University Internal Review of FSAE Project

[Burnsie]

Howdy Guys

Just wondering if anyteams have had experience with a review of their project, and what they did to promote the project as worthwhile.

I also see this review as an opportunity to gain some strong support for future years. I was wondering if anyone would be able to email me what sort of support their university gives them, i.e. money, access to facilities, access to machines, supperivision, i have the feeling comparitavly our team pays an excessive amount of overtime, and is extreamly babied in their use of university equipment. Without other university examples however i will not be able to get this changed.

Any Help is appreaciated.

Best Regards Alex

[Burnsie]

Howdy Guys

Just wondering if anyteams have had experience with a review of their project, and what they did to promote the project as worthwhile.

I also see this review as an opportunity to gain some strong support for future years. I was wondering if anyone would be able to email me what sort of support their university gives them, i.e. money, access to facilities, access to machines, supperivision, i have the feeling comparitavly our team pays an excessive amount of overtime, and is extreamly babied in their use of university equipment. Without other university examples however i will not be able to get this changed.

Any Help is appreaciated.

Best Regards Alex

[MalcolmG]

While I think having an idea of what other teams receive in terms of financial support, workshop space, access privileges etc may help you get an idea of what you could get, I don't think a university will do it just because other universities do - but with any luck, reasoning that worked for other teams will work for you.

There's plenty of information around regarding promoting the educational aspects of this project, clearly there are hundreds of universities around the world who see the immense value in FSAE and searching this forum should help you on that front.

With regard to access to machines, facilities and supervision, this is something our team went through in the last couple of years that I was involved, so I hope I can help a bit. The key concern of a university when it comes to letting students use machines is liability. The key, IMO, to getting access to machines is to convince them that you're competent, and not going to injure yourself.

In our team, our initial solution was to have a number of students who were designated supervisors, these students were chosen based on prior experience - e.g. working at machining shops in the past, and were effectively "signed off" as being competent by a senior machinist in the engineering department's machine shop. These supervisors had to be present any time that people were using machines in our workshop, but also one of them had to sign off the other students to say that they were competent to use the machines.

Another option would be to have all members of your team undergo a training course that would make the faculty happy that they're competent to use the machines (it's possible you already have something similar incorporated into your degree anyway). In addition, if the team takes a proactive approach toward health and safety, making hazard registers, having safety guidelines and other practices typical of industry, then it'll give a much better impression to the powers that be at your university, and will help to convince them you're mature and safety concious, and not just a bunch of bogans.

[Jersey Tom]

The FSAE project was reviewed.. and canceled.

[Adambomb]

The university can be your biggest asset or your biggest threat. Really depends on who's in power at the university, specifically at the dept. and college level. Schmoozing them should always be a top priority, as well as maintaining a professional appearance. Doing well at competition (or at least consistently getting a running car to competition) doesn't hurt either. Also working with the university paper and other publicity types is good to remind everyone who you are and what you do.

As for getting access to university machines, I second everything MalcolmG said. Also is good to get a good relationship with chief lab techs and professors (in and out of the college of engineering) that teach machining courses...they're often looking for stuff to do for class projects.