无码专区

Since 2008, the members of NovaRacing鈥斘蘼胱�区鈥檚 Formula SAE team鈥攈ave been traveling to Brooklyn, Michigan, each May for the Formula SAE competition at Michigan International Speedway. Over several days, the car that the team spends a year conceiving, designing, fabricating and testing competes against more than 100 others from colleges and universities around the world. In 2019鈥攚ith a car dedicated to the memory of the late Dean Gary A. Gabriele who served as the team鈥檚 advisor鈥擭ovaRacing once again performed admirably, placing 20^th overall out of nearly 140 teams.

SAE International鈥檚 Formula competition provides students with the real-world challenges of systems engineering, design and problem solving, along with the teaming challenges of collaboration and cooperation. Each year, teams are required to start at square one (previous years鈥� cars cannot be reused), working under the assumption that a manufacturing firm has engaged them to produce a prototype racecar for evaluation as a production item. The challenge is to design and fabricate a car that best meets the client鈥檚 goals and intents as described on the SAE website:

At the Michigan event, cars are judged in a series of static events: design, cost and presentation, and dynamic events: acceleration, autocross, skid-pad and endurance. Each event has specified minimum acceptable performance levels that are reflected in the scoring equations. This year, NovaRacing鈥檚 results were as follows: 

• 5th place in acceleration
• 10^th in sales presentation
• 15^th in endurance
• 28^th in fuel efficiency
• 28^th in cost
• 42^nd in autocross
• 45^th (tie) in design
• 50^th in skid-pad

In placing 20th overall, Dr. Gerard 鈥淛erry鈥� Jones, Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research and advisor to the NovaRacing team, noted, 鈥淭his was a very good performance considering the tight schedule and not much track testing for the car before the race.鈥�

Incoming team captain Christopher Auslander 鈥�20 CpE said: 鈥淲e learned a lot from this year鈥檚 car, VU11, including the importance of proper management and planning and just how important a cohesive team can be. The members of our team were and are very dedicated and committed to making a great car, even through difficult design challenges.鈥� Noting the excitement around VU12, he added, 鈥淥ur goal for next year is to improve our car鈥檚 performance by adding a new aerodynamic package. This will help our drivers with handling, control and speed around corners. We are also looking to improve our general engineering design process with improved documentation practices.鈥�

Rex Hamilton, a member of the Engineering Advisory Board who joined the team in Michigan, pointed out a number of inequities among the competing teams that included time off from school to build their cars, government funding for international competitors and more advanced technology. He said, 鈥溛蘼胱�区 did amazingly well against these odds.鈥� His son Louis 鈥�20 ME, one of NovaRacing鈥檚 drivers, had a particularly rewarding experience. In addition to placing 15^th in his endurance drive, Louis so impressed a representative from Tesla that he was interviewed and offered a job on the spot.

Representing every engineering discipline, as well as students from the 无码专区 School of Business, members of the NovaRacing team included: captain James Morgan 鈥�19 ME, incoming team captain Chris Auslander 鈥�20 CpE, Michael Blaney 鈥�21 ME, James Britt 鈥�20 CpE, Aarya Deb 鈥�21 ME, Peter Dethlefs 鈥�19 EE, Andrew Feiner 鈥�19 ChE, John Flynn 鈥�19 ME, Harrison Freon 鈥�19 ME, Louis Hamilton 鈥�20 ME, Nicholas Kallan 鈥�19 VSB, Sindi Kulla 鈥�22 VSB, Bridget LaSala 鈥�21 CE, Christina Maffattone 鈥�21 ME, Devin McCartney 鈥�20 CE, James Morgan 鈥�19 ME, Trevor Murray 鈥�21 EE, Steven Nigro 鈥�21 ME, Justin Pellis 鈥�20 ChE, Samantha Sandler 鈥�20 ME, Carina Silvermoon 鈥�19 CLAS, Nick Villano 鈥�21 ME and Carleton Ward 鈥�20 ME.

Auslander notes that NovaRacing is looking for engineers who are hoping to apply their skills to a real engineering project, as well as business students who can help grow the team鈥檚 publicity and connection with sponsors. To learn more, contact him at causlan1@villanova.edu.