The Solar Splash has been established to promote interest in Science and Technology, Education, and Personal Interactive Skills. Established for collegians, it gives students an opportunity to apply theory to a practical project in a team environment. The Solar Splash itself serves as an opportunity for students to compete and showcase their accomplishments. Although it is an intercollegiate competition, high school teams who demonstrate competence may be included.

"Solar-powered boats speeding into the future" is the theme of the competition. Cal Poly Pomona's AVC has been involved in this competition since 2001. This project involves hours of research, simulation, disussions, labor, sleep depreviation, learning, and of course fun. This project brings together all majors as they communicate and work with one another in order to accomplish a common goal.

The common goal is to be able to learn and have fun while given all that the chance to win against other schools with similar goals. It is a never ending project waiting to be experienced by students.

Statistics for the Past Solar Splash Competitions

Solar Splash 2006
Qualifying Event: 232.03 sec
Slalom Event: 181.25 sec (15^th)
Endurance Event: 25.75 laps (9^th)
300M Sprint Event: 250.77 sec (12^th)
Overall Results: 12^th out of 15 schools
Total Points: 446.87/1000


Solar Splash 2005
Qualifying Event: 100.90 sec
Slalom Event: 88.82 sec (9^th)
Endurance Event: 51.75 laps (5^th)
300M Sprint Event: 68.77 sec (4^th)
Overall Results: 3^rd out of 16 schools
Total Points: 761.9/1000
Awards: Overall 3^th Place, Visual Display 2^nd Place


Solar Splash 2004
Qualifying Event: 113.02 sec
Slalom Event: DNF
Endurance Event: 32.75 laps (12^th)
300M Sprint Event: 58.81 sec (2^th)
Overall Results: 11^rd out of 17 schools
Total Points: 625.14/1000
Awards: Sprint 2^nd Place


Solar Splash 2003
Qualifying Event: 145.48 sec
Slalom Event: 36.28 sec (1^st)
Endurance Event: 77.86 laps (11^th)
300M Sprint Event: 72.94 sec (6^th)
Overall Results: 7^th out of 17 schools
Total Points: 684.38/1000
Awards: Overall 7^th Place, Solar Slalom 1^st Place

Solar Splash 2002
Qualifying Event: 97.91 sec
Slalom Event: 43.14 sec (1^st)
Endurance Event: 38.75 laps (4^th)
300M Sprint Event: 72.94 sec (5^th)
Overall Results: 3^rd out of 17 schools
Total Points: 755.95/1000
Awards: Overall 3^rd Place, Solar Slalom 1^st Place, Technical Report 3^rd Place, Outstanding Solar System Design

Solar Splash 2001
Qualifying Event: 148.26 sec
Slalom Event: 77.87 sec (6^th)
Endurance Event: 32 laps (12^th)
300M Sprint Event: 255.88 sec (13^th)
Overall Results: 13^th out of 16 schools
Total Points: 440.34/1000
Awards: Sportsmanship

The Hybrid vehicle was built in 1992 by Prof Banwell and some Cal Poly students. Every part of the car execpt its Honda Transmission and Honda Suspension was made by the students and Professor Banwell.

After the students graduated, there was a lack of committed students, Prof Banwell decided to retire the vehicle to his garage where it sat for 8 years.

During the summer of 2001, some students from AV decided to take the hybrid out of its retirement and get it running again as a learning experience and Public Relations vehicle.

The car has been cleaned up, refurbished with new batteries, electrical integrety checked, and oil changed, and is now ready for the real overhall.

The goals are to paint the current body for display purposes, Plexiglass panels to see the inner workings of the car, design and manufacture a new body for the car, install digital gages, improve upper frame design and come up with a more effiecient generator. We'll most likely think of more things to do to it as the year progresses.

After we have learned as much as we can, our goal is to design and build a NEW hybrid vehicle for Cal Poly Pomona and find a competition for it.

The Isuzu Impulse electric vehicle is a two-seat vehicle that uses a 15Hp electric drive for propulsion. The vehicle features a fully programmable motor controller that monitors RPM's, electrical current output, and various other drive system components. The vehicle holds 30 12-volt lead-acid gel pack batteries which delivers 300 volts to the vehicle’s drive system. Gel-pack batteries are ideal for electric vehicles from the standpoint of safety because they can be mounted in any orientation (i.e.- sideways or inverted) and will not leak battery acid if punctured. Other features include a clutchless manual transmission and regenerative braking. No top speed has been determined, but the vehicle has been driven up to 65 mph. The Isuzu's maximum range is 17 miles.

The vehicle was originally converted, tested, and operated by the APEX Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) team after it was donated to them by Isuzu. It was nicknamed "the mule" and used for extensive testing of electric drives operated by the team. The vehicle was put into "mothball" storage after the APEX team shutdown sometime in 1995. In the fall of 1999, it was restored for operation and testing for possible conversion to an HEV.

Future plans for the Isuzu Impulse electric vehicle involve improving performance and range characteristics. Power output from the drive system is expected to increase up to 30Hp and maximum range will be expected to reach 30 to 40 miles. Further modifications are to be made in regards to safety. The battery compartment will be modified to protect passengers from batteries falling on them in the event of a rollover accident and from hydrogen gassing that could come from the batteries. Re-orientation of the new battery compartment will also change the vehicle’s center of gravity to give it more stability and improve handling.

Additional plans for the Isuzu include conversion to an HEV. A 20Hp Honda V-Twin engine and General Electric aircraft generator have been obtained to assemble an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) to facilitate the vehicle’s conversion. After HEV conversion, the vehicle is expected to get 40 to 50 mpg and travel 200 to 300 miles on 5 gallons of gasoline. The graphic to the left is an approximation of the configuration as a hybrid.

The S-10 was donated to the Alternative Vehicle Club from Southern California's Tech Center in Pomona. The truck had been used as a test vehicle, but it's battery pack was destroyed and unusable when we got it. Since then we were able to extract the old melted battery packs from the front and rear battery trays and replace the original 36 batteries with 12 marine batteries donated from PowerFlow.

The S-10 project is converting the electric truck into a natural gas powered hybrid-electric vehicle. The reason for the conversion to a hybrid-electric is to increase the range and our choice of natural gas as the fuel is because of it's clean-burning characteristics and availability on campus.

The truck is currently being used as a pure electric vehicle for the agricultural engineering maintenance department on weekdays and our test vehicle on weekends. The final conversion will consist of an internal combustion engine and generator mounted on a skid in the bed of the truck for easy removal and natural gas canisters.