Solar Car Challenge

Register to Participate

Altair's Solar Car Challenge 2025

Win $10,000 or other prizes for your team

Are you ready to put your engineering skills to the ultimate test? Join us for a 2 1/2-day challenge during the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix event at the iconic National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, KY.

The Altair Challenge is designed to push your analysis/optimization skills to new heights. You will be tasked with the re-design of a given part using only the provided Altair tools.

What's in it for participants?

Besides the chance of winning the $10,000 prize money or other great prizes, participants will upskill their abilities to optimize parts of their team's solar car - giving their teams an advantage in the overall contest - and in the process become better engineers.

 

Dates:        Tuesday, July 2nd to Thursday, July 4th
Time:         10 am to 8 pm (Tue & Wed) & 10 am to 12 pm (Thurs) (during competition and charging hours)
Location:   Event Headquarters - exact location to be announced

      

1st Place Prize Judges Choice and Innovation Awards  Participation Prize
$10,000 Equipment Prizes  Altair Swag

 

Last Year's Winners

 

UF Gators from University of Florida

With an emotional winners' ceremony, the Altair Solar Challenge 2024 came to an end on July 18th, 2024, when we were proud to announce and congratulate the winning teams:

🥇 1st: University of Florida
🥈 2nd: University of Michigan
🥉 3rd: University of Minnesota

Watch the incredibly heart-warming reaction of the UF Gators from the University of Florida, when their win of $10,000 was announced at the event.

Prepare yourself for the Challenge

Learn the Inspire Workflow

Using Altair Inspire for this challenge will make you most likely to be successful. To learn the tool, we provide this recorded on-demand learning session. 

 

Register Now

Challenge Details

Solar Teams

Qualifications

  • Team registration through the form on the right must be submitted by July 1st, 2025 (one registration per team is sufficient).
  • Teams are expected to field a vehicle in FSGP that is all green on the pre-race board to participate in the event on-site (and to qualify for the Grand Prize).

Note: Teams that are not all green are welcome and encouraged to participate in the Altair Challenge, but are not eligible for the Grand Prize of $10,000. They are, however, eligible for the equipment and participation prizes. 

  • Teams need to obtain an Altair Sponsorship License (Request here)
  • Teams are required to agree to participate in the creation of marketing materials about the challenge (e.g., team photos, interviews, testimonials).
edit laptop screen

Process

  • Teams must provide their own laptop pre-loaded with Altair Inspire.

  • While teams may take their laptops with them at the end of the day, work on the contest submission may ONLY take place during the contest hours, at the contest location. Any work done outside of this limitation will result in immediate and permanent disqualification from the Altair Challenge.

  • Altair representatives will be on-site to offer guidance and support throughout the challenge.
Portrait of young man filling in application form

Submissions

Your submission must comprise the completed geometry, the finite element (FE) results, and a concise one-page report.

This report should include:

  • The results and total mass,
  • The factor of safety for all load cases,  as indicated at the challenge introduction,
  • Your intended manufacturing method, and
  • A brief summary of your design process.
Happy woman online on a laptop computer - isolated over white background

How to Win

The team with the ‘lowest mass’ design, combined with the overall factor of safety (FoS) and accomplished design criteria, wins.


Design criteria:

  • Passes feasibility test with a FoS greater than 1.
  • Is manufacturable.
  • Fits within the provided volume bounding box.
  • Uses materials outlined in the IEF Rules
In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by the time stamp on the submitted report.
Winners will be announced and receive their prizes at the awards ceremony on July 5th.

Have questions about this challenge? Ask us in the Altair Community.

Ask Here