In 1987 universities around the world began competing in bi-annual solar car racing events, striving to further the technologies involved with renewable energies and promote a greener future.
The University of Toronto began participating in these events in 1997 and thus, the Blue Sky Solar Racing program was born. Since then the program has demonstrated amazing examples of education and critical thinking within industrial design and engineering. Every year students from various engineering, computer science, and electrical backgrounds come together to work on these vehicles that push the boundaries of sustainable solar energy. With the help of alumni volunteers the program has become a staple of success in the University of Toronto and raised green energy awareness. Since the program’s inception over 2000 students have participated and worked on Blue Sky vehicles. The experience provides real world application of theories in engineering and design while promoting the technologies that can be used to harness renewable energy. And since 1997 the University of Toronto Blue Sky Solar Racing has been a proud competitor in many solar powered races around the world including the American Solar Challenge and the World Solar Challenge.
Such projects require a great deal of material and technology. For help with these necessities Tomek Bartczak sought out the help of Jroberts Mfg. Inc. Our company saw in the program a fantastic opportunity to expand and evolve current technologies to a level that is more efficient and cleaner than ever before. For the 2003-2007 season Jroberts threw its full support behind the Blue Sky program, providing machining and materials to be used in the vehicles. To date Jroberts has worked on 3 Blue Sky solar vehicles – the Faust, the Faust II, and the Cerulean which placed 5th in the 2007 World Solar Challenge. Our company is proud to have supported this noble endeavor as we believe it is our duty to further enhance the methods and technologies used in machining and fabricating for ever changing and ever evolving, modern projects.
