Each year the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University supports students who design and build a Formula style racecar that is raced in the annual Formula SAE (FSAE) student design competition held in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In order for mechanical engineering students at Texas A&M to participate in the project and receive course credit they must enroll in the MEEN 401/402 senior design course in the fall and spring semester of their senior year. Yuval Doron, lecturer in the department, teaches the class throughout the year and acts as a mentor to the students.
Doron’s years of engineering design and fabrication expertise helps him teach students how to approach the engineering challenges they will face as they build their racecars.
“As an instructor, it’s important I teach the students how to engineer a safe, fast and competitive race car,” Doron said.
The team, which is part of the department’s SAE chapter, works each semester to raise funds and sponsorships to design and build a new car. This challenge provides a unique experience for the students as each car is built differently and engineered to race in various divisions of the SAE competition.
“I don’t want these students to come in and have an easy build,” Doron said. “That’s not the engineering reality they will face when they graduate and go to work in their various professions. Therefore it’s up to the students to raise awareness of the team, attract sponsors and build a car that will win.”
Texas A&M’s FSAE team has competed annually since 1999. It has placed first overall five times, second overall three times, and in 2015 placed 14th overall. To the students who make the journey each year to the competition the experience of competing against 80 other teams and representing the department can’t be quantified. However, if the students were to bill out engineering hours spent on the car the value of the team would be significant.
This year’s team is led by mechanical engineering senior Shawn Phillips who became interested in the team after noticing members of the 2015 team working on the car design in labs housed in the James J. Cain Engineering Building and Thompson Hall.
“In high school I was interested in anything fast,” said Phillips. “When I found out the mechanical engineering department provided an opportunity to take a class dedicated to the car design and build, I was hooked and began volunteering for the team that spring.”
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The 2016 team is hosting a public reveal of this year’s car on March 26, at the Thomas G. Hildebrand, DVM ’56 Equine Complex in College Station, Texas.