Photovoltaic Cannon Competition at PESC '97

There will be a new attraction for the Power Electronics Specialists Conference that will be featured at next year's conference in St. Louis, MO, USA (see page 4 of this Newsletter). At the June meeting of the PELS Administrative Committee at PESC '96 in Baveno, Italy, approval was given to institute a student competition for a photovoltaic cannon. Here are some of the details of the contest.

Any full- or part-time IEEE student member is eligible to enter the competition. Each competing team must be accompanied by a faculty advisor to be nominated at the time of entry. Each team will receive two free student registrations to PESC '97.

The goal of the contest is to use radiant energy from an incandescent lamp to propel a 25.4-centimeter (1-inch) , 67.4-gram steel ball through the air from a two-meter pedestal, obtaining the maximum possible range after the best of three attempts.

The complete rules for the contest will be available at http://www.ee.ubc.ca/~pelscomp. Comments and suggestions for modification may be made up to October 25, 1996. A final set of rules will be published on November 1, 1996.

Tentative specifications for the device to be constructed by the student teams include

(1) The device must not have any initial stored energy of any kind, for either propulsion or control purposes, but the initial position of the ball within the device can be chosen by the contestant.

(2) The device will be placed within a plexiglass cube of 20-centimeter internal sides. This will be provided at the contest.

(3) No part of the device apart from the ball may extend outside this cube at any time.

(4) An external means of turning off the device and dissipating any stored energy must be provided.

(5) A lighttight cover will be placed over the cube and the device enabled.

(6) The cover will be removed and the front side raised to a horizontal position.

(7) The ball must be ejected within 15 seconds, at which time the front cover will be closed.

(8) The distance traveled is determined by the perpendicular distance from the front edge of the cube to the first point of impact of the ball.

(9) The order of contestants will be determined by drawing lots. Three rounds will follow in the same order. Failure to provide the boxed device within two minutes of being called will result in a score of zero for that round.

(10) The energy device will consist of ambient light plus a 100-watt incandescent lamp with reflector situated one meter above the center of the top face of the cube.

Entries should be forward by e-mail to W. G. Dunford (wgd@ee.ubc.ca) by June 8, 1997. The entry should include the names and affiliations of the team members. At the conference at least one team member and the faculty adviser must be present and provide a one-page description of the device. This will be made public.

With respect to assessment and prizes, the judges's decisions are final. After the judges are satisfied that the spirit of the zero-initial-energy rule has been met, the sole criterion for judgment will be the horizontal distance in the forward direction traveled by the ball. Any launch which does not occur within the one-minute time limit will count as zero.

All teams will receive two free student registrations for PESC '97. The winning team will receive a cash prize of $500, with second place receiving $250.

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