X PRIZE Day 3: WWU team matures in huge ways as competition progresses

The Western Washington University X PRIZE Team is through the three efficiency events. Next up is the range event, which is set to take place on Friday, July 23. The schedule currently shows that WWU will hit the track at 10 a.m. PDT, but the schedule could change depending on the weather.

The official results have not yet been handed out, but the WWU team is confident that it still has a shot at winning its class (alternative side-by-side) in the competition.

Growth of a team

The three stages of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE competition (shakedown, knockout and the finals) have been a crucible in which the WWU team has made enormous strides as engineers and as teammates.

The team showed up at Michigan International Speedway in May for shakedown with little idea just how much learning they'd be forced to do, says Kyle Foley, a recent WWU alumnus and the crew chief for the WWU team.

"At shakedown, we showed up with a car that wasn't finished, and we got a big eye-opening," he says.

The technical inspectors, seasoned engineers from major automotive companies, had a lot to say about the state of the WWU vehicle.

"These guys are big guys in the auto industry, and they ripped us apart," Foley says. "It's a pretty stressful experience, being ripped apart like that, but it's also a really good learning experience."

The WWU team at first thought they were out of the competition, and for a group of guys with such a huge emotional investment in the car (which they've nicknamed "Sheila"), that was a painful pill to swallow.

But the X PRIZE folks gave them a second chance, saying that if the WWU students fixed the long list of problems with their vehicle, the team would be allowed to continue.

So, the guys went to work. They put in 18-hour days, they pulled all-nighters. They worked and they worked. They became more focused, if that were even possible. They were determined not to fail again.

"Our attitude went from 'Oh, it's good enough. The part's good enough; it's gonna work,' to 'It's gotta work perfect, the first time, 100 percent,'" Foley says.

And the result? Well, it has been pretty good so far.

"We showed up at these last two events with a car -- obviously, we've passed technical inspection and we're running on the track," Foley says. "We want to show these guys that we know what we're doing. We want to show the world that we have a pretty cool car, that we have a pretty good setup. And I think everyone's seeing that."

Marques McCammon, the chief marketing officer for the competing Aptera team, said he and his whole team have been impressed with the way the WWU team members have handled themselves throughout the competition. In one of the earlier rounds, when the WWU team thought they might be eliminated, McCammon asked to have the WWU team members crew for Aptera as a way of giving them on-the-job interviews.

"Western Washington, of the academic teams, they've made it further than anyone else, and I think it's because they've got a collection of young people who are very focused on what they're doing, they're very passionate about it, and they're very self sacrificing," McCammon said. "I watch the work ethic, I watch the way they interact with each other, and I'm impressed."

Oliver Kuttner, head of the Edison 2 team, which has the only cars remaining in the mainstream class of the competition, had similar praise for the WWU students.

"Before we even knew them, we watched them go through shakedown, we watched them go through some really hard times," Kuttner said. "I don't really know what the technical difficulties were, but I know they were an extremely upstanding group. They worked relentlessly,  they were definitely on the edge of what's possible, and they were true gentlemen about it, even though they were so young. And now here they are on the track in the finals. (Their car) is extremely well done. It's a really formidable program, the car is something to be proud of, and it's a really good-looking car."