Over 100 stakeholders from industry, academia, and government came together on Friday 25 November 2016 for a networking and sponsorship night for the Australian National University (ANU) entry in the 2017 Bridgestone World Solar Car Challenge.

With the Challenge less than a year away, support for the ANU Solar Car entry, Sol Invictus, has been growing, with the team securing sponsorships from organisations including Shoal, Deloitte, Tindo Solar and Nova Systems. The design of the team’s entry has also been finalised, and was unveiled on the night.

At the event, ACT Minister for Education, Corrections, Justice and Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, Shane Rattenbury pledged his support for the team, as well as CEO of Shoal, Shaun Wilson and the Vice-Chancellor of Innovation at ANU, Professor Michael Cardew-Hall.

“The team has grown in numbers over the past year, and with funding goals nearly completed, we are 120% sure we will both compete and finish the 2017 Bridgestone world Solar Challenge and put the ANU engineers on the global stage,” said Alan Babaei, 2016 Sol Invictus Team Lead.  

The World Solar Car Challenge is a solar racing competition. Teams from across the world design and construct cars, with the aim of completing the race with the highest average speed, using sunlight and recovered kinetic energy as their only sources of fuel.

The 3,000km route runs from Darwin to Adelaide and is held from 8 – 15 October 2017.

Read more: ANU students to join the World Solar Challenge