Update on Photovoltaic Cannon Competition At PESC® '97

Plans are progressing for the new student competition to be held for the first time at PESC '97 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The competition and tentative contest rules were announced in the July 1996 issue of the Newsletter of the Power Electronics Society. The goal of the contest is to use radiant energy from an incandescent lamp to propel a steel ball through the air from a pedestal.

One major change to the rules being considered is to have two categories, commercial photovoltaic cells and cells under development. It is not clear how successful the designs will be and achieving the balance between the projectile dropping lamely on the floor and crashing into the opposite wall may result in some late changes to the time the system is exposed to the light, although the use of a 12-V, 100-W halogen reflector lamp as the source will not change unless there is a major problem.

The latest details may be found at the Web site http://www.ee.ubc.ca/~pelscomp and e-mail about the competition should be sent to pelscomp@ee.ubc.ca or to Dr. W. G. Dunford, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, CANADA, TEL +1-604-822-6660, FAX +1-604-822-5949.

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