The team from the University of La Serena was the only Chilean, Latin American and Hispanic American representative in the prestigious world event.

A few months ago it was ranked among the 10 best teams in the solar car world championship, World Solar Challenge 2017, which took place in Australia, being the only national, Latin American and Hispanic American representative in the international competition. This is the Antakari (“Copper Man”) team from the University of La Serena and its Intikallpa IV (“Energy of the Sun”) solar car, a vehicle that was presented to the university and local community in an exhibition held on the premises of the University. ULS, in recognition of his outstanding performance.

In this global event, in which the most prestigious institutions and universities in the world participated, the representative of Chile and the state educational institution managed to successfully complete the 3.020 kilometer route throughout the entire Australian territory, beginning the journey in the city ​​of Darwin and culminating in the southern city of Adelaide.

The IK4 crossed the finish line within the top ten vehicles, thus becoming the world's top ten in solar vehicle technology, alongside powers such as Holland, the United States, Japan, among others.

This position positions the ULS team in the world's top ten in competitive solar vehicle technology. This was expressed by the Rector of the University of La Serena, Dr. Nibaldo Avilés, who highlighted “the effort and dedication of the members of the Antakari team, who have demonstrated their ability, ingenuity and affection, which has led to achievements worldwide, always with the support of academics, graduates and private and public institutions. They are a source of pride for the University, the region and the country.”

Its design and manufacturing is carried out by students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, attached to the Faculty of Engineering of the ULS, who use the best sustainable technology available worldwide. The initiative involves the participation mainly of students and academics from this unit, as well as from other units of the University.

In addition, important national and regional companies collaborate, such as: Minera los Pelambres, Minera Teck Carmen de Andacollo, Invenio, Total Sunpower, Ecomac, HidroMFD, Banco Santander, Ameco, INVECC, etc. The collaboration of these companies is through donation, provision of infrastructure, equipment or supplies and direct support from the team of professionals, as is the case of Minera Los Pelambres.

For the academic of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering of the house of studies, Dr. Mauricio Godoy, the solar car and the Intikallpa team “continues to consolidate itself as a successful initiative to link with the environment of our University, this mainly due to a work model that links students and academics and important regional and national companies, as well as the entire community (...). This project, which was born in 2010, has become an initiative of excellence that is linked to sport, as it is a global competition, and is also associated with innovation, creation, sustainability and entrepreneurship."

Benjamín Pieper, Operations Support Service Manager at Minera Los Pelambres, highlighted the great pride that it has meant for the company to be able to carry out this work together with the team from the University of La Serena, as well as see what has been built and recognize the performance they had in an international competition, since “being tenth in the world is the result of a work of excellence and that is undoubtedly a challenge to continue generating ties between the university world and our mining company,” stated the executive.

Meanwhile, Jaime Muñoz, captain of the Antakari team and engineer at Minera Los Pelambres, pointed out that Intikallpa IV was built entirely at the University of La Serena and that the years have allowed the project to mature, migrating to the University and building this type of competencies in the house of higher education. Regarding the competition held in Australia, the professional indicated that "the Intikallpa IV managed to place itself within the first 10 vehicles of the Challenge category, making us a team that completed the 3.020 kilometers that the competition lasts and where not all teams manage finish the race".

Another important collaboration for the success of this project is the one obtained through the PMI Innergias institutional project for energy efficiency, from the Ministry of Education, thanks to which it was possible to import the cutting-edge technological inputs that exist today in the world, with which the IK4 was made.

It should be noted that during the day each member of the Antakari ULS team was also recognized.

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