UA Engineering Students Turn Up the Heat
Teams from ENGR 102 gathered outside the Arizona State Museum and used the sun's energy to power solar ovens they had designed and built in what course organizers billed as a "solar oven throw down."
One team achieved an oven temperature of 571 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was too hot for the oven materials, which smoked and smoldered under the intense heat. The cookie dough that had been placed in the oven was reduced to a blackened cinder.
Heat isn't everything in this contest, however, and the best-in-show award went to a team named "Engineering Gone Wild." Solar ovens were judged based on creativity, functionality, and aesthetics.
Engineering Gone Wild consists of students Kyle Laursen, Trevor Leahy, Alex Moser, Eric Moser, and Sree Prathipati. Adjunct lecturer Jennifer Horner of the systems and industrial engineering department supervised the team.
"This event is important because it wraps up a 6-week unit on solar energy and mathematical modeling to develop a prediction for what temperature these ovens will reach," Horner said.