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Thread: (Alumni) Lessons learned / What would you do differently?

  1. #11
    Finally - the most important thing --
    The real reason I think all the successful teams stay successful is that they have very active mentors and faculty advisors around to carry information from year to year. I have yet to figure out how to get students to document anything (if you guys figure it out let me know-most college students suck at writing -don't take my post as a reflection on my writing skills either). The most we ever do is a design report (which btw takes at least a month to do and I would guess probably has 400 hours into it).
    This is a good point. For our senior design class we were required to create an end-of-semester design report, which our grade was partially based on. Likewise for juniors doing independent studies, a summary report was required as a deliverable. Unfortunately it was usually put off until the last minute (or week) and didn't get any real critique before we submitted it.

    Wound up being very lengthy with lots of text. Very wordy. Almost a discussion. Not an effective technical document. In retrospect it would have been good if the deliverable was pushed more with required review points.

    At one point we had kicked around the idea of having an 'alumni advisory board' which would have been good.

    All a moot point now with the program canned.
    Colorado FSAE | '05 - '07
    Goodyear Tire & Rubber | '07 - '11
    NASCAR Engineer | '11 - ??

  2. #12
    Have fun and make friends. In three years it won't really matter what awards you won or how well you did, but you might actually enjoy yourself and make some friends that you'll have for the rest of your life.

    Also, your car will probably be faster and your team will likely do better.
    Matt Brown

  3. #13
    Originally posted by Superfast Matt McCoy:
    Have fun and make friends. In three years it won't really matter what awards you won or how well you did, but you might actually enjoy yourself and make some friends that you'll have for the rest of your life.

    Also, your car will probably be faster and your team will likely do better.
    +1

    Best way to get people to actually care about and work on the project religiously is to get them to enjoy it. That of course is the hard part..
    Red & Blue Racing '08

  4. #14
    Again, not an alumnus yet, but it is my 8th year on the team (long story)...so I've seen almost 3 "generations" come and go, and have seen a bit of what works and what doesn't.

    1. As a senior leader of the team, don't get discouraged if the newer guys don't "get it" yet. Have some patience with them. Chances are a couple of them are at least as intelligent as you, and if you give them proper guidance, one day they should be able to do your job better than you do. But it may take a while...hence the patience.

    2. Speaking of which, it can't be stressed enough that you're dealing with unpaid volunteers. Trying to "make them" do something or push them too hard will only result in your team getting much smaller. Don't skimp on the fun, and remember that the best way to hook a new member is to let them drive the car.

    3. A healthy, productive "team culture" takes years to develop. Even longer if your team hasn't been around long enough to accumulate some knowledge or a decent baseline design.

    4. Knowledge transfer should always be a top priority. People learn by doing. Make sure your replacement knows how to do your job before you leave. You never know, you may come back for grad school.

    5. On a good year, we'll have 300 people on our email list, 90 registered SAE members, 45 of which are on Formula, 15-30 of which show up to meetings regularly, 10-15 of which show up to the shop regularly, 3 of which live in the shop and get 80% of the work done. On a bad year we'll have 300 people on our email list, 90 registered SAE members, 45 of which are on formula, 5 of which show up to meetings regularly (and they are the only ones that show up to the shop regularly), 3 of which live in the shop and get 90% of the work done. Not sure how that scales based on school size or team configuration, but that's how it has been here.

    Thinking I had more, but it's late, and I've got me some Design Report to polish.

    +1 to pretty much everything here (that I haven't already re-iterated)
    Dr. Adam Witthauer
    Iowa State University 2002-2013 alum

    Mad Scientist, Gonzo Racewerks Unincorporated, Intl.

  5. #15
    Senior Member
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    Originally posted by Adambomb:
    5. On a good year, we'll have 300 people on our email list, 90 registered SAE members, 45 of which are on Formula, 15-30 of which show up to meetings regularly, 10-15 of which show up to the shop regularly, 3 of which live in the shop and get 80% of the work done. On a bad year we'll have 300 people on our email list, 90 registered SAE members, 45 of which are on formula, 5 of which show up to meetings regularly (and they are the only ones that show up to the shop regularly), 3 of which live in the shop and get 90% of the work done. Not sure how that scales based on school size or team configuration, but that's how it has been here.
    This is my third year on the team, and I find your numbers pretty interesting. Due to some poor team management in previous years (at least compared to this year), I'm not really going to count those. However, this year we have probably 250 people on our mailing list, almost 40 "board" members, i.e. guys who show up at least a couple times a month and do work, and probably 20-25 who show up at least weekly and work on something. I'd say we have maybe 8 or so members who put a serious amount of time in, a few of which probably spend 60+ hours a week on SAE, at the expense of many other activities/obligations. We don't have a baja team either. So I guess that's pretty encouraging... but a lot of our committed guys are first-years and still learning how to do things efficiently. It's a little frustrating sometimes when they have to make the same tab 4 times or something, but then I think back to when it was my first year, having come in with a little knowledge and common sense, and doing pretty much the same thing.
    Mountain Lion Motorsports

  6. #16
    I agree with just about all the above. You did forgot one thing though

    Put effort into getting girls on the team and keeping them. When I started on the team there were no girls. Now we have 7.

    One is electrical and kicks butt at it
    One made the best seat we've ever had out of carbon
    Another is unbelievable at report writing and is one of our top 3 recruits this year
    Another is our Ricardo expert
    and the other two have been in more than half the new recruits
    I haven't done much but seriously, invest in evening out your ratios a bit. You'll be more organised, better fed and less time will be wasted doing stupid stuff like making jelly moulds in in the sump.

  7. #17
    Senior Member
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    Apr 2008
    Location
    Colorado Springs, CO
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    460
    Girls on the team is the best thing that's happened to us.
    Mountain Lion Motorsports

  8. #18
    Reminds me of this thread, started by a young lad back in the day.

    http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...10282841#84010282841
    John "Jack" Vinella
    University of Washington Alumni 06' 07' 08' 09'

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