Solar Car Challenge

Register Your Team To Participate

Siemens Solar Car Challenge 2026

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 2.5-day challenge during the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix event at the Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, MN.

The Siemens (formerly 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 Siemens Software 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: Monday, July 20th to Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026
Time: 10am to 6pm daily (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	Siemens Swag

Prepare yourself for the Challenge

Learn the Inspire Workflow

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

Download the model file from the video to work through the process.
For more Learning content, visit the Inspire Academic Hub and find all learning resources in one place.

Register Now

Challenge Details

Solar Teams

Qualifications

Team registration through the form has to be submitted by July 17th, 2026 (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 Siemens 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 Siemens (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 are free to use any CAD tool for geometry creation (how about Designcenter NX?😉) but all simulation must be done with Simcenter Inspire.
Teams have to provide their own laptop pre-loaded with Simcenter 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 Siemens Challenge.
Siemens representatives are going to 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.

Report details and expectations will be communicated at the competition.

Happy woman online on a laptop computer - isolated over white background

How to Win

The team with the ‘lowest mass’ design, in conjunction with other requirements that will be provided at the competition, will win.

Design criteria:

Details will be provided at the competition.

In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by the earliest time stamp on the submitted report.
Winners will be announced and receive their prizes at the awards ceremony on July 23rd.