Rector meets with Antakari team, runner-up of the World Solar Challenge 2013

solar car meeting

The meeting served to schedule the competitions in which the team will participate in 2014.

As part of the programming of 2014 activities, members of the Antakari team, runner-up in the 2013 World Solar Challenge in Australia, met with the Rector of the University of La Serena, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés Pizarro. 

On the occasion, the delegation led by the director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Ricardo Castillo, presented the new challenges that motivate the intense work of the team these days, which seeks to give life to a new 4-wheeled solar car that It will be called IK3. 

Furthermore, as Dr. Castillo announced, within the framework of this same project, an initiative is being planned to consolidate a line of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy NCRE with public and private support.

In this regard, the Rector of the ULS, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, emphasized that ''the work carried out by the Antakari team in recent years has allowed us to become a world-leading University in the use of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy. applied to solar cars, which has led to the development of knowledge, technology and innovation in this matter,'' he emphasized.

The Rector added that ''the objective now is to consolidate this positioning that we have achieved, developing new projects that aim to advance along this same line, perfecting the work already done, given this project is an initiative with an institutional seal that has our full support. '', emphasized the authority.

The team detailed that for this year they are already working on a new prototype with which they hope to participate in the Atacama Solar Race 2014, in alliance with collaborating companies, among which Minera Los Pelambres and other mining companies in the Coquimbo Region stand out. 

The new model will be 4 wheels and will have an even more aerodynamic design, highlighting the 20% reduction in the total weight of the car, with which it is expected to compete and maintain national and global positioning.

The team in charge of presenting the project to the highest university authority was made up of engineers Mario Cáceres, Mauricio Godoy and Daniel Garrido, academics from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as students Pablo Esquivel and David Bravo from the Civil Engineering majors. Mechanics and Industrial Civil Engineering, respectively.