneuverability. The final days are spent in the Sprint and Endurance events. TCNJ won an impressive array of awards placing overall 4th in the competition with a 3rd place ranking in the 300 meter Sprint competition, and two 2nd place finishes in the Visual Display competition and the Solar Slalom. The team was also awarded the Outstanding Systems Design Award.

This year’s boat was a completely new design from previous years. A new hull was created to minimize drag when performing at both low and high speeds. Drive trains for both endurance and sprint configurations were designed. New components were added, such as the system for adjusting trim angle. New solar panels were designed and constructed at the college to achieve a higher performance with a better weight ratio. An on-board computer and LED display provided the driver with information for monitoring the performance of the boat, and a telemetry system was put in place to transmit real time data to an on-shore computer. Of her team’s, effort faculty advisor Dr. Karen Yan said she was most impressed by her teams, “creativity, dedication, and team spirit.”

Learn more

Contact

Armstrong Hall, Room 165
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.2538
engineer@tcnj.edu

Top
Engineering Summer Camps for High School StudentsLearn More
+