Faculty Adviser

[Chev07]

I have searched a bit and only found threads involving whether or not an adviser is needed at an event.

What I would really like know is how is your adviser involved in your team? What do you expect of him, and what does he expect from you?

We recently got a new adviser, compared to our old one which wasn't too involved. So our new adviser is still trying to find his place on our team, and I just wanted to see how other teams have their adviser fit into the structure of the team.

Thanks

[Dash]

My idea of what one should do:

Help handle any politics with the school.
Help beg for money.
Help with some kind of knowledge transfer system.
Encourage the team to do well/provide guidance for technical problems.

Our team has never had an adviser that is very involved. They have basically no idea what goes into the project, how hard we work, and what our real concerns are. They are more concerned about us providing him food if he stays late to listen in on a team meeting. I've tried to explain I'd rather have the money to spend on parts.

[The AFX Master]

I think we (USB-Venezuela) have a killer combination of Faculty Advisors. It can be described as follows:

A very experienced engineer in its 70´s, passionate about everything race car related and with a true love for teaching. He´s our mentor helping us in almost everything given all these years of experience and knowledge. He is always willing to share literally TONS of information from his own personal library which is nothing short of amazing. A great advisor, a humble man, and a racer in the heart.

A middle aged teacher, always biased to the human and managing aspects of this project. She always question our moves regarding money, public relations and team management. She knows to the tiniest details all these bureaucratic mechanisms involved in money, sponsorship and university relations. Also, has the stronger character of all three, thus being useful to straighten these "brat" type members which appear every often.

At last but not least, our main faculty. He has a natural knack for all things technical. He can set foot on our shop and tell from distance if something does not look right. He wont tell you straight, instead he will ask "why". Although he´s a strongly knowledgeable person, he will always persuade you to answer yourself, truly amazing ability i should add. In fact, he won best advisor prize this year at Michigan!

All of them have TWELVE years of their lives supporting us with care. Irreplaceable people in the short run if you ask me.

Summarizing: You need an advisor, or a set of them which cover:

1- The mentorship aspect, someone you can trust to provide you general advise in engineering and managing things. Generally, these types of advisors love motorsports / machine design / student projects. See him as kind of "project father".

2- Tech aspect: Everything technical, he is who you call when things start to go south on technical things.

3- Money and Managing: Everything funds/leadership/PR related (This is a MUST)

What an advisor should NOT be:

1- A hands on master: The car is to be designed and built by you. Advisors are not allowed to even touch it in ways other than driving it after comp and enjoy the work done http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

2- A selfish know-it-all who brags the hell out of you without giving any real feedback .Wrist slaping is good as long as it does not replace good old advice. You need an advisor, not a Senior Drill Instructor.

3- Someone who steps to fill in the blanks "Because university asked him to do so". Beware of these types, they are absent when you need them the most. FSAE is all about continuity, changing advisors every year works nightmares for teams.

4 - Someone who does not love this thing.

Long post, hope it is useful.

[Sormaz]

Originally posted by Dash:
Help with some kind of knowledge transfer system.


This.

[KustomizingKid]

We have an advisor... but all he does is sign things, mostly purchase orders so we can buy what is needed.

[The AFX Master]

Thats not an advisor, thats a clerk...

[Charles Kaneb]

If your advisor handles all the paperwork and university compliance, but does little else, you need to find a local racer as a "racing advisor" - from karting, small formula cars, motrcycles.