July 08, 2005 High school students from across the country and
Mexico are on a 1,600-mile race in hand-built, solar-powered
cars. The 10th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge
started today in Round Rock, Texas, and will wind its way
through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona en route to the finish
line at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. There
are 180 students participating in the race from high schools in
Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Indiana, California and
Mexico. The California team is represented by students from
Walnut High School in Walnut, Calif. The 16 students on Walnut
High's "QuikSolar" team have been preparing for the competition
for more than a year, applying the skills they've learned in the
classroom to design and build their solar car. Racers will use
laptop computers and wireless technology to gauge solar car
battery usage, monitor weather patterns, track competitors via
global positioning systems and upload daily statistics. The race
judges will also use t