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Start Over You searched for: Online Content Includes Digital Content Remove constraint Online Content: Includes Digital Content Collection Solar Car Team (University of Michigan) records, 1985-2009 (majority within 1989-2003) Remove constraint Collection: Solar Car Team (University of Michigan) records, 1985-2009 (majority within 1989-2003)
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1992 Accession

Online

The 1992 Accession of records of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team (4 linear feet) dates from 1989 to 1993 and consists of Visual Materials (videos and a photo album), a series of Binders, student end-of-term Group Reports, and Topical Files (from the Solar Car Team's filing cabinet).

There are two videos within the Visual Materials subseries. The Making of Sunrunner by George Bournias summarizes the creation of Sunrunner and details student participation in the project. The second video is actually a combination of two slide programs: Cut 1: The Sunrunner Down Under and Cut 2: USA and Australia Slide Program. The subseries also includes a photo album containing pictures of team members performing different tasks. Only a small number of the photographs in the album are labeled.

The Binder subseries includes a set of five binders (1 linear foot) maintained by Frank E. Stagg, exterior design group leader. Covering the years 1989 and 1990, these "Sunrunner Books" contain newsletters and bulletins, lecture notes, timelines, budget and sponsor information, wind tunnel data, exterior group agendas, work schedules and weekly goals, Australia race rules and general correspondence.

Also part of this subseries are the "Team Binders" (1 linear foot). These are arranged alphabetically by team function and also date from 1989 to 1990. These materials provide insight into the creation of Sunrunner, highlighting design concepts and testing results.

The Group Reports subseries (1 linear foot) is also arranged alphabetically by team function. This series (dating from 1989 to 1990) includes bound and unbound reports. The level of student reporting ranges from the general "what I learned on this project" to very detailed reports with charts, graphs, and accounts of individual accomplishments.

The Topical Files subseries (.75 linear feet) is arranged alphabetically and consists primarily of materials from the solar car team office filing cabinet. Materials in this series (dating from 1989 to 1990) include lecture notes from Aero Viroment, student applications and biographies, GM Sunrayce USA and World Solar Challenge information, meeting minutes, newsletters and bulletins. Also a part of this series is information relating to a student history project completed in 2001 examining the solar car team from its beginnings in 1989. Included is their final paper and correspondence with former team members about their experiences with the project.

Folder

2007 Accession

Online

The 2007 Accession consists entirely of visual materials, 11 videocassettes in total. The videocassettes have been arranged by solar car. Most of the videocassettes are from the original solar car, Sunrunner. The others are on the second car, Maize & Blue. The topics of the videocassettes range from different races the cars competed in to issue updates on the car to media reports on the cars.

Folder

Website

Online

The Website series consists of two website captures July 23, 2000 (2,193 digital records, 52.1 MB) and April 24, 2009, (91,911 digital files, 708 digital folders).

The July 23, 2000 website capture, transferred via File Transfer Protocol, is comprised of the entire contents of the Solar Car Team website as they appeared on the transfer date. The website includes HTML files, image files, PDF files of newsletters, and four RealAudio files. The original organization and structure of the online files has been preserved in the archived website. Content of links external to the University of Michigan has not been included in the website subseries, though a citation to the original Universal Resource Locator (URL) can be found within the content of the digital records.

The website includes information for public dissemination on Solar Car teams, sponsors, and races. Six of the Solar Car Teams are represented in the website: Sunrunner, Maize & Blue, Solar Vision, Wolverine, MaizeBlaze, and MPulse. Though documentation is available in varying degrees for each team, most team pages include information on the team members, the technical specifications for that team's car, team sponsors, and an extensive collection of photographs of races and events in which the team participated. Of particular interest are the pages for the MaizeBlaze team, which include audio and journal accounts from race team members for the team's entry in the World Solar Challenge.

The website also includes year-by-year information on the Solar Car Team's participation in two major races, the GM Sunrayce and the World Solar Challenge, information for visitors about building solar cars and sponsoring the team, and issues of the team's monthly newsletter. A large number of thumbnail and full-size digitized photographs and digital images, mainly of team members and team activities, are also included.

The Website 2006-2009 subseries features a snapshot of the Solar Car Team's website (http://solarcar.engin.umich.edu/). The website snapshot was harvested by the University Archives staff in April 2009 using the software HTTrack website copier downloaded from: http://www.httrack.com/. The website includes information on the current solar car Infinium (2009). The website is divided into news, sponsors, recruitment information, about us, donation information, and multimedia sections. Information regarding past teams and cars is small. The multimedia section features photographs from 2006 to present of the team, races, and cars. The website is in Drupal; an open source software package freely available for publishing, managing, and organizing a website (http://drupal.org). Blogs are heavily used on the website and the different sections are posted to in a blog format, chronologically from the top down.

Collection

Solar Car Team (University of Michigan) records, 1985-2009 (majority within 1989-2003)

23 linear feet — 1 oversize volume — 94104 digital records (4.06 GB 52.1 MB) — 6 digital video files

Online
The Solar Car Team is an interdisciplinary student organization at the University of Michigan whose objectives are to design, finance, build and race a solar-powered vehicle from scratch. The collection documents the activities and experiences of several generations of the team, including team organization, design, fundraising, construction, testing and racing.

The records of the various U-M Solar Car projects have been received in multiple accessions and are generally described by accession. Accessions are typically organized around specific vehicles, but do contain material carried over from previous cars and races reflecting the fact that students learned from and built on the work of previous teams. For this reason, researchers are advised to review all accessions. The records contain a wide variety of documentation on the design, building, financing and racing of the solar cars and administrative and project management records.

Records include group reports; topical files; and binders containing newsletters and bulletins, and administrative and technical information for the cars; also included are videocassettes detailing design, building, and racing of the Sunrunner solar-powered automobile; photographs and albums of snapshots of team members performing general team tasks and captures of the Solar Car Team website.