A team of engineering students from Afeka Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv made history this month, becoming the first Israeli team to compete in the iLumen European Solar Challenge in Belgium, a 24-hour solar-powered endurance race.
Competing as AFEKA Racing, the students completed 197 laps—nearly 800 kilometers (490 miles)—in a solar-powered vehicle they designed and built themselves, finishing 14th overall and ranking first among the six teams competing in the challenge for the first time.
The race marked the culmination of an ambitious multidisciplinary project bringing together Afeka students from mechanical, electrical, software and industrial engineering. Working across disciplines, the students combined their expertise to design and build a functioning solar race car capable of competing on the international stage.
Completing a 24-hour solar endurance race tested not only the vehicle’s design and performance but also the students’ ability to solve engineering problems in real time under demanding race conditions. Over the course of the competition, the team confronted technical challenges including communication issues with the vehicle’s computer system and higher-than-expected tire wear, even performing a wheel alignment during the race to keep the car moving.
“What made me most proud was seeing how the team grew throughout the project,” said Dr. Dan Herman, who leads Afeka’s Auto Club. “At the beginning, I was deeply involved in managing the project and making decisions. Over time, the students took ownership, managed themselves and learned to make those decisions together. Even when we faced challenges during the race, they worked as a team, solved every problem and kept the car moving.”
Afeka is the only academic institution in Israel to offer an automotive specialization as part of its undergraduate mechanical engineering program. The solar car project builds on that focus by taking engineering education beyond the classroom and giving students hands-on experience designing and constructing a complex vehicle while collaborating across engineering disciplines. This approach extends across Afeka’s student engineering clubs, which give students opportunities to apply their knowledge across disciplines and take on ambitious real-world engineering challenges.
The team sees its participation in Belgium as a foundation for the continued development of Afeka’s solar racing program. The project is designed to grow from one generation of Afeka engineers to the next. Current and future students will build on the knowledge developed by the team, while Auto Club alumni look forward to remaining involved, sharing their experience and contributing to the project even after graduation.
“Engineering education is at its best when students have the opportunity to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to complex, real-world challenges,” said Prof. Yossi Rosenwaks, president of Afeka Academic College of Engineering. “What these students accomplished in Belgium reflects the creativity, determination and interdisciplinary collaboration we strive to cultivate at Afeka. More importantly, it reflects the kind of engineers we seek to educate — engineers who can turn knowledge into action, take on ambitious challenges and help shape Israel’s technological future. We are incredibly proud of the way they represented Afeka and Israel on the international stage, and we look forward to seeing how they build on this achievement in the years ahead.”
The team is already looking toward an even larger challenge: the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia, one of the world’s leading solar vehicle competitions. AFEKA Racing hopes to use the experience gained in Belgium as a foundation for bringing an Afeka-built solar car to the competition, which will take place in August 2027 and send teams on a roughly 3,000-kilometer journey from Darwin to Adelaide.
