Sixth Week

Hey everyone,

This was a really busy week for the us. I started the week working on refining the design of the test track in the alternative area, in order to move the track closer to the fence to save more space in the area.

On Wednesday, I went to the City Hall with Ron and Karima to ask for information on what we need to have to start the process of request a Conditional Use Permit to build the test track.

Also on Wednesday, we received the visit of high school students on the Design Center. To show them an overview of the project, each team made a quick presentation with the main points of each sub project.

On Thursday, we had a meeting with Professor McMullin, when we had the opportunity to clear some design issues of the test track and the routes. We discussed about the minimum radius of the curves, the minimum height of the car, some different options of stations.

Finally, on Friday, we had a meeting in the Barry Swenson Builder Office, that owners the area where we plan to build the test track. On this meeting we made a presentation giving an overview of the project and showing them our current idea for the test track in the area. They recommended us to use another area in the site, that would be more convenient for the companies.

So, for the next week we will work on design another track in the new area.

Fourth and Fifth Weeks

Hey Everyone,

In the last week we had four days of rest and I used that time to visit some friends in Honolulu-Hawaii, it was an amazing experience. I have never seen such a beautiful place in my life.

Upper Makua Cave - Hawaii

In this week, besides some issues with the AutoCAD due to problems with the internet connection in the shop, I could make a good improve in my tasks. I finished the Site Plan of 1555 S 7th street area that we are going to use to build the test track.

Site Plan of 1555 S 7th street

 After that I could finally start to work on the layouts of potential tracks. We had decided in the third week that we would focus just on the full scale test track, that will allow us to test more important aspects of the system. Working on the possible layouts we found out that a track with the 30m radius curve assumed in the first place wouldn't fit in the available area, so we decided to modify this parameter to 10m and use an alternative area, in a way that would disturb less the companies inside the site.

Alternative layout for the Full Scale test track

Now, for the next weeks we hope to get permission to use that new area, in order to start working on the structural aspects of the track. We also need to choose a design for the stations. 

3 weeks in the Superway Project

Hey everyone,

It's been three weeks since I joined the Spartan Superway Project. In this time we have done a lot of different things.

In the first two weeks we got inside the project to realize what the previous teams have done until this summer, and started to work in organizing the shop to put 30 people working inside it together.

We were divided in 4 teams: Civil, Solar, Boggie and ISE. I am in the Civil team and we were divided in sub teams to work on the routes of the Superway, on a test track and in the Environmental impacts of the project.

I will work in the summer with the Test Track subteam, and we need to design a layout of a track to build in an area near to the South Campus of SJSU, which we visited on the first week to take same measurements.

Available area to build the test track

Taking distances in the first visit to the site

The beginning

SJSU International Housing

I just arrived in the SJSU International House, where I will live the next 2 months. Tomorrow I will start my summer internship on the Spartan Superway Project, where I really hope to learn a lot and use this experience when I go back home.

            My name is Eduardo Alpes and I am a junior undergraduate student of Civil Engineering at Federal University of Goias in Brazil. I spent the last fall and spring semesters studying at Florida A&M University (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering), as a grantee of the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program (BSMP), which is a non-degree scholarship program fully sponsored by the government of Brazil in partnership with the Institute of International Education (IIE).

            Now, I am moving to the San Jose State University for the summer to join the Spartan Superway Project, trying to be helpful and being able to get knowledge and experience from this. I am really excited with this opportunity and hope to have a great summer here.

Bike Trip to Wakulla Springs, FL