Design semi-finals

[Sam Zimmerman]

For the teams that made the design semi-finals (or have made it in the past), we would like to hear what you believe seperated you from the rest of the teams in terms of design. How many hours were spent on preparing for the design judges?

[Sam Zimmerman]

For the teams that made the design semi-finals (or have made it in the past), we would like to hear what you believe seperated you from the rest of the teams in terms of design. How many hours were spent on preparing for the design judges?

[Denny Trimble]

A fast car doesn't get you in the semi's... in '99 we focused on the car only, with zero design prep, and we posted the 2nd enduro time, but 47th design score.

This year we prepared all quarter long for design. As I heard from Wollongong, much was learned about the car while doing all the design event documentation and calculation, after the car was built.

The judges care more about why you did something than what you did; they want to hear your goals, and the strategies and analysis that led you to your solution. You need to show you understand the racecar design process, and why you chose to optimize for whatever you did.

Then, and this is a big part, they want to see testing (real-world) that shows the performance of your designs.

What separated UW were the following things:

1) Simple, well-integrated design; nothing stuck out as an "ugly" part or an inappropriate load path or shape.

2) Documentation - group leaders had 2" notebooks with all their calcualtions organized for quick access.

3) Practice - we held 3 mock design events with alumni, who were told to be brutal. You need to quickly communicate your design process to the big names who write the books and software you used http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

4) Testing - we did a lot of physical testing this year; engine, suspension setup, structure tesing, safety testing.

5) Professional Appearance - the car needs to be polished; it has to look like it belongs on a turntable at the Paris Auto Show. The team members need to convey a professional attitude and appearance too.

Hope this helps!

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03)

[Charlie]

We didn't prepare much for the design event per se. Our cheif engineer did a great job making some nice storyboards, I'd say he spend a good week working with the other team leaders. But the design was already there, from when we designed the car. We just had to put it in a more managable format.

We thought our 2002 car deserved to be in design semi-finals. After the 2003 car design, I no longer think so. Look at all the great cars out there, yours has to stand out better than the rest. This means a fantastic overall package, with nothing the judges can point out as obviously an afterthought or obviously wrong. It also has to be unique, in a good way. it needs to stand out from the pack, be it your wheels, color scheme, whatever.

After this initial showing, you need to be able to back up everything with real data and logical reasoning. being organizaed helps. They want to see numbers and data if you claim to have them.

-Charlie Ping
Auburn University FSAE 1999-present
http://eng.auburn.edu/organizations/SAE/AUFSAE/sig.jpg