IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021 - 82

by Jason Neely
IEEE PES/PELS Joint Chapter
Compete in Solar Splash
S
olar Splash is an inter-collegiate
competition where teams
compete with their solar-powered
electric boats in on-water
events such as sprint heats, endurance
heats, and slalom competitions.
This event allows teams to get handson
experience with solar photovoltaic
system design, battery energy
management, electric propulsion
drives, hull design, propeller design,
logistics, and technical writing.
Since 2016, the IEEE Power and
Energy Society (PES)/Power Electronics
Society (PELS) Albuquerque
Joint Chapter at the University of New
Mexico (UNM) have helped their Solar
Splash team with monetary support,
mentorship, and sponsorship
of capstone course projects. The
chapter's team first competed in the
competition during 2016, where they
were placed fourth overall and defied
the expectations of most rookie
teams. Because of the pandemic, the
chapter's team was unable to compete
in 2020.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2021.3099554
Date of current version: 13 September 2021
FIG 1 (from left to right) Brandon Kirkpatrick, Felicia Brimigion, Peter Vorobieff,
Jennifer Restrepo, Matthew Aragon, Emilio Martinez
At the 2021 Solar Splash competition
from 8 June to 12 June 2021 in
Springfield, Ohio, USA, the IEEE
PES/PELS Albuquerque Joint Chapter
at UNM's Solar Splash team, led
by faculty advisor Prof. Peter Vorobieff,
placed third overall, which is
the team's best result to date. This
year's Solar Splash team (Figure 1)
made improvements to their boat's
hull, drive train, and solar system.
The new hull was made from quarter-inch
plywood, coated in fiberglass,
and followed an ultralow-drag
wavesplitter design. The team also
acquired a more powerful motor to
improve sprint times and received
high-performance solar cells from
SolAero Technologies. Prof. Vorobieff,
who has aided the team since
2016, says that the team members deserve
all of the credit since they had
to design, build, and compete under
the many challenges that were the result
of the pandemic.
The IEEE PES/PELS Albuquerque
Joint Chapter at UNM is proud of the
results at the Solar Splash competition
this year and looks forward to
competing at this event in the future.
by Nirmitha AJ
IEEE PELS SBC Organizes Two-Day Workshop
O
n 22 and 24 May 2021, the
IEEE Power Electronics
Society (PELS) Student
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2021.3099575
Date of current version: 13 September 2021
B r a n c h Chap t e r (SBC) at St.
Joseph's College of Engineering
in India hosted a virtual two-part
workshop in collaboration with the
IEEE Robotics and Automation
Society (RAS).
82 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z September 2021
For the first day, Mr. Gokul Krishna
and Mr. Dheetaj Ranka, both
from the Business Development at
The Solar Labs, gave a presentation
with the theme " Overview of Solar
PV System Design " . Mr. Ranka's
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - September 2021

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