Some of the proud members of the Midnight Sun VIII team: from left, Matt Ellis, Willem Petersen, Mark Podbevsek, David Goldsmith, Jessica Whitney, Mashael Yazdanie, Emilie Smith, Silvia Pascual, Chris Parisien, Julien Plourde, Daniel Yum, Fabian Stiebert, and Greg Thompson.

Midnight Sun revs up for North American Solar Challenge
-- from UW Media Relations

After two years of intensive preparation, the University of Waterloo's solar car team revved its engine for the green flag Sunday at the 2005 North American Solar Challenge

Midnight Sun VIII, developed by the UW Midnight Sun Solar Race Car Team, went through its paces at qualifying scrutineering sessions last week in preparation for the challenge -- a gruelling 2,500-mile (4,022-kilometre) race that started yesterday in Austin, Texas and ends July 27 in Calgary, Alberta. It will follow U.S. Route 75 and the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1). 

The challenge, which enters Canada for the first time, will test the ability of 25-plus university teams to journey on just the power of the sun across six American states and three Canadian provinces. The car with the fastest cumulative time wins.

The race is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Natural Resources Canada. A total of five Canadian teams will compete in the challenge, including UW.

The cars are propelled by electricity that's generated by sunlight. No external power source can be used to charge batteries. Instead, the racers use solar, or photovoltaic, cells to convert sunlight into electricity. That means weather and energy management will play an important role in the race. The more sunlight available, the faster the cars will run and the more energy can be stored in their batteries. But in any weather, the teams must make strategic energy management decisions to maximize their sunlight "fuel."

Typical aerodynamic designs for the one-person vehicles make them look more like spacecraft than conventional passenger vehicles. The cars typically are low, sleek and colourful, with solar cells covering much of the car body.

The UW race team underwent several scrutineering sessions last Monday to Wednesday. The stations inspected the mechanical, electrical, battery protection, body and sizing, array, driver, support vehicle and dynamic qualities of the solar car.

Midnight Sun VIII has incorporated many new technical improvements, making it the team's most advanced car to date. The vehicle has been designed and constructed with a higher-efficiency solar array, higher-energy density batteries, improved aerodynamics and a more reliable mechanical system than its predecessor.

At the 2003 American Solar Challenge, Midnight Sun VII placed third overall -- the top Canadian team -- and won the technical innovation award. Also, Midnight Sun VII broke the world record for the longest distance travelled by a solar car in August 2004. The UW team has competed in every major North American solar vehicle race since 1990 and is the largest student-run project at UW.

Music duo tour Korea and Africa

UW music professor Carol Ann Weaver and her musical partner, Canadian singer-songwriter Rebecca Campbell, are back from an international trip, performing in both Korea and South Africa.

Weaver (left) and Campbell caught en route

A news release from Conrad Grebel University College, where they're based, says they visited Seoul, Korea, June 19 to 24, where they attended the 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women: Women's Worlds 2005. In the Welch-Ryang Auditorium at Ewha Woman's University, they presented the theme song for the conference, "Embracing the Earth", composed by Weaver in collaboration with Korean film composer Yong Jin Jeong, and performed by a team of professional Korean singers who joined Campbell. The performance was broadcast live on national Korean TV and radio and was distributed on CD to all 2,000-plus conference attendees."

Weaver and Campbell were also asked to present a lecture-performance, "Piece of a Rock and Awakenings -- Women's Hope in Response to War and Death." Weaver also presented a paper dealing with women's responses to war and death within the context of hope.

Says Weaver: "It was common to look across the sea of racially and socially diverse women, many dressed in traditional garb, and to hear a wide range of languages, accents, and varying manners of communication. What brought all these women together was some sort of mutual dream of creating and discovering a new world in which we can live in harmony with each other and with mother earth."

The two also traveled to Durban, South Africa, to perform and research African music and explore the potential for a travel and study music course for UW and Grebel students. They performed in three settings -- the Alliance Française, where they presented an entirely French concert including some of their own songs, newly translated; the Rivets Jazz Venue; and the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music at the University of KwaZulu Natal, where they were joined by a band of South African musicians for a concert of jazz-related music composed by the pair. For Weaver, this was a re-forming of her South African "Dancing River Band," consisting of stellar South African jazz musicians. Weaver's new instrumental composition, Tsetse Fly Dance, was premiered here, featuring lead saxophonist Jeff Robinson.

