So how many non-ME/IE/EE people in Formula are out there? This topic might apply to ME/IE/EE people too. I'm a CS major myself and I was wondering if anybody else feels that their FSAE/FS/FS-A experience is not a valuable point in their resume to recruiters outside of the Formula loop?

I'm an M.E. and am graduated in about a week and pretty much the only response I've gotten from prospective employers is "yeah... we don't do anything like that. We just 'order parts for manufacuring', or 'install and maintain equipment', or something else that doesn't quite sound like engineering.

I'm sure there are jobs out there where you can apply the "actual" (as opposed to theoretical) knowledge we've gained, but there are so many people in engineering who aren't "engineers" that the job market is flooded with jobs were you sit and call vendors to make sure that mufflers come in on time.

Its probably worse for non-engineers involved in Formula where perspective employers probably have no idea what Formula is let alone whats involved.

Frustrating huh?

Ian

I'm a Management major, concentrating in Information Systems, and I have a minor in IT. I've been our Team Leader for the past 2 years.

I tell every prospective employer about it during interviews, and it is a main point on my resume. Fact is, I've been able to tie just about every one of my business and management classes directly to the work I do on the project, be it work from finance class, operations management, systems development, you name it.

When I tell employers about the experiences I've had, how well it has enhanced my coursework, developed my entrepreneurial spirit, and worked with people from a variety of disciplines, it embodies just about all they're looking for.

It doesn't matter if employers know what FSAE is. What it comes down to is how well you can explain what you've done and how that has helped your educational experiences.

To me, FSAE goes a lot further beyond just building a racecar. It provides students with the skillset neccessary to successfully take on a variety of projects in a variety of fields, working with a diverse group of people. Graduating from FSAE, you know how to get things done under stringent time constraints, with limited resources, exercising your creativity, and working as a team. Even if you haven't been able to apply your major coursework to your car, you'v still taken away many of these attributes (hopefuly), which are valuable to every employer out there.

Just my 2 cents, but I'm sure many will agree with me.

www.formularpi.com

I started college as an ME major but then moved into CIS (computer information systems) with a minor in Engineering and Technology (a self-selected mixture of ME and EE classes so I did not loose much of my initial course work). My area of expertise in FSAE are engine management systems which, as everybody knows, have a lot to do with computers as well, so it fits perfectly in my major and minor fields of study. Currently I am doing an internship at Walbro Italy in Bologna, Italy. The US based Walbro Engine Management Corporation has been a sponsor of our FSAE team since 1998 and without FSAE I would have never been able to make the contacts to my current and most likely future employer.

In my opinion, FSAE is the best way to get real-life work experience without actually going out and working in industry. There are many companies out there are eagerly waiting for these FSAE graduates, and all you have to do is get your resume into their hands.

There might be a lot of people out there that do not know what FSAE is, but I am sure that anyone that was involved in it has the ability to easily prove that they have a huge deal of experience and knowledge compared to someone that just went to school to get a degree.

Ph.D. in Communications, specializing in organizational learning and knowledge management. I've been with the team for 3+ years now at various levels of involvement, mostly as a managerial consultant/advisor but also, as a central element of my work, a team member, in order to prove that this is indeed a learning organization. It sure is.

Apart from what I'm trained to do, I've been involved in some design and manufacturing work, particularly in composites construction. I've designed the last two seats (and the 2003 seat's an iteration of last year's) and worked on body, fan shroud, and intake manifold manufacturing. I've also been involved in R&D work around wing prototypes and composite fuel tank research. Certainly interesting stuff to learn while doing a doctorate in the social sciences...and gave me the ability to build a kayak last year, which is sweet.

There are considerable opportunities for non-engineers in the FSAE experience. Many elements of the competition (e.g., business presentation, cost report) require talents and skills that engineers may not readily have or care to acquire. Management and administration is similar - our last two business leaders have been non-engineers, and both are solid. They take care of a lot of the mess that would otherwise frustrate many engineers and detract from their responsibilities (e.g., fundraising, PR, budget maintenance, administrivia, etc.)

And, given the chance, these folk can become well-rounded contributors technically - even expert. One of our current team leaders is a economics major, but has gained a deep understanding of chassis design concepts from other team members and via his experience with mountain biking. He's the lead designer of our custom dampers this year, and is presently considering sneaking into an engineering degree via graduate work.

A truly unique individual - I remember recruiting him, and was ready to fight for his acceptance thinking that his enthusiasm might intimidate or confuse people. He tried to break into the lab to work on the body while we were making our delberations. No convincing was necessary after that.

I'd rather have five of such people than five profoundly average ME's. Indeed, our current recruiting posters are "calling all geniuses, workoholics, and psychopaths." I fear we're running low on all the above, and need to stock up some.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

Note how the thread started by and pertaining to non-engineers contains messages with coherent sentences and logically demarcated paragraphs. :-)

Engineer writing is wholly bizarre. Usually it's painfully succinct and baesd on a high presupposition of a shared context. Either that, or it's a brain dump of epic proportion.

It's been interesting how the former style has infleunced me. I'm more attuned to my own verbosity and that of others. I recently read through the report of the only other communication major on the team, back in 1994. It took him seven pages to describe the trip to Detroit. Probably took him as ong to write it as it did to drive it.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things." - Dan Quayle

I thought it was fitting.

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UVIC Formula SAE Team

http://uvic.fsae.ca

Fitting given the current occupant of the White House especially. Dubya makes Dan QUayle look like a freaking Pulitzer prize winner at times.

It's been an interesting exercise in communication accommodation, to be sure. THere's a happy medium between excess verbosity and total silence. We're getting there.

Besides, engineers can be verbose when they want to be. Our electronics team report last year was just under 150 pages long. Lots of pictures, yes, but about 40 pages of single spaced text. I was stunned and impressed. Others are about two pages and manage to say absolutely nothing very badly. Impressive for other reasons.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu

Started out as a ME/EE but realized I liked programming a lot more than circuits. Besides learning Java, javascript, HTML, etc... my CS classes have helped a lot in using Excel and Matlab.

In regards to the first post, I recently saw an opening at Renault F1 for a vehicle dynamics programmer. They wanted somebody with programming experience in C/C++, Java, and Matlab/Simulink. Candidates needed a basic understanding of vehicle dynamics. There are other companies like Msc or Mathworks who would probably like CS people with FSAE experience. I'm sure a CS major could find a good job in the realm of engineering software.

Kettering University FSAE