Formula SAE is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. In university, when I wasn’t in class, I was either doing homework or working on our university’s car. Here’s a picture of the CAD model for the car we built in my final year of university, and how it turned out. When it wasn’t plagued with electrical or cooling demons, it was one of the fastest built by our university. (Just as an FYI, we’re not trying to look tough in the picture, we just hadn’t slept for weeks.)
What’s the basic premise of Formula SAE? Well, it’s a competition where students build open wheel race cars with rules/guidelines similar to Formula 1. In addition to competing in different events against other universities and going through the design process from the ground up, students are also exposed to things like marketing, sales, budgeting, and management. All of this exposure prepares them to be well-rounded engineers. For more information, check out the competition’s website.
At Hawk Ridge Systems, we’re constantly looking for ways to help out students in these programs. As alums, we know that it’s hard to get the sponsorship and help you need to build a competitive car. We’re excited to announce that this year we have sponsored San Jose State’s FSAE program with support and training. Here is their press release:
“Spartan Racing, the San Jose State Formula SAE team, is pleased to have developed a partnership with Hawk Ridge Systems for the 2014 design cycle. Formula SAE is an intercollegiate competition in which engineering students design and build an open-wheel race car each academic year (more info: http://students.sae.org/cds/formulaseries/). Despite having six years of design development experience in SolidWorks, the team has collectively just scratched the surface of what the software can do. Starting in fall 2013, Hawk Ridge Systems invited the students to several seminars to boost the team’s CAD and design capability. Sessions on FEA setups and interpretation, sheet metal part design, and surfacing have helped bring many new members up to speed and expanded the knowledge base of team design veterans. Additionally, Hawk Ridge Systems has assisted students with design and simulation questions on a case by case basis. In addition to helping with software functions, this has helped team members approach their SolidWorks work from different perspectives.
Most importantly, Hawk Ridge Systems was integral in assisting with PDM server setup and management, which has significantly streamlined the vehicle design process. The short design cycle (~7 months from conception to final assembly) requires that designs are properly integrated and mated in a master CAD assembly to circumvent problems in manufacturing and assembly. In previous years, Dropbox and other platforms were used to manage several hundred individual part and subassembly files, resulting in on-the-spot part modifications to fit everything in. The assistance Hawk Ridge Systems has provided has allowed successful system integration to be assumed once the design phase is complete.”
If you’re in San Jose on Friday April 25th, they have extended an open invitation to their unveiling party. Register here. Here’s a teaser of this year’s car:
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