Circuit race at Texas Motor Speedway.  We did not have enough resources to particpate in last year's cross-country race from Texas to California, but the team is exciting about participating in this year's race using the lessons it learned (the hard way) from 2021 and 2022.

Circuit race at Texas Motor Speedway.  To save money, we were not originally planning to race this year, but when the format changed from a cross-country race to Colorado to a circuit race at Texas Motor Speedway, we could not pass up the opportunity to attend a local race.  We shelved our plans for a new car and started retrofitting our 2021 car to meet the new regulations.  Our primary goal: improve the reliability of our car so we could be on the track 100% of the time.  We met this goal and increased our lap count by over 4x over last year.

Students from this team were accepted to (attended in bold):

• Caltech 

• Georgia Tech 

• TAMS (University of North Texas Academy of Math and Science)

• Texas A&M

• Texas Tech 

• The University of Texas at Austin

Circuit race at Texas Motor Speedway.  After working together virtually for many months, the team was ready to start fabrication.  Our independent status afforded us the flexibility to adjust to the waves of the pandemic, but we were still behind schedule.  Our stretch goal was to complete a car and pass scrutineering.  Our more realistic goal was to submit a partially completed car to the judges to get feedback.  The team achieved its stretch goal, passed scrutineering and took a team photo (left) at Winner's Circle.  In addition, we made the local news, received full marks for our oral presentation and completed 30 laps, 45 miles, at the Texas Motor Speedway before encountering electrical trouble.  The team learned the hard way what happens when engineers "test during production."

Students from this team went onto:

• The University of Texas at Austin

Cross-country race from Texas to Colorado (canceled due to the pandemic).   COVID wreaked havoc for many teams, including us.  After an initial period of paralysis, we started working together virtually to design our next car.  This car is a clean-sheet design unlike our first car, which was built on a donated chassis.  We won 2nd place in the Siemens Solid Edge competition for Best Use of Mechanical CAD.  We also tied for 1st place in the Classic Division for our oral presentation.  

Circuit race at Texas Motor Speedway.  Despite the team's valiant efforts to update the car to pass the new regulations, the car failed scrutineering by one item (out of 192).  Time for a new car.

Students from this team went onto: 

• Carnegie Mellon University

• Rice University

• TAMS (University of North Texas Academy of Math and Science)

Cross-country race from Texas to California.  After Kevin left the classroom, his wife, friends, and he created the Plano Green Team as an independent community team.  Kevin considers this team the spiritual successor to the 2016 team, with several of his former students serving as consultants.  The team started with nothing and used their resourcefulness to source parts and build a car that passed scrutineering.  We won the Siemens Solid Edge award for best use of CAD.

Students from this team went onto: 

• The University of Chicago

• Purdue University

• Texas A&M

• The University of Texas at Austin

Cross-country race from Texas to Minnesota.  This is where it all started for Kevin, who was asked to sponsor a new solar car team at his high school.  After a rocky 2014-15 trying to figure out how to start from nothing, the team registered for the 2016 race and built its first car for the new Solar-Electric Powered division.  After an intense summer and a grueling scrutineering, the team raced and won its division.

Graduating seniors from this team went to:

• Illinois

• Michigan

• Missouri S&T

• Texas A&M

• The University of Texas at Austin (including Business Honors)