Nick Fetty | May 21, 2015
This week students, researchers, and others on Iowa State University’s “Team PrISUm” solar car are participating in a five-day tour across the state.
Team PrISUm’s SunRun began Monday with a stop in Denison, the hometown of former Iowa Hawkeye lineman Brandon Scherff who was the fifth overall selection in last month’s NFL Draft. On Tuesday the car visited Des Moines, Indianola, and Cedar Rapids before traveling to Monticello, Independence, and Cedar Falls on Wednesday. Today the tour will stop in Algona, Orange City, and Cherokee before visiting Webster City and returning to Ames on Friday.
Team PrISUm is a student-run organization first established in 1989 by the campus’ chapter of Tau Beta Pi, an honor society for engineering students. The group first competed in the GM Sunrayce in 1990 racing from Florida to Michigan and placing 17th out of 32 competitors. According to its website, “PrISUm is the only team that has competed in every cross country American solar car race.” Around 1995 the team opened its membership up to students of all majors. The researchers are currently designing the 13th generation solar car which is expected to compete in the 2016 American Solar Challenge.
For for updates about Team PrISUm follow the group on Facebook and Twitter.
Check out Juice’s photo gallery of Tuesday’s stop in Des Moines and KCRG’s coverage of Wednesday’s event in Independence.
