Welcome to the official website for the Australian International Model Solar Challenge.

2011 AIMSC Event
The 2011 national event was held in hobart, Tasmania, on the 26th and 27th November.

Congratulations to all the teams that participated. Also, a big thankyou to all the sponsers, teachers and everyone that helped out.

The results and photos will be uploaded over the coming days.

More details here

WA SUNSHINE ENSURES HIGH SPEEDS IN AUSTRALIAN MODEL SOLAR CHALLENGE
Paul Wellington, Chair, AIMSC.

Thanks to amazingly bright skies and solar power of up to 1.1KW per square metre, Western Australian teams made good use of their local experience by winning both the Car and the Junior Boat events in the 2010 Australian Model Solar Challenge final held in Fremantle on November 27th and 28th.

Thirty two cars from each Australian state and the NT competed on the track with 16 entries in the Junior Boat Challenge and 11 in the Advanced. The cars included the top 4 cars from most states with extra wildcard entries being provided when the anticipated entries from Iran and Taiwan were unable to come at the last minute. There had been 3 regional events in Taiwan, but unfortunately a typhoon caused 2 of them to be postponed, leaving insufficient time for the teams to obtain visas.

Download and read AIMSC 2010 Report (PDF)

Over the last sixteen years tens of thousands of Australian high school and primary students have participated in this hands-on science program. Each student experiences the excitement of competition and, almost without knowing it, fills his or her mind with knowledge.

The competitive spirit is an effective motivator and science, engineering and design & technology teachers all over Australia have classes filled with extraordinarily enthusiastic students building model solar cars and boats. Not only is the learning fun but the learning outcomes are tremendous. Teachers report how students motivated by the competition build an intuitive knowledge of the sciences that permeates the classroom.

It may be surprising but winning the national competition doesn't mean that you had the fastest or best model solar car on the day. Each team is interviewed and is given points for the answers to science based question illustrating the team's understanding of how solar cells work, how motors turn electricity into motion and why and how gears are used. The team is then interviewed regarding the merits and trade-offs of their design. A poster describing the team's work is also scored. At the end of the event these points are added to points given for the car's performance in the race and the winning team is the one with the most points.

Model solar boats are ideal for the younger students. These are far simpler to build but the thrill of competition and the learning outcomes are just as great.

The national event brings together all of the Australian state and territory champions and, when financially possible, the champions of Viet Nam and Argentina. We are always looking to add more countries to our list of participating countries.

On the personal side, I have the privilege of having taught university students who have come through this program. This is a remarkable and fulfilling experience seeing these students in my classes.

Lastly, we are greatly appreciative of funding from our sponsors. It is only through the generous support of our national sponsors that this work can be done.

Paul Wellington
AIMSC Chair

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Monash University

For more AIMSCC related information please click here to go to the Tasmanian Solar Challenge website.