ASU Team Struggling to Survive!

[crispDOLLAZ]

Hi all. First let me briefly describe my situation.

ASU's Formula team has been struggling to survive due to conflicts within our chapter government. Nothing is really known for certain right now, but it appeared last week that we would no longer be supported by our ASU chapter, and that we would have to fight for some space on our campus to work on our car. Ironic eh? One of nations biggest universities and we're struggling to get a couple hundred square feet to ourselves...

Anyway, enough of that, I'm not here to tell that story honestly. I'm actually doing some research to help us justify our existence to ASU. My idea was to get the names of some former FSAE participants that have taken their experience in FSAE and used it to achieve big things in automotive engineering or other disciplines. I would particularly like to have email or phone based informal interviews and ask questions like "Has your participation in FSAE helped you in obtaining jobs in the engineering field?" Things along that line...

Thanks guys.

[AJoshi]

Both Roy McCauley, crew chief for Ryan Newman, and Craig Hampson, engineer for ChampCar, went to Maryland and participated in SAE activities.

Here are a couple links to get you started:

UMD short on McCauley (http://www.eng.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=2972)

Roundup for McCauley and Hampson (http://www.terp.umd.edu/3.6/classact/)

Good luck!

[Corey H]

We'll kick baja out of our shop and you guys can have their side.

[Thrainer]

Maybe this helps: http://www.formulastudent.com/press/rossbrawn.htm

If I remember correctly, he said something along "I'm always a little nervous when we hire somebody without the FS experience", but not 100% sure.

[exFSAE]

Go to a freshman engineering lecture, and do a quick "hands up" survey of how many people went into ME because they're into cars, or had heard of the FSAE program.

Your university would be nuts to can the program. Check out a few major company's recruiting websites. For Honda, Goodyear, etc you will find that there is a whole separate referral type that is "SAE" (be it Formula or what have you).

I've been in "the real world" for a little over a year now, and my formula experience went a long way in getting an offer, and coming in to an automotive/motorsport environment and being able to hit the ground running.

I know folks who leveraged their FSAE experience to get work (previously or currently) in..
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Honda R&D
<LI>Honda F1 Racing (Jensen Button's race engineer did FS I think.. dont know him personally though)
<LI>Goodyear Tire / Racing
<LI>Pratt & Miller
<LI>A variety of ChampCar teams (RuSPORT, Forsythe, etc) while it still existed
<LI>A variety of Nascar teams (Hendrick, Gibbs, etc)
<LI>ProDrive
<LI>Swift Engineering (Formula Atlantics, Formula Nippon..)
<LI>I know a couple who used the design and fabrication skills to start their own companies
<LI>Toyota Racing Development
<LI>Ford Motor Company
<LI>Drivers in a variety of race series
<LI>Bosch
<LI>Pi
[/list]

I mean let's be honest. An engineering degree is great, and if you're a good boy and do all your coursework without any extracurricular activity you'll be set for a career designing next generation toasters and vacuum cleaners.

The intensity of the program, having to design a working racecar, on super tight budget and timeline, really helps in developing a confident, "can-do", "get shit done" go-getter personality.

Edit - I just noticed your name is "crispDOLLAZ". That is goofy as hell.

[Corey H]

Talk with Dustin Wright. I know that he helps your team out a bit too, but he graduated from the U of A in 05 and has since started his own F1000 racing team, Phoenix Race Works, LLC. He does some amazing work and he is always willing to help a team out.

http://www.phoenixracecars.com/

[alumasteel]

Both Roy McCauley, crew chief for Ryan Newman

Out of curiosity...

Was Ryan Newman ever involved with FSAE (or any other SAE comp)? I know he has an engineering degree (vehicular structures) from Purdue, but I haven't been able to locate any affiliation with SAE. Just seems like he would have been involved someway...

[Mazur]

I would say that the stem of our struggle is not solely because ASU doesn't like us, but that we haven't been able to deliver a car yet.

The motivation in our team is poor at best. We have two guys doing a majority of our designing/modeling (one of which is about to leave the team), only several of us capable of manufacturing parts (again the one leaving), a captain that has lost almost all motivation.

It's really sad every time I think about it. I swear it seems that either no one here is "actually" into cars or does not realize what FSAE is really about when they join.

As of right now, I think our only hope is this upcoming summer...if we're not into production by the end of that...then I just may give up too.



Sorry, just felt like ranting.