The campus may not have seen much sunshine lately, but for the Iowa State solar car team, it’s business as usual.

Team PrISUm is busy preparing the next solar car, the PrISUm Phoenix, for Sunrayce 99.

Sunrayce is a biennial event in which collegiate student organizations nationwide build and race solar-powered cars in a long-distance competition.

Although the next Sunrayce will not be held until the summer of 1999, Phoenix’s construction is well underway.

Team PrISUm is making various modifications to the solar car that was the PrISUm ExCYtor, said Allen Ihelfeld, project manager of Team PrISUm and junior in industrial engineering.

He said the different venue for Sunrayce 99 is motivating some changes for the Phoenix.

“Sunrayce 99 will be held on the East Coast, traveling from north to south. Unfortunately, that is all that is currently known about the race route,” Ihelfeld said. “With the race traveling in a different direction, the basic shape of the vehicle will most likely change to reflect that.”

Team PrISUm is looking to improve on its Sunrayce 97 26th-place finish with its new car.

Despite the modest finish, the team considered the season and the race a success — in light of a near tragic crash late in the season.

Just weeks prior to Sunrayce 97, a traffic accident threatened to end PrISUm’s campaign.

While returning to Ames after finishing a qualifying race in Mesa, Ariz., a van holding 10 PrISUm participants and towing the PrISUm ExCYtor, lost control, skidded off the highway and crashed into a tree.

Many team members were hospitalized, and the body of the solar car was badly damaged.

“Last year the team was able to rebuild the car in just a few weeks,” said James Hill, Team PrISUm adviser and professor of chemical engineering.

Hill said students who were injured in the crash were able to participate, and those still at the university continue to participate. “The team won several awards and were very successful,” he said.

Ihelfeld was optimistic about last year’s crash, saying the accident could have been much worse.

“We were so lucky the accident was not any worse than it was,” he said. “We also learned that no matter what happened, people are still the most important part of the team.”

While last summer’s events were unexpected, it showed the team’s determination to succeed on a practical level, Hill said. Its success is a testimony to the cohesiveness of the squad, he said.

PrISUm is a diversified crew in terms of the participants’ fields of study.

PrISUm includes a variety of engineering teams that handle the design and construction of the car, as well as a business team to fund and publicize the car and its participation in Sunrayce.

Although the groups are specialized, it is difficult to categorize team members.

“Let’s put it this way,” Hill said. “We have engineers working on fundraising, and we have finance majors working on solar arrays, so it’s really a diverse team.”

Hill added that the team is currently looking for someone in the field of meteorology to advise Phoenix designers and racers.

Though many types of engineering fields make up much of the PrISUm design teams, it is not an endeavor exclusive to engineering majors.

Nicole Zilisch, business manager for Team PrISUm, stressed that PrISUm is a multidisciplinary organization.

“Anyone in any major can be involved with the various teams,” she said. “Even though some background information may be helpful on some of the teams, it isn’t necessary.”

One of the business team’s primary responsibilities is to raise the money necessary for PrISUm operations.

Zilisch said her team relies on some home-spun fundraising gimmicks, such as the Adopt-A-Cell program where sponsors can adopt a solar cell for a small donation.

“People will get out of the project whatever they put into it,” Zilisch said. “I feel as though I’ve become a better people-person through interactions with team members of different majors and through the outreach events that we do.”

Students interested in participating in Team PrISUm can attend its weekly general meeting held every Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Durham 171, or contact the PrISUm office at 294-0899.