Says the news release: "The pair also attended the famous all-night Isicathamiya male vocal competition, which is legendary for its preservation of the original male part-singing from vocal groups all over Natal province. This a cappella male music, made world-famous by Paul Simon's promotion of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, fuses repetitive melodic patterns with rhythmic layers that create a vibrant texture unique to choral music.

"Scholars, ethnomusicologists, and music enthusiasts flock to Durban in hope of hearing this music. Although women do not sing, their primary role is to persuade the male singers into musical frenzy by their stylized, ritualistic movements, sexual references, gestures and vocalizations."

Of global change and international chic

A new course on global environmental change, with a special focus on the Grand River watershed, starts this fall. This course is cross-listed as Geography, Planning, and ERS, but is available to third- and fourth-year students across the university. "Lectures offer theory and experience at the global scale on issues such as water quality and quantity, climate change, forests and biodiversity, urbanization, air quality and watershed governance," says the description. The regional perspective is provided by Towards a Grand Sense of Place, a book by Gordon Nelson, Barb Veale, and others. More information at ext. 3619 or ext. 3066, or ssolomon@fes.uwaterloo.ca.

And if you ever doubted UW's coolness quotient, check out this tidbit on Style.com (online site of Vogue and M magazines). "Maybe you haven't heard of Waterloo, Ontario, but the HR departments at Apple, IBM, and Microsoft are quite familiar with this city of 110,000 people… and one world-renowned engineering college. Its geeky graduates are invading Silicon Valley, but increasing numbers are staying local to work at hometown hero Research in Motion. Haven't heard of RIM, either? You will, as the company's flagship product, a little gizmo called the BlackBerry, establishes Waterloo as a capital of the wireless world."

Racy news from UW's Formula SAE Team who participated in the Formula Student Competition in Leicestershire,  England last week. With William Chan (BASc. ’05, Mechanical), driving, the F2005 set the fastest lap time of 50.04 seconds in the endurance/fuel economy event, "well ahead  of the 54- to 55-second lap time range posted by Toronto, the eventual overall winner of the competition," says a report posted on the team's website. Waterloo passed every car that started before it, including Toronto, prompting comments from the event announcer such as, "Another cracking lap from Waterloo! Those Canadians really know how to build a race car!" Unfortunately, a cooling system malfunction knocked the F2005 out of the race. "Disappointing result but we all enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and learned a great deal," writes Chan.

From Amit Chakma, vice-president, academic and provost comes notice that the Dean of Science Nominating Committee constituted under the terms of Policy 45 is now in place and has held its first meeting. "You are invited to provide, by August 12, your comments / views concerning the reappointment of George Dixon or the deanship in general, to any member of the Nominating Committee identified below; if you prefer, your submission may be directed to the Committee Secretary, Trenny Canning, Secretariat in Needles Hall (tcanning@ uwaterloo.ca; fax 519-888-6337). However you respond, your comments will be held in confidence within the Committee."  Members of the committee are:
 Jim Barker, Earth Sciences [x2103, jfbarker @uwaterloo.ca]
 Melanie Campbell, Physics [x6273; mcampbel @uwaterloo.ca]
 Jean Duhamel, Chemistry [x5916; jduhamel @uwaterloo.ca]
 Lyndon Jones, Optometry [x5030; lwjones @uwaterloo.ca]
 Kirsten Muller, Biology [x2224; kmmuller @uwaterloo.ca]
 Guenter Scholtz, Physics [x2213; scholz @uwaterloo.ca]
 Gail Cuthbert Brandt, Associate Vice-President, Academic [x5466; gcbrandt @uwaterloo.ca]
 Andrea Carthew, Staff Member, Optometry [x6319; acarthew @uwaterloo.ca]
 Christine Tauer-Martin, Staff Member, Counselling [x7766; ctauerma @uwaterloo.ca]
 Ryan Hutchins, Undergraduate Student, Earth Sciences [x5083; r2hutchi@ uwaterloo.ca]
 Craig Robertson, Graduate Student, Chemistry [x4615; cmrobert @uwaterloo.ca]

C&PA