Iowa State’s solar car student organization was founded in 1989, making it the fourth oldest-running solar car club in the world.

Kishan Patel, a senior in aerospace engineering and assistant project director for PrISUm solar car, said the entire club is based on student innovation and design to build a competition vehicle that could win the American Solar Challenge Formula Sun Grand Prix.

“We kind of take stuff from all majors around to help the club grow and create the vehicle,” Patel said.

Bryce Rega, a senior in computer engineering and the software manager for PrISUm, expressed that it is a lot of work from a lot of different backgrounds and majors.

“I mean, everything we do [is] student design, student build, student race,” Rega said. “It’s a lot of fun and it’s a really, really good way to apply the work we learn in class or get almost the sort of introduction into what we might want to do as a career.”

“Sometimes it’s a club, sometimes it’s a company, sometimes a sports team,” Rega said.

Logan Staubus, a sophomore in aerospace engineering and the molds and composite manager for PrISUm, expressed that the club gives a look at what a realistic work environment might look like.

“You’re dealing with a whole bunch of different people on different projects on different sub-teams, which is what you’re going to deal with in virtually every company,” Staubus said. “So I think it’s a nice microcosm.”

According to Patel, the organization does a lot on their own, including making their own “battery management system or battery protection system [and] doing things on multi-year timelines and multi-year budgets.”

“I can’t really put a name on many other organizations here that can attest to that,” Patel said. 

PrISUm is beginning its 16th car, Andromeda, and the car they recently just raced was its 15th car with the name Eliana.

Rega voices his experience building the car and how the process seems so impossible and then it all comes together.

“In the end, you have a road-legal vehicle you can take around, you know, campus for one but then eventually race across the country so it pays off good,” Rega said.

Furthermore, Rega said each car is around a three-year build cycle with a year to design, a year to build and a year to test.

PrISUm competes in two races: the American Solar Challenge (ASC) and the Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP).

Rega and Staubus both talked about their experiences being drivers and racing in the FSGP, a cross-country race. They said this past race was from Nashville, Tennessee to Casper, Wyoming, coming in at over 1550 miles.

“It was really fun [and] really exhausting,” Rega said.

Rega explained that before the actual race, officials check to make sure everything is up to code.

“You don’t exactly know how it’s going to go until you’re there,” Rega said. “There are a lot of things that we had to fix on the spot.” 

Staubus said at the FSGP race, he got the fastest lap in the Multi-Occupant Vehicle (MOV) class. 

In an email statement, Rega sent their race results:

• “We crossed the finish line first and got 3rd place overall in points.
• We beat MIT and reigning champions Minnesota.
• This is the first time we’ve completed the full route in 10 years.
• While 3rd is great, we aim for 1st and are building a new car with that in mind.”

“We pushed it very hard on the last day and our strategy director kind of gave us the go-ahead of just take the car as fast as possible without it being a track hazard,” Staubus said.

Patel said on the day of the race, you learn so much in a short period of time.

“I feel like within the week I was there for the track race, I learned about two months worth of stuff,” Patel said. “You never stop going for that full week, and then beyond that, for the club as a whole, you just learn so much about so many different things, so many different disciplines, it’s really hard to find that sort of anywhere else.”

He said the car is made from the ground up and that club members try to do everything from scratch. 

“We feel that is the best way to make sure we have complete control of our final product and to make sure students coming into the club have the best opportunity to learn the widest kind of skills,” Patel said.

Additionally, he mentioned that the club can be a social outlet.

“I think some of my best friends in college came from solar car,” Patel said. “We spent a lot of time together just doing stuff [like] watching Cy-Hawk last weekend.”

Patel said the club has been running for 35 years now and according to him, “that is 35 years of effectively, excellence.”

PrISUm is open to all majors and all skill sets.

Those interested in seeing updates can look at the organization’s Instagram page.