SOLAR SPLASH^© '96
Results and Awards

The 1996 SOLAR SPLASH Collegiate World Championship was held from June 20 through June 23, on Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The four day event drew 15 teams from around the U.S. and one team from Japan. There were five events in which the teams competed. The Technical Report event was an in-depth report that covered the team's entire project, including budgets, design tradeoffs, engineering analyses, scheduling, materials selection, and testing. The Visual Presentation event was a way for the teams to show off their project to interested spectators. After a team had completed the technical inspections they had to qualify their boat before they could compete in either of the competition events. The Endurance event was held on Saturday, June 22, where each team competed in two 2-hour events. The final event of the competition was the Sprint event, where only the 4 fastest boats made it to the finals to determine the Sprint Champion.

The following are the final results from the 1996 Event and the awards that were presented to the teams for outstanding achievements.

• Endurance Event Results
• Sprint Event Results
• Overall Event Scoring
• Overall Results
• Awards and Trophies

The 2-Hour Endurance Event was held on a 1 km closed course. Each boat competed in two heats. The top eight boats from the first two heats Qualified for the Championship Final and the remaining eight boats competed in the Consolation Finals. The Endurance event winner was the boat completing the greatest distance in the Championship heat. A boat's total distance from both heats was used to calculate its Overall Score for the Endurance event.

The 300m Sprint event was held with four boat heats, with all boats running a minimum of two heats. In the first round, the fastest boat from each heat was given a bye in round 2. The four fastest boats from round 2 qualified for the semi-finals. The top four boats from the semi-finals competed for the Sprint Championship Final. Times from the best two heats were used to calculate the Overall Score for the Sprint event.

Teams scored points in the following five events: Technical Report, Visual Display, Qualifying, Endurance, and Sprint. Points were awarded based on a team's performance relative to the other competitors. The team with the highest point total was crowned the Collegiate World Champion and presented a trophy. Second, third, fourth and fifth places were also presented trophies.

• Technical Reports were judged by a committee of members of the ASME Solar Energy Division and were ranked against the criteria distributed with the March Newsletter. The team with the best report received 100 points and a trophy. Five (5) points were deducted per place, i.e. 2nd place=95 pts, 3rd place=90pts, etc. Second and third place also received trophies.

• Visual Presentations were judged by a panel made up of event sponsors. The presentations were targeted toward secondary school students and the general public to help them better understand the event. The criteria for the judging was overall visual appeal, clarity of message, and ease of understanding. The Best Visual Presentation received 50 points and an award. Three (3) points were deducted per place.

• Qualifying requires that teams run the qualifying course successfully. Teams using more than one attempt were assessed a penalty based on the number of attempts. The fastest qualifier received 150 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was done using the following formula:

                Fastest Qualifying Time (seconds)
      Points = ---------------------------------- X 150
                    Qualifiers Time (seconds)
     

• Endurance requires teams to travel as far as possible in both of the 2-hour events. The winner of the endurance event was awarded 400 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was done using the following formula:

               Total distance for 2 events (miles)
  Points= ----------------------------------------- X 400
          Winners total distance for 2 events (miles)
     

• Sprint requires teams to cover the 300 meter course in the shortest time. Organized in a series of heats all boats had two heats in which to qualify for the semi-finals. The fastest four boats competed for the Sprint Title. The winner of the sprint event was awarded 300 points and a trophy. Second and third place also received trophies. Scoring was done using the following formula:

           Sum of Winners best two times (seconds)
  Points = --------------------------------------- X 300
               Sum of best two times (seconds)
     

Congratulations to all of the participants in SOLAR SPLASH '96. Several awards and trophies were given out for the various categories of the event. The following is a list of the awards presented.