Record numbers applying for JU Solar Team

After the JU Solar Team's success in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia last autumn, a record number of students want to be part of Jönköping University's (JU's) new solar car team.

“It will be great fun and it will develop me for working life,” says Alma Jonsson, student at the School of Engineering (JTH) at Jönköping University (JU).

JU Solar Team was seventh in the world and best in Sweden in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, which took place at the end of October last year. This has not gone unnoticed. For this round of the solar car project, twice as many students both applied and were accepted onto the first course of the project. The final number of applicants was 37. The majority of them are from JTH, but the interest in being part of the JU Solar Team is found among students at all four of JU's schools.

"Different types of competences"

“It is probably due to the fact that we did well in Australia, but also because of the opportunity to be part of a unique project. The students get a realistic experience of project work, construction work and testing. In addition, the car must be financed, transported and, not least, functional, which requires collaboration with different types of competences,” says Dag Raudberget, who together with Magnus Andersson is a course teacher on the solar car project at JTH.

Multiple purposes

Those involved are enjoying being up and running again with a new round of the solar car project. Added to this is the satisfaction of seeing the new students motivated and eager to construct a new and even better solar car. The solar car project, where students build a car powered entirely by solar energy, is given as four separate courses at JU. The aim is to train tomorrow's engineers and marketers, but also to increase interest for applying to higher education among young people. The Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, commonly referred to as the World Cup for solar cars, is a race that crosses the Australian continent from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south. The race measures just over 300 kilometers and the competition will next be held in October 2025.

Two of the new students in the JU Solar Team are Alma Jonsson and Ellie Brismar, who study at JTH.

“I am competitive and enjoy cars and design, so this will suit me well. This is a big project that can certainly lead to interesting job opportunities in the future. They seem to have very good cohesion in the team; you come together as a family,” says Alma Jonsson.

Ellie Brismar competes in Time attack racing (where competitors race the quickest lap-time on a circuit using a production-based car) herself and wouldn't mind being one of the drivers for the solar car.

"Natural for me to be here"

“It feels natural for me to be here. I am very motivated and look forward to learning how to build the solar car from sketch to final product and then competing in Australia,” says Ellie Brismar.

Both are impressed by the team's success from last year and hope to be able to contribute to as good or even better results in next year's Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

“It's fun and raises Jönköping University’s status that the team can deliver so well and beat so many other large universities in this competition,” says Ellie Brismar.

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