Electrathon is a high school competition I raced in and is what sparked my love for engineering. The team designed and raced a full scale electric vehicle from scratch. I helped weld a conduit frame, plasma custom parts, and design a suspension system. I learned to solve problems under pressure while driving and how to prepare for a successful racing weekend.
In 2017, I helped found an Electrathon team at Dunwoody HS with several other classmates. We built and raced a full scale electric vehicle in races all across the state of Georgia with the goal of completing as many laps as possible in one hour of driving.
In the 2018-2019 race season, we competed in 3 races across the state. We placed 8th at the state championship in March .
Fall Leadership Conference: 0 laps (Did not pass inspection)
State Championship: 24 laps
In the 2018-2019 race season, our team competed in 4 races. We were very competitive in all of them including the state championship. Due to an unfortunate clerical error however, we did not place at the state championship but we intend to come back very determined this year.
Fall Leadership Conference: 35 Laps
State Championship: 38 laps
In the 2019-2020 race season, our team plans to complete the construction of our second car and bring it to the State Championship. With both cars, we hoped to have at least one place in the top 3 teams. At the FLC race, our team completed our first ever full race, without any stops or failures.
Fall Leadership Conference: 63 laps
State Championship: Unsure*
Both cars have a welded steel conduit frame and are approximately 7 feet long by 4 feet wide. They both have a top speed of about 50 mph and run on two 12V Optima Yellow Top batteries each. We use a hydraulic braking system and rack and pinion steering system in both cars. The main difference between the first car, pictured above, and the second car, pictured left, is the frame and drivetrain design. The changes made in the design of the second car applied lessons learnt from the first car's construction to create an even better machine.
The team's design notebook is very extensive and accurate. It contains detailed records of all work done on the car, part names and descriptions, and screenshots of CAD models of parts. The entire notebook from the 2019-2020 seasons is nearly 120 pages, so here is a sample entry of the design journal, a log of work done at all meetings.
Each year, we brought our cars to as many Caffeine and Octane Car Shows as possible. This event is the largest monthly car show in North America and is held less than a mile from Dunwoody High School. Not only did the team members have fun at the show, but we also enjoyed showing off our cars to the community and networking with potential sponsors also attending the event.