The Skyline Solar Boat has a new home, or more like a new box. But putting stuff in boxes has become quite familiar over these pandemic days, owing to Amazon and Door-Dash.
Thanks to the substantial support of Engineering Professor Nick Langhoff, who is the Principal investigator of the DoE HSI Title V STEM grant, the Skyline STEM division was able to reallocate some of those funds to purchase a cargo container to store the Solar Boat and its equipment. The purchase was a necessity due to the remodeling of building 19, Pac Heights, as a new home for our IT department and as a swing space for several other Skyline College departments; the boat had to be moved.
Thanks to the great idea of Project Manager Heidi Rank, we got a used cargo container as an external storage option.
With this container we were able to achieve two goals: find a storage space for the boat and its equipment and create a new workspace for the team. Over time this container will be turned into a proper workshop for the Engineering and Robotics Club and almost certainly won’t be used to work exclusively on the boat. As soon as we have power and some proper tools for our Engineering students in there, there will be space for several projects. Hopefully sometime in 2021, when this pandemic is finally under control, we can do such things again.
The facilities team did a great job in painting it, so that it blends in with the surrounding structures at the north side of building 19, next to building 20.
A special thanks to Dean Carla Grandy, who initiated the administrative steps and for her strong support of the project.
Article by: Marco Wehrfritz
Photo by: Marco Wehrfritz
