University of Alberta's beam director taking shape

Jordan and Kienan working on the PV receiver

The climber's drivetrain

The University of Alberta team arrived on Tuesday – Aditya Bhargava, Jerry Ding, Jordan Larson, and Kienan Stewart. The climber is probably the largest of all climbers I’ve seen at the games, probably slightly larger than the University of Michigan’s. Somewhat lighter, too, but without the concentrating optics design. The beam director was just coming together that week, and just on Friday late morning it was ready for testing – just a tad late since by that time we were already out on the field for our last field testing day – not enough time to start a complete team qualification run. I can imagine their disappointment.

We have at this point four teams that have not qualified - NSS, U Alberta, U Michigan, and McGill. The policy we’re following is that while qualification in the future is still possible, it is incumbent on the teams to make it happen, which is quite a tall hurdle – I can testify that it is a very difficult task to arrange all it takes to qualify. However – never underestimate the team’s ingenuity and will power – that’s the other thing I can testify for.

I will keep posting updates from these teams as we move forward, and if they can’t qualify for this year’s games, we’ll be sure to find a venue for them, since four working power-beaming systems is not something I’d like to waste.