The story of the project began this spring when the initial Basic Utility Vehicle or BUV from the Indianapolis-based Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT) arrived at the Annis School, around the time of another successful engineering project connected to the school’s DesignSpine curriculum. Dr. Paul Talaga, associate professor of engineering, along with sophomore student Nate Viewegh ‘27 (Electrical Engineering) eventually discovered the root of the problem: the solar batteries were in deep sleep mode. The completed eBUV was returned to IAT in October where it is expected to head over to Niger in the near future to be used by a family to tackle their farm work and projects, both large and small, all thanks to the efforts of the team at UIndy.