Seeking advice on undergrad mechanical engineering programs

[Ari Baquet]

I am a high school junior researching mechanical engineering programs that let freshmen, not just upperclassmen, get involved in Formula SAE, and that are working on an aero package for their car. Are any of you in such a program that you would highly recommend? I'd appreciate the advice. Many thanks.

[Ari Baquet]

I am a high school junior researching mechanical engineering programs that let freshmen, not just upperclassmen, get involved in Formula SAE, and that are working on an aero package for their car. Are any of you in such a program that you would highly recommend? I'd appreciate the advice. Many thanks.

[KevinD]

We allow anyone interested to join our program here at UTA (university of Texas at Arlington), year doesn't matter. we also have an Aero package on our cars, and have had one for quite a few years now. what ever it may be, carbon layup, CFD, windtunnel testing, we do it all here, so i would be glad to show you around if you wanted to take a tour! (although i have no idea where your located)

[bbcb750]

We allow interested freshmen to get involved with Formula SAE as much as they want/courseload can handle. In fact we encourage freshmen to get involved with all aspects of the project. We plan to use aero again this year. If you are around the Philadelphia area let us know so we can show you around.

Drexel Racing

[Ari Baquet]

I'll contact both UTA and Drexel. How can I reach you personally in case I visit? (I'm in Los Angeles.)
Thanks very much,
--Ari Baquet (ari_baquet@hotmail.com)

[Bryan Hagenauer]

LA huh? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Cal Poly Pomona runs an aero setup. I think you'll find at many teams, anyone is allowed to join and do as much as they want. The team may be run by upperclassmen, but plain old man-hours are one of the most scarce resources we have.

You can PM me if you would like a tour sometime- or we are hosting an autocross at California Speedway this weekend and will likely be running an old car on Saturday. You are welcome to come hang out.

[Jersey Tom]

Colorado FSAE.. any year any major is welcome to come in and roll with us. I'd think most schools are like this.

Aero package? Probably not, though its possible. We feel the benefits just aren't there for the speed at competition.

[KevinD]

if you want to get ahold of me personally, kevin@rennlist.net is my e-mail. i can give you any other contact information you may need from there. i'll be sure to get you in touch with the aero guy here if you do decide to visit.

[mtg]

Contact the UMR team as well.

[Homemade WRX]

we welcome all years and all degrees so long as you come to work and be part of the team
generally for engineering freshmen you are either in a apprentice type role working on a sub-team of your desire, you do any manual labor asked of you or you are put in charge of a simple part of the car....

[Sathersc]

We're working on actively recruiting freshman here for our team at Miami University. We're trying to build both our engineering and FSAE programs. Plus, really hot girls? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Mike Meechan]

Hi,

Why not consider studying at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, in the heart of Motorsport Valley. We're have one of the best-performing UK Formula SAE teams, and place students with all of the local motorsport companies, including F1 (14% of our graduates go straight into F1, while 43% go into other motorsport). We have a couple for former F1 personnel as academics here, including Geoff Goddard, who designed Michael Schumacher's first race-winning engine (and another 173 other race-winning engines). He headed up the engine design team at Arrows who subsequently created the 2005 F1 championship-winning RenaultF1 V10.

This summer, we're moving in to a brand new 50,000 square feet $18M building designed from the ground up with motorsport as its core team, and part-equipped with the help of local companies such as Xtrac, Prodrive, WilliamsF1, RenaultF1, McLaren Electronics, Menard and MIRA to create a world-class, cutting edge motorsport teaching and learning environment. Check out the website at http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/technology/mechanical/...sport_Eng/index.htm! (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/technology/mechanical/courses/Motorsport_Eng/index.htm!)

or our Motorsport Knowledge Exchange at http://www.msportknowledge.ac.uk

[Wes]

Come to UWP in sunny Wisconsin. Our student/teacher ratio is outstanding. I can not overstate how great it is to know each of your teachers and have them know you by name. Our FE scores are excellent, and ME is currently the largest major on campus.
As for the formula team. If it was not for underclassmen we would have a 3 man team. We need as many recruits as we can get.
If only our guy/girl ratio were as nice as the student/teacher ratio.

[Aaron Bailey]

Cal Poly SLO is good hands on as a freshman. Our freshman help design and build and are on machines the first day. We are planning on an aero package for next year, but need someone whos dedicated! Sounds like you. shoot me an email if more interested in Cal Poly SLO!

[Ari Baquet]

Thank you--and thanks also to everyone who has posted with information on this site. It gave me a great deal to research. Based on the post here from Mike Meechan in the UK, I'm going to England in six weeks to look at universities with majors in motorsport engineering. I think they may have a more intense focus on racing than mechanical engineering programs in the United States. I can post about it in the Fall if anybody is curious.

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

Ari, believe me when i say you don't want to go to school outside southern california. there's too many downsides to anywhere else. on that note, pomona's got a pretty good team, and they run some pretty gigantic wings.

[JerryLH3]

I don't know. Studying in the UK would seem pretty tempting to me as well. I've considered going over there after I finish my undergrad to get a graduate degree in Motorsports Engineering. If nothing else, it seems like one hell of a fun year.