THE DESIGN PROCESS
You will experience first-hand the process of design. When you design your car,
you will start with some ideas in your head and turn them into real-life models
that work. Design is different than normal problem-solving because:
- you don't know what the problems are (you discover and solve problems
as you go along - everyone's challenges will be different)
- there is never one right answer
Designers have to deal with tradeoffs. For example, when a car designer uses a
larger engine for greater performance, it usally sacrifices fuel efficiency.
In a sports car, performance and speed are very important. But in a city car,
fuel efficiency is more important. So it is up to the designer to decide which
are the most important goals.
Even though there is no one right answer, some answers may be better than
others for a particular application. Obviously, in Junior Solar Sprint, the
faster carswill win. But remember strategy can be a big factor - there are
variables like the amount of sunshine that may influence your decisions.
GETTING STARTED
You will receive short handouts on a variety of subjects from how to build the
wheels to how the solar cell works. These handouts will cover the following
topics:
- CHASSIS: How to build the fram of the car.
- WHEELS & BEARINGS: How to make wheels that turn.
- TRANSMISSIONS: How to transfer power from the motor
to the wheels.
- MOTORS & POWER SOURCE: How the solar panel and motor work.
- BODY SHELL: How the shell effects car performance.
In general, when you design, it is good to keep the different parts in mind,
but don't worry about the details of each component until you are ready for them.
Each handout subject will be contain 5 sections:
- PURPOSE
- IDEAS
- CONCEPTS
- SUGGESTED MATERIALS
- EXPERIMENTS AND INVESTIGATIONS
The concept section will raise issues that will help you decide how to make
the right decisions and build the winning car.
Experiment as much as possible early on and don't worry about making mistakes.
It is always the case with design that you don't know what the problems are
until you encounter them. Use what you build for investigations as prototypes
for your car to test and evaluate the idea. So get your hands dirty and get
started! Good luckand have fun.