Campus Fair
WHAT’S NEW TO DO?
Exhibits run gamut from environment to entertainment
Campus Fair 2007, Saturday June 9, 10 am to 4 pm
www.ucalgary.ca/campusfair
By Kate Davis
From recycling garbage to making movies, Arctic animals to international music, there are a host of new and exciting exhibits at this year’s Campus Fair.
At the Campus Infrastructure and Campus Planning booth, the focus is on recycling and the environment. Kids can race each other to fill recycling bins and remove compostables from (simulated, non-toxic) garbage, or design a building project using recycled materials from the University of Calgary.
Visitors can also learn what their footprint on the environment is, and find out how their activities affect the world.
In celebration of a new film studies program that will launch in September, the Faculty of Communication and Culture will help children discover their “inner star.” At this new exhibit, young visitors can watch a superhero movie at the mini movie theatre, eat some free popcorn and then dress up and act out their own superhero fantasies on a live movie set.
At the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine booth, live lung worms found in muskoxen in the Canadian Arctic will be on display, and visitors can run their fingers through muskoxen pelts and have their picture taken with a polar bear (sort of.)
Also new this year, the Centre for International Students and Study Abroad (CISSA) has partnered with the International Centre and International Marketing and Recruitment to present “U of C Around the World.” This exhibit will feature music from many nations, amazing photos from the annual international photo contest, international games and crafts, and displays about the U of C’s projects and partnerships around the world. Drop by and see what the U of C is doing in places like Ecuador, Ghana, Japan and Yemen.
Son of Soleon
Team’s on track with design of next-generation solar car
By Kate Davis
In September 2004, a team of students from faculties across campus came together to design and build the University of Calgary’s first-ever solar car for the 2005 North American Solar Car Challenge.
They had less than one year to accomplish what most other universities take at least two years to do: build and test a world-class, solar-powered vehicle that could compete with 27 cars from institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and Purdue.
U of C was the best rookie team the race had ever seen—outperforming veteran teams, passing safety and scrutineering tests with flying colours and finishing the race, which is considered a major accomplishment in itself. At more than 4,000 kilometres, the North American Solar Car Challenge is the longest solar car race in the world.
Today, the team is on track with the design and construction of a new car for the 2007 Panasonic World Solace Challenge, which races from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia, in October.
With the new car comes new and improved changes. While the driver of the old car had to be almost lying down, the new design will allow the driver to sit more upright. The technology of the car has also been enhanced—rather than using silicon solar cells, this year the car will rely on gallium arsenide solar cells, similar to those typically used on satellites.
The manufacturing of the aeroshell (the outside skin of the car) has also been taken on by the team, instead of contracted out, giving its engineers the opportunity to learn about manufacturing first-hand.
As the team gears up for its next race, members will be out and about on campus and on local roads training drivers.
If you’d like to see the U of C’s new solar car up close, don’t miss its exhibit at Campus Fair on June 9. It will feature last year’s car Soleon, a mini solar-car race track and a wind tunnel that demonstrates solar car aerodynamics.