History of Anne E.B.

Reassembled from donated solar car parts from UMass Lowell, the first Nerdgirls car, Anne E.B., was reborn summer 2002. Her accomplishments include:

Sunrayce 93 - Dallas to Minneapolis, 8th Place

Sunrayce 93 - Teamwork Award, 1st Place

Sunrayce 93 - SAE Engineering Excellence Award

American Tour de Sol 95 - 1st Place Solar Cross Continental Category

American Tour de Sol 95 - Most Efficient Solar Cross Continental Category

Naming Anne E. B.

Anne, daughter of Betty and Roger Borghesani, graduated from Lexington High School and Tufts University. In March 1990, Anne was brutally murdered by a stranger as she walked from her apartment to the Metro in Arlington, Virginia. She was planning to meet friends to celebrate her twenty-third birthday.
People and community were important to Anne. She was a family person, an upholder of traditions, a loyal friend, a great communicator, and a person who brought people together from different religions and cultures.

The Nerd Girls feel that Anne encompasses the spirit of the project bringing the team together to work towards a common goal. Betty and Roger believe that Anne would have heartily endorsed the project's goals of promoting women in engineering, along with teamwork, and renewable energy. Although math and engineering subjects were definitely not Anne's areas of strength, she was certainly a supporter of women's abilities to succeed in all areas of study.

The Nerd Girls thank the Borghesani family for their permission for using Anne's name.

Progress

Phase III: Construction of the Anne E. B. II (Summer 2005)

Now comes the fun part... CONSTRUCTION! Parts have been ordered, drawings have been made, now we just need to put it all together! Come back for updates and photos all summer.

Phase II: Designing the new car, Anne E. B. II (January 2003 - March 2005)

The team now consists of mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. And now there are Nerd Guys! Guys begged to be part of our team because it deals with the latest and greatest in renewable energy, which is extremely cool. Don't worry, we are still focusing our outreach on young girls and their early involvement in science and engineering.

The shell, chassis, power systems, and cockpit systems are being designed. To read some of the senior capstone project reports about the car design, click here.

Phase I: Retrofitting the training car and learning about sub-systems (2002 and earlier)

We have reached the end of Phase I!. With a bit of reverse engineering, our car, Anne E. B., has been reborn. She drives, toots, and attracts lots of attention from onlookers when the Nerd Girls take her for a spin.

Currently, we're planning our outreach events to local schools and malls. The girls are also researching information on mechanical systems and various devices in design preparation of our next solar car we will build from scratch.