Our Status, and What Lies Ahead

Rishi Mohan • May 19, 2020

Status Update

To our dearest families, friends, fans, supporters, and sponsors,

We hope that this update finds you well and in good health. We’re glad to report that team members are all safe and continuing to follow government-mandated precautionary measures in their homes across the country. Most members have moved away from their on-campus residences as our academic semester comes to a close.

We’d like to offer an update regarding our plans for the summer and beyond and the status of the 2020 American Solar Challenge. The Innovators Education Foundation sent the following message to registered teams two weeks ago upon the completion of a survey of teams regarding their desires:

"Given the COVID-19 situation and the uncertainty associated with this situation and based on the feedback from the team survey, the IEF Board of Directors has made the decision to postpone the ASC 2020 event until 2021. The Board of Directors did not take this decision lightly, which was made in due consideration of the potential impacts to the entrants, volunteers and the public. Based on the survey feedback, we are shifting our planning to a FSGP track-only event this fall, targeting September 2020."

We were, of course, upset to finally hear this news, but recognized its inevitability given the cancellation of other large-scale sporting and competition events across the globe. This modification to the event will not deter us, however, and team members continue to design and prototype components. Subgroups continue to virtually meet via platforms like Google Meet or Zoom in order to best coordinate efforts.

The Future
We’d also like to draw your attention to some things you can look forward to from us. Team leadership for next year is almost all chosen, and we’ll be revealing our new president, director of operations, treasurer, and group leads on our social media platforms and on this website. We’ll also visit some of our members in their homes and see how isolation is treating them (#MeetOurMembersAtHome?), and talk to some of our most recent alumni about life after Illini Solar Car. 

When we’re allowed to return to our campus workspaces with enough team members to complete our new car, you’ll finally get to see the culmination of more than 3 years of work. In the meantime, check out this article from our friends at WCCU for a peak behind the scenes of the team!

Once again, thank you all for your support. Please continue to protect your health and that of those around you by obeying your local restrictions and social distancing norms. We look forward to finally formally presenting our new car to all of you.