Sponsors

SSCP is a unique promotional opportunity, providing a fusion of both education and exposure opportunities to a prospective sponsor. The team actively promotes clean energy awareness and education, essential pursuits in striving towards a cleaner future. Furthermore, SSCP is a solar endurance racing organization of the highest caliber, and is widely respected as such by many teams, universities, and companies world-wide. It is rare that an endeavor can unite these aspects of education and achievement in one environmentally responsible mission, but SSCP does just that. The public and media recognize this, and SSCP’s vehicle turns heads everywhere it goes.

Furthermore, SSCP is educating the next generation of young, environmentally-minded engineers and business leaders about to enter the workforce. Former members take the skills they develop here and become assets at some of the most exciting projects underway today. In supporting the team, companies can begin to build their name and forge relationships with some of the future leaders of the technical world.

Sponsorship Benefits

Recruiting Pool
Opportunities for Collaboration
R&D Test Platform
National and International Exposure
Contributions Tax Deductible

With a project of this size and of international proportions, SSCP is looking for significant support. This involves both monetary contributions and in-kind donations, covering everything from construction materials to airplane tickets to race supplies. Sponsors are what make our adventure possible. Each year we try and get back in touch with our old sponsors and try to make contact with some new ones. They provide the supplies, services, and cash that let us build a car from scratch.

Without them there would be no Stanford Solar Car Project, and for their support we are infinitely grateful. Most of the contacts we make are with individuals at these companies. We’ve been lucky enough to get to know many great people interested in furthering a great cause. Thanks to everyone who has helped us out over the years.

For more details about our sponsors, take a look in the bar to the left–you’ll see a list of our various sponsors with links to descriptions of what they’ve done for us. Each page also has links and contact information to help you get in touch with them.

Interested in becoming a sponsor? We’d love to hear from you! This page describes our detailed sponsorship program. You can also make an immediate contribution on our donation page.

Platinum sponsors

Volkswagen

We're proud to have Volkwagen as a continued sponsor this year. VW has been extremely generous to the Solar Car Project and to other automotive projects (such as the Stanford Racing Team), providing us with a new dedicated building for research and development. They have also given us a cash sponsorship, escort vehicles to use during the 2011 World Solar Challenge, help connecting with other industry partners, and a new support vehicle, a 2010 Touareg.

Schwalbe

Schwalbe is a maker of premium bicycle and specialty tires. This year, they've designed a new tire specifically for solar cars, and generously let us use a set for the race. The HS437 Energizer S is beautiful. It has surprisingly low rolling resistance.

ASSU

ASSU is the Stanford student group parent organization. They handle student elections and special fees, one of our bigger sources of funding. Each year students must vote whether or not a group gets funding. Solar car has tended to be a very popular student group, and we typically win a landslide victory at every election. Thanks to the generosity of the students at Stanford University, we will be receiving over $50,000 through this system this coming June. We hope to receive a similar amount next year as well. With this funding, however, there are strings attached. Thankfully, equipment and materials purchases make up the bulk of our expenditures, and are easily justifiable to both the ASSU Senate and SSE Banking employees.

Corning

Corning Incorporated is one of Xenith's Platinum sponsors. They went to extraordinary lengths to provide us with glass employing a proprietary antireflective coating. It’s improbably thin, amazingly transparent, and very strong – everything you could possibly want in cover glass for a solar array. Our tests show significant improvement over similarly thin glass without the ARC. We have found no measurable loss in power in panels encapsulated with Corning glass versus raw, uncapsulated cells--a truly mindblowing result. Thank you!

VW Electronics Research Lab

The VW ERL is a division of the Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., with its headquarters in Silicon Valley (Belmont, California). The VWERL's mission is to leverage Silicon Valley resources for the advancement of the Volkswagen Groups' products through technical knowledge and electronics expertise. The VWERL is home to a number of Volkswagen Group R&D projects and collaborations between VW and Stanford University. Check out one of the VW ERL's website to see more about our team's work with Volkswagen and other collaborations such as Stanley, Junior, and Shelly: three autonomous race cars developed by VW and Stanford. The engineers at the VW ERL have played a huge role in connecting our team with the greater VW network.

Linear Technology

Linear Technology is a large manufacturer of CMOS ICs. They're also one of our biggest new sponsors. They have provided the team with a $15,000 cash sponsorship and free access to their large catalog of excellent products. We already use a number of Linear Technology components on our current car, Apogee. We look forward to working with them in the future--their sponsorship will be extremely valuable as we implement a new design for the 2011 World Solar Challenge.

Sunpower

Sunpower Corporation is one of Xenith's Platinum sponsors. They were extraordinarily generous in providing us with highly efficient monocrystalline silicon solar cells. Their technology is on the cutting edge of research in silicon photovoltaics. We are building our new solar array based on it. We also love the back-contact design, which allows us to solder cells together and fabricate panels more easily.

LeCroy

LeCroy Corporation is a worldwide leader in serial data test solutions. The Company offers high-performance oscilloscopes, serial data analyzers, and global communications protocol test solutions used by design engineers in the computer and semiconductor, data storage device, automotive and industrial, and military and aerospace markets. LeCroy donated one of their WaveRunner 104Xi-A oscilloscopes, along with a complete set of probes, which is a fantastic asset for the electrical team.

Bayview Composites

Bayview Composites generously sponsored us with custom epoxy molds for building our next-generation car, Xenith. In terms of schedule, surface finish, and general durability they are one of the best companies that we have dealt with thus far and look forward to gaining an aerodynamic advantage thanks to their hard work with the molds.