24 September 2007

UNSW’s record-breaking solar car racers, Sunswift, have taken out one of the state’s most prestigious engineering prizes at the 2007 Engineers Australia Engineering Excellence Awards.

The Sunswift project took out the Excellence award in the Welfare, Health, Safety, Education and Training category of the Engineering Excellence Awards in Sydney last Friday, delivering a massive boost to Sunswift’s dedicated volunteers as they prepare for the World Solar Challenge.

“It’s absolutely huge – it’s brilliant,” Sunswift project leader Yael Augarten said after the win was announced at a black tie awards dinner at the Westin Hotel.

“They are saying, basically, that our project is the best education and training project in NSW and it’s run by students.”

One of the three judges in the category won by Sunswift, consulting engineer Dr Chris Simpson, said the team had demonstrated a strong work and training ethic and enormous self-discipline.

“You had a lot of people who were welded into a successful team,” Dr Simpson said.

“They were doing something with a sense of enthusiasm and it was achieved by sheer force of personality.”

The Sunswift team is now in the final stages of preparation for the 2007 World Solar Challenge, a 3000km race from Darwin to Adelaide which will start on October 21.

Sunswift recently launched their 2007 campaign at UNSW, with Jaycar Electronics once again behind the team as major sponsor.

The team unveiled the latest incarnation of the Jaycar Sunswift III, which they have managed to lighten by 15kg to around 205kgs this year despite having to enlarge the driver’s canopy to comply with new helmet requirements.