Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are testing a high-tech car on the world stage.
Engineering students at the state’s flagship university have built Argo, a solar powered car. The car is now in Australia and will compete in the annual Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in a few weeks. It’s an annual competition where solar cars travel 18-hundred miles across the Australian outback.
Rafael Ridao was one of around 40 engineering students who built the car. He says the Solar Challenge isn’t a race, just finishing is a triumph.
“If you can finish there, it just affirms then that just affirms everything about your team—skills, craftsmanship, engineering," Ridao said.
The challenge begins October 8 and ends October 13. While Ridao says students have entered the car in national challenges, he and his colleagues are excited to see how the car handles extreme conditions in Australia.