With help from ESPRIT 2005 CAM software by DP Technology Corp, Stanford University engineering and science students will be cruising their way up the United States, from Austin, TX to Alberta, Canada, taking solar power to new speeds this summer.

Student-run and donation-funded, the Stanford Solar Car Project has been building and racing solar-powered vehicles since 1986. Stanford Solar provides hands-on experience for students in various fields of study and educates groups both on and off campus.

This year the Solar Car Project team will race Solstice, a one-person vehicle. The team was able to construct a more reliable and analytically advanced vehicle than in past years with help from DP, the team's platinum sponsor, who outfitted the university with ESPRIT software licenses in order to give them an edge on precision manufacturing. (Shown here, Stanford's '03 car, named Back2Back Burner.)

"What we ended up doing was to use ESPRIT to program tool paths and examine how easy it was to manufacture particular components on our car," said team member Brian Cheung. "We optimized a lot of our design using ESPRIT. It is easy to design something that can't be manufactured, but ESPRIT gave us a more practical view of our parts."

Using ESPRIT, the students were able to take the parts that they designed, translate them into G-code and send them to machine shops that volunteered to make the car parts.

"We're excited that we are able to help the Stanford students take their solar-powered car to new heights," said Chuck Mathews, vice president of DP Technology. "We are committed to advancing education in the manufacturing industry as well as energy efficiency in the future. With ESPRIT and solar power, technology is working at its finest."

The team will compete in the North American Solar Challenge from July 17-27 with hopes of winning the event for the first time. Stanford has competed in the every-other-year race since 1990 and placed third in 1997.