Grad students in FSAE

[tommy]

I'm looking at grad schools for spring 2004 and was wondering which ones have grad students working on the FSAE cars?

If you're a grad student working on a car, how does it fit into your schedule, and how does your advisor feel about it taking up your time? Do any of you do it as part of your MS thesis?

Id especially like to hear from Georgia Tech, UT Arlington, Cornell, U of IL Urbana, Cal Poly Pomona, Rensselaer, and Wollongong.

thanks for the info...

[tommy]

I'm looking at grad schools for spring 2004 and was wondering which ones have grad students working on the FSAE cars?

If you're a grad student working on a car, how does it fit into your schedule, and how does your advisor feel about it taking up your time? Do any of you do it as part of your MS thesis?

Id especially like to hear from Georgia Tech, UT Arlington, Cornell, U of IL Urbana, Cal Poly Pomona, Rensselaer, and Wollongong.

thanks for the info...

[woollymoof]

Wollongong is in Australia not the US. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Michael Jones]

Wollongong is indeed in Oz.

As for me, I'm a stranger outlier than most being both a doctoral student and a social scientist. FSAE has extended my stay some, since I've changed my focus (from digital information systems analysis to organizational learning and communication) and learned a fair deal about a completely different discipline simultaneously.

Generally, my department's more confused than anything. I've helped make FSAE a strong learning organization, whereas my home department arguably fails at both learning and organization simultaneously. It's been a major case of do as I say, not as we do.

For M.Eng folk, we have about 6-8 per year and they're usually quite able to integrate their thesis/project work into the fold. In my time here, I haven't seen any MS/PhD research done specifically with us, but I'm sure it's doable with the right advisor and some negotiation.

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

[alfordda]

It can be done at Cincinnati. Two or three years ago, we had a couple of grad students design and build an ECU. That was a thesis project for at least one of them. I'm also doing the fsae/grad school thing. If you can manage your time well, it dosen't interfere with class work. My advisor is our SAE Faculty Advisor, so he is pretty understanding about the situation. We have also talked about a few different FSAE things for thesis work.

[wingman]

Cal Poly Pomona's FSAE program is basically separate from the department and unsupported by the college until the team does well and then the school is all over promoting how great it is....

But the program and the University as a whole is still solid, just only as useful as you make it. The lack of school support and mentorship makes it difficult for the team to maintain continuity and leadership, so a grad student might have to run the team to guarantee there would be a car to support his or her research. Having done this (as an undergrad), the experience has helped me greatly in industry, but you may not want to sign up for all that. Still, you can't beat the weather out here. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

I still have contacts with professors there, e-mail me and I can give you some further info.

navstokes@yahoo.com

Either Way, Good Luck With Your Search

[tommy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by woollymoof:
Wollongong is in Australia not the US. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

i know; im not limited to the US.

good replies, keep em coming

[Dominic Venieri]

During my 3 years with the team I've seen 3 students stay on for a 5th year to get a Master of Engineering degree. All 3 have done major projects related to the car. 2 have worked with our faculty advisor on an on-going project involving the use of engine simulation software (GT Suite - GTI). The other fellow did a kinematic synthesis project for a mechanisms class where he designed our front suspension.

I can answer your question better if you contact me at venied@rpi.edu. I can put you in touch with our current grad student as well as our faculty advisor. They can share with you their experiences and see how you can either fit your engineering degree interests into a FSAE oriented project, or how you can fit FSAE into your extracurricular activities.

Dominic Venieri
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Formula SAE Team Leader

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[Michael Jones]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I can put you in touch with our current grad student as well as our faculty advisor. They can share with you their experiences and see how you can either fit your engineering degree interests into a FSAE oriented project, or how you can fit FSAE into your extracurricular activities.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Certainly the best answer. Whatever the stated philosophy of the school, talk to faculty advisors - FSAE and whomever you'd consider working with - to negotiate matters. Good faculty advice and support will trump the other factors any day of the week. Poor faculty advice will do the same. I've experienced both - the former is very helpful, the latter a royal pain in the ass.

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

[tommy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Jones:
Certainly the best answer...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I agree, but I'd still like to hear from the students' points of view. I want to make sure what the advisors tell me is backed up by their students' experience. An advisor could seem cooperative and enthusiastic on the phone and through e-mail, only to care more about tenure and papers than their students in practice.

[Dominic Venieri]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tommy:
An advisor could seem cooperative and enthusiastic on the phone and through e-mail, only to care more about tenure and papers than their students in practice.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Our advisor is an emeritus professor and all his time is comitted to FSAE. He is a big proponent of using FSAE for education and will do whatever he can to get students, grad or undergrad, involved, and getting credit if possible. He see's a lot of opportunity for grad students to do projects related to the car. We're really fortunate in that sense, that his primary interest is in us and our project, rather than his own research.

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[Scott Wordley]

We have quite a few Post Grads involved with FSAE here at Monash (Melbourne, Australia).

I'm Team Leader in my 4th year of FSAE and doing a Masters project with GM which involves powertrain modelling and acoustics stuff.

We also have a couple of aero post grads (Shaun and Mitsushi) who help out with wing CFD and testing. Mitsushi actually did FSAE at UNSW and came here partly I think because of our FSAE aero and postgrad involvement with the team.

We also have Nick Trevorrow who has been with the team for a couple of years and has just started a PhD with McLaren looking at tyre wear. We are buying a whole lot of data logging gear so he can use our 2002 car as a test vehicle. All his work will be fed back into FSAE too which is good.

Aside from that we also have a whole lot of ex members who drop by to help out on various things including wings, bodywork and engine tuning.

Faculty support for the project is pretty good but as for supervision your pretty much own. Which is good and bad.

Regards,

Scott Wordley & Roan Lyddy Meaney
Monash FSAE Wingmen
http://www-personal.monash.edu.au/~fsae

[Eddie Martin]

Here at Wollongong we have only had one post grad working on the team although his topic didn't have much to do with the fsae car.

We are quite a small uni (we only have about 30 or so Mech Eng students in each year of the degree, if you know what i mean.) so i don't know if the faculty would have a post grad student just do fsae, but it would be great for the team.

For people who don't know, Wollongong is a steel town and so mining, heavy industry, steel production and associated things are quite big. Melbourne and Adelaide are the main Automotive places in Oz.

It would be great to have somebody do it though. The faculty are very supportive of fsae and our faculty advisor is a champion.

Regards
Eddie Martin
UOW Racing

[Frank]

We have a three,

Two look at Data Acc and marketing,
The other Chassis, and differential / driveshafts

Frank

"These cars feel great.. SIDEWAYS"

[This message was edited by Frank on April 23, 2003 at 10:17 PM.]