High school solar car team in search of a mentor

[itnithand]

I am the captain of a high school solar car team in the Washington DC area. We were founded last year, and are currently building our second solar car to compete in the Solar Car Challenge, a national competition in Texas. One of the biggest issues we are constantly battling is our lack of experience. The only one of us that has any experience working on cars at all before this is our advisor, but he has limited experience as well and he’s only one person. We are hoping that someone in the DC area has more experience than us and could come to meetings and help us out, basically act as a team mentor. Thanks in advance!

 

[russ_watters]

I am the captain of a high school solar car team in the Washington DC area. We were founded last year, and are currently building our second solar car to compete in the Solar Car Challenge, a national competition in Texas. One of the biggest issues we are constantly battling is our lack of experience. The only one of us that has any experience working on cars at all before this is our advisor, but he has limited experience as well and he’s only one person. We are hoping that someone in the DC area has more experience than us and could come to meetings and help us out, basically act as a team mentor. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to PF!

We aren't really fans of open-ended solicitations here, but more to the point, this tactic is extremely unlikely to be successful. What you should be doing instead of the digital equivalent of stapling flyers to telephone poles is directly contacting potential mentors. That takes more work because it requires research and custom/direct contact, but it is vastly more likely to be successful.

 

[OmCheeto]

I would contact the following group:

Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington, D.C

Education

EVA/DC actively supports educational efforts including local high school and elementary school EV competitions, where students gain valuable hands on experience in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).​

I've been a follower of a local EV association for at least 10 years, and they've always been happy to answer my questions.

 

[itnithand]

Welcome to PF!

We aren't really fans of open-ended solicitations here, but more to the point, this tactic is extremely unlikely to be successful. What you should be doing instead of the digital equivalent of stapling flyers appsync.biz/speed-test[/color] appsync.biz/scrabble-word-finder[/color] appsync.biz/solitaire[/color] to telephone poles is directly contacting potential mentors. That takes more work because it requires research and custom/direct contact, but it is vastly more likely to be successful.

Thank you so much
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[berkeman]

I am the captain of a high school solar car team in the Washington DC area.

Is the competition only open to high school groups, or do some university groups participate? Have you checked your local universities to see if they have active ASME student groups, and if any of them are working on cars? You might be able to tap into some of their resources if you politely approach their groups...

https://www.asme.org/events/competitions/student-design-competition