June Monthly Meeting
Guest Speaker, Andrea Holden
Photos by Noel McIntosh and Tim Shellshear
Andrea Holden in the VCC Club Room
June 2021 VSCCA Guest Speaker
We were very privileged to have this month’s speaker, Andrea Holden, give us her vision of future auto-engineers at work.
Andrea is leading the University of NSW’s Sunswift Racing team of 45 innovators working to redefine the future of sustainable transport through the research and development of solar electric vehicles.
Sunswift Racing is an undergraduate race team that build a full-sized solar electric vehicle that races from Darwin to Adelaide every 2 years.
Since 1996 Sunswift has built six solar vehicles with the seventh currently in production. Over this time, Sunswift has seen success in numerous solar vehicle races and holds records with the FIA and Guinness World Records.
She told us about the process of assembling their latest vehicle, Sunswift 7.
Andrea is a 3rd-year undergraduate Mechanical Engineer at UNSW, probably the best engineering university in Australia. She has a lot of multi-disciplinary experience as there are electrical, mechanical and software engineers all working together. She also works with industry partners on a daily basis who are critical to the development of the Sunswift car.
We were all very comforted to know she was brought up in the back of a veteran car! Her Dad has a good collection of veterans. EVs can’t be too frightening if she is in charge of the future.
I just know we are going to see this dynamo’s name up in lights in the near future. Up there with the likes of Elon Musk.
Not only did she talk to the VSCCA but also she developed and installed the fabulous new audio-visual/computer/Zoom/ system we are now using in the VCC Club rooms.
I contacted her to make the arrangements after hearing, from Ian Shinfield, that the Veteran Cub were very impressed with her April presentation.
Noel McIntosh
