Shawn Alladio

High schoolers working on solar-powered watercraft
October 29th, 2008 @ 1:36pm
By Mary Richards
Imagine zipping around the lake on a personal watercraft that causes no pollution and costs no money in gas. Some high school students are working on it.

Scott Watson's classroom at Hunter High School looks like a marina, with Kawasakis, a jet ski, a SeaDoo and a Yamaha in various stages of conversion. "We are making these all electric powered," he explained.

The goal is to have the vessels reach and keep planing speed, powered only by a solar panel.

Watson is an electronics instructor and leads the invent team of 20 or so students at the school. "This gives them a chance while they are in high school to work on something that they probably wouldn't even have a chance to until they graduate college," Watson said.

The team won a prestigious grant from MIT for $8,000. They plan to present their invention at MIT next June. Before that, they'd love to take the governor out for a spin on the lake.

E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com



http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4654527

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aweebitofjt69

That sounds interesting. I wonder how this will turn out.

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'88 Kawasaki Zebra 550/686conversion-Bored to 686,stock exhaust mod(for now), WestCoast head, Keihin 38mm NOS race CDKII, PJS 18-pitch prop, Wet Wolf Freestyle Cone, Scoop Grate, Westcoast ride plate, WestCoast 5 gal tank. This thing is going to haul.To be put on- Factory Half Pipe or Westcoast
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Bar Tab's Boy .I have multiple 550's and one superjet. My almost stock 87 550 will keep up with my friends race superjet.

jetski9010

any update on this project?

richforman

I don't know, but looking at the first post it is good to see that Mary Richards was able to continue her career in journalism after leaving WJM-TV!

richforman