On the outside, Sweeney Hall looks like a plain building. But inside, it houses the $350,000 PrISUm Spectrum solar car and is a second home to ISU Solar Car team members.

PrISUm Spectrum, the seventh solar car created by Team PrISUm, will race from Chicago to Los Angeles in the American Solar Challenge next July.

“The team hopes to place in the top five, but the primary goal is to design a car that is capable of finishing first,” said Ross Fischer, assistant director of Team PrISUm.

Testing can help reduce the variables that could go wrong in a race, he said.

“Teams that finish at the top have about 8,000 testing miles, but it’s hard for us to get in much testing [because] it takes a minimum of 10 to 12 people,” said Fischer, senior in computer engineering.

Team PrISUm hopes to get in at least 2,000 test miles before the race.

“Our biggest challenge is definitely finding the time to work on the project,” said Eric Christensen, project director of Team PrISUm. “We all have busy schedules and not all of us have learned how to do the design work in class yet. We have to research these things on our own time and try to apply it to the car.”

Fischer said working on the car is a major commitment.

“Team leads work at least 20 hours a week, and some members have dedicated 40 [hours a week] to the project,” he said.

Although most team members are engineering majors, anyone can get involved, Fischer said.

Time constraints aren’t the only challenges for the team.

“Fundraising is the other challenge the team faces. This year we’re trying to stretch materials a lot further,” said Christensen. “We’re using the leftovers of past projects and working to get it right the first time.”