INNOVATION May-June 2012

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South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom are expected at the 2012 competition in Michigan. With a 130-page rule book, building a Formula SAE-ready car is no easy task and involves careful coordination. The UVic Formula Race Team is student led and managed, and activities include not only car design, fabrication, testing and tuning, but also engagement activities through motorsports, technological and educational events at UVic and in the community. In designing and building their car, the team regularly encounters real world engineering and project management challenges. For instance, in the design stage of the car, each subsystem is designed by a different subteam. In order to make sure that every system integrates with the others, the CAD model is managed by a single team member, with updates made as new revisions come in. Through the project work, the students have a real appreciation of how important it is that system designers are aware of the effects that their design decisions will have on other systems. Gaining permission to test the car on campus posed another challenge. To address safety issues and mitigate risk, team members worked with Faculty and Campus security for nearly a year to draft a set of procedures and the required legal paperwork. Third-year electrical engineering student Lee Redstone is with the team. He observes that the project “provides a lot of context for the material you learn in the classroom. As soon as you can tie the lecture material to your project on the car, the lectures become exponentially more interesting.” Last year, at the FSAE West completion in June 2011, the UVic team placed 16 th out of 81 teams in the Endurance category, and 33 rd overall in the competition. With their latest car prototype, UV12, the team is aiming for improvements in driver ergonomics and controls, such as shifting, pedal actuation and steering geometry. With the majority of team members taking a full course load,

load. This year, they are headed off to competitions in Manitoba in early May, and Maryland in mid-June. Asked why they do it, Matt is quick to reply: “We love flying.” Team Co-captain Tim Gjernes supplies, “We want to apply our engineering knowledge. Rather than just taking courses, it’s really exciting to be able to apply it to real world projects.” Project-based Skill Development has UVic Students Racing for Success

UVic Formula Race Team activities include car design, fabrication, testing and tuning.

Comprising mechanical and electrical engineering students from the University of Victoria (UVic), the UVic Formula Race Team competes annually in a competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). This involves the design and construction of an open-wheeled car for the purpose of motor racing. Formula SAE is one of the largest engineering competitions with participation from teams around the world. Teams from Germany,

students involved with the UVic Formula Race Team must juggle their academic studies with the time commitment involved. This is even further complicated by the mandatory co-op requirement at UVic, which has many students alternating between semesters of work experience and classes. Collaboration and teamwork are key, says Redstone. “This month, as we were writing finals and testing our car, it was not uncommon for our team members to put in 15-hour days at the shop in order to ensure we were ready to go Sunday morning.” The students’ hard work may yield them more than competition success. Dubbed “rolling resumés,” the cars are a tangible output of the students’ hard work and hands-on application of science concepts. At the competition, industry professionals will be in attendance, scouting the teams’ work, and recruitment is certainly not out of the question for some of these students. “Classroom education is required for graduation,” says Redstone, “but for some students, university is more than the letter grades. Out team members understand

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