Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Scrutineering day 1
The team arrived safely in Austin, Texas and so did the car, no worse for wear.
Day 1 saw the team get an early 5:50 AM start at scrutineering. This event is proving to be a test of physical endurance. Students from the most prestigious Universities are seen sleeping on the bare concrete floor, exhausted from working round the clock. It's 40 degrees Celsius with 50% humidity. Fortunately, the pit area is under a tent cover, otherwise it would be unbearable.
Regardless, Day 1 went fairly well. The team passed the array station, only requiring some lock-wiring of a few fasteners to pass. At the body station, the car still needs to get the turn and brake signals going, but these too are minor problems. Everyone is in good spirits, working long, arduous hours to get the car qualified.
Day 2 will see the electrical battery protection and driver scrutineering stations. This test is critical and Fred, the team's electrical guru, has not slept well in anticipation.
The cars and teams from the other schools are quite amazing. There's an unusual collection of very bright and talented people. There's also some comfort in seeing most schools working around the clock like the Red River team to get the cars ready for scrutineering.
No one passed any of the dynamic tests on Monday, including the strongest team from the 2003 competition, University of Missouri-Rolla. There may need to be some changes to the slalom and brake tests to make them more realistically feasible.
So basically, things are going fairly well. Let's hope it's the same for the next 4 days.
Day 1 saw the team get an early 5:50 AM start at scrutineering. This event is proving to be a test of physical endurance. Students from the most prestigious Universities are seen sleeping on the bare concrete floor, exhausted from working round the clock. It's 40 degrees Celsius with 50% humidity. Fortunately, the pit area is under a tent cover, otherwise it would be unbearable.
Regardless, Day 1 went fairly well. The team passed the array station, only requiring some lock-wiring of a few fasteners to pass. At the body station, the car still needs to get the turn and brake signals going, but these too are minor problems. Everyone is in good spirits, working long, arduous hours to get the car qualified.
Day 2 will see the electrical battery protection and driver scrutineering stations. This test is critical and Fred, the team's electrical guru, has not slept well in anticipation.
The cars and teams from the other schools are quite amazing. There's an unusual collection of very bright and talented people. There's also some comfort in seeing most schools working around the clock like the Red River team to get the cars ready for scrutineering.
No one passed any of the dynamic tests on Monday, including the strongest team from the 2003 competition, University of Missouri-Rolla. There may need to be some changes to the slalom and brake tests to make them more realistically feasible.
So basically, things are going fairly well. Let's hope it's the same for the next 4 days.
