Articles Curated by Formula SAE Judges
Why Do Engineers Need Social Skills?
Think about what other people are thinking.
Give honest feedback without being a jerk.
Take your own and your team’s feelings seriously.
Guide To The 2024 FSAE Cost Module Changes
Materials catalog updates
Process changes in forming, coatings, machining
Tooling changes: 3x metal, 2x plastic/rubber, 1x PCB
New materials for fasteners and standoffs
A Faculty Advisor’s Perspective on Formula Design Judging
Notes for students
Notes for Design Judges
Outboard Motor HV Interlock Circuit
Methods for a detached wheel to disable High Voltage:
De-pin and separate outboard communication connector
Break communication cable
Mechanically pull apart inboard communication cable
Engineering A Lighter Chassis, Part 1
Comparing and engineering for different materials
Strength, stiffness, triangulation, load paths, gussets
Suspension loading
EV Accumulator mounts
Guide to the 2023 FSAE Cost Module Changes
Significant revamp of Electrical and Drivetrain sections
New approach for custom PCB costing
Most electronic modules are still cost as bought
EV Performance Fundamentals
Engineer a strong battery lifespan
EV Efficiency is as important as mass, downforce, drag, power, and mu.
Create tools for drivers to manage energy
Add regenerative braking later
Starting A Formula SAE Team From Scratch
Set up business and school relationships.
Recruit and organize a team.
Write and raise a budget.
THEN design and build the car.
Field Guide To Design Finals
In the time it takes to read this sentence, design finalists are capable of presenting data from the same day’s Autocross, along with analysis of which assumptions the data validates or invalidates, how it fits with all their other testing, and what the next steps are to continue improving the car and drivers. They do this for everything, all year.
Competitive Intelligence
Doing research, reverse engineering, setting design targets. Additional insight for teams thinking about making the EV transition.
The Indigo Story
They made a whole host of small changes that were almost imperceptible to the eye but aerodynamically significant. They also gave the car a nose-down rake by lowering the front suspension and raising the rear, both ever-so-slightly. All of the changes made the car significantly safer to drive at high speed. But the Ford Indigo was never going to be driven at high speeds as a show concept car – right?
Overall Vehicle Priorities
To manage priorities, ask four questions about every design decision, in this order: 1. Is it legal or illegal? 2. How does the change affect reliability or repeatability? 3. How does the change affect overall vehicle performance over a lap? 4. What are the drivability effects?
Design Of Strong, Stiff, And Light Structures And Joints
The most common barrier between your team and your performance goals is reliability. These design best practices are intended to help you create strong, stiff, and light mechanical designs. Every design requires tradeoffs, and this list is not intended to be a set of absolute rules; but it will help you identify common design strategies to follow, pitfalls to avoid, and will inform your design decision making.
The Origins Of Aston Martin’s V12
There was one closely held secret design condition. It was secret because management would not want us to ‘overdesign’ the V12. The truth is, with clever engineering, planning for significant power increases adds very little weight and cost if you know what you are doing and if it is done up front.
An Introduction to Cost in Engineering
Engineering is about finding the Goldilocks Solution. Cost is not separate from engineering; indeed it must go hand in hand with it. Good engineering practice goes beyond the merely technical, and encompasses knowledge of customers, supply chain, society, environmental impact etc.
Low-Cost Data Acquisition
Stopwatches, garage beams, thermometers, cameras, chalk, zip ties, yarn, and smartphones.
Setting Winning Priorities
Ryan Kraft, former member of the #1 world ranked University of Michigan FSAE team, discusses how to set priorities for how your team defines winning and ways to pursue them.
Adding Aero, Justifying Aero
Simply finding the combination that gives the fastest laptime is missing the point. The point is to understand the size of each effect, and how to engineer each effect to achieve the fastest laptime.
Coarse-To-Fine Design
As you move through the design process, you start with insight, then gradually trade insight for accuracy.
Four Ways To Use Data
Defining requirements, validating models, on-car tuning, and understanding the root cause of problems. The process of developing and troubleshooting a steering system.