UNI, ISU solar teams head to competitions

Solar racing teams from the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University will head to two different  competitions this week.

UNI's solar/electric boat team will travel to Lake Fayetteville in Arkansas for the annual Solar Splash electric boat competition, which begins June 9 and concludes June 13.

Solar Splash, hosted this year by the University of Arkansas, is the world championship of intercollegiate solar/electric boating. The Solar Panthers will compete against 13 other teams from the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Points are earned in seven categories: technical inspections, engineering design, visual displays, sprint, endurance, workmanship and on-the-water competitions.

The UNI team won overall third place last year. Hannah Loan, a senior electrical engineering technology major from Lone Tree and team leader, said this year's project includes several improvements to help the team's performance. Along with Loan, the 2010 Solar Panther members are  Tony Wagner, senior from Bellevue; Damon Knowling, senior from Coralville; David Buseman, senior from Waterloo; Justin Chu, sophomore from China; Tom Mason, senior from Waterloo; and Abubakar Audu, sophomore from Cedar Rapids.

UNI will host Solar Splash for the first time in June 2011 at George Wyth Park in Waterloo and again in 2012 and 2013.

Iowa State's Team PrISUm solar car team leaves June 10 for several race events.  The two-year, $250,000 project is the 10th solar car built by the ISU team. The name of this Team PrISUm car is “Anthelion,” after the rare luminous halo that sometimes appears opposite the sun.

The upcoming races are the Formula Sun Grand Prix, June 12-18 at the Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas. That is a testing and qualifying race for the American Solar Challenge, a June 19-26 race from Tulsa, Okla., to Chicago. Seventeen teams will compete, including 13 from the United States, two from Canada, one from Germany and one from Taiwan.

The ISU team has taken the big step of switching from a four-wheeled car to a three-wheeler. Three wheels mean a lighter car because there are three sets of suspension assemblies instead of four. The car has 500-plus solar cells and weighs less than 30 pounds.