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Thread: Why did you participate in FSAE? What was your personal goal?

  1. #1
    Senior Member
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    Why did you participate in FSAE? What was your personal goal?

    Members of this forum have many different ideas about why students participate in FSAE.
    In order to learn more about students' motivation I have created the Google form below.
    It is one multiple choice question about your personal goal for FSAE plus some short answer if you want to share more.
    People who complete the survey will be able to see the results.

    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...rm?usp=sf_link

    -William

    ***

    Questions on the survey

    What was your personal goal for FSAE? *
    -Win the competition
    -Get a job
    -Get a job in motorsports
    -Improve your engineering skill set
    -Build a cool car and have fun
    -Fulfill graduation requirement (capstone / senior design)
    -Other:


    What did you enjoy least about FSAE? How would you change it?
    What did you enjoy most about FSAE? How would you build on it?
    Comments

  2. #2
    For that first question, I need to tick multiple options.

  3. #3
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    OK. I tweaked it so people can pick their top two goals to give a little flexibility.
    But I want people to be honest about their motivation and not just click all of them.

    -William

  4. #4
    I saw the add for the "first ever electric race car of Switzerland" in my first week at university and directly applied.
    The motivation clearly was "I want to build a race car".

    My ultimate goal to start my studies was to work in the Car industry, preferably motorsports but I ended up in a completely different field.

    Looking back, FSAE was an incredible learning experience and the team work / leadership part of it landed me basically all my dream interviews at employers from Formula One teams to Management Consulting.
    -------------------------------------------
    Alumnus
    AMZ Racing
    ETH Zürich

    2010-2011: Suspension
    2012: Aerodynamics
    2013: Technical Lead

    2014: FSA Engineering Design Judge

  5. #5
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    This is awesome!
    We have 26 responses from ~250 views, excellent for an internet survey.
    And people are filling out way more short answers than I expected (~90%).
    Keep the responses coming and let's shoot for 100!

    -William

  6. #6
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    Short Summary

    I wanted to share a brief update on the survey with you all.
    So far I have gotten 48 responses and 80% of those responses included significant comments.
    Thank you so much to all those who participated. Let's keep the responses coming!

    The leader (so far) is "Build a cool car and have fun" with 65% of participants listing as one of their top to personal goals.
    Next was "Improve your engineering skill set" with 48%.
    "Get a job in motorsports" and "Win the competition" were both selected by 29% of participants.

    What is really interesting is the response pairs.
    With 7 options including "other" there are 49 possible combinations. (including a blank second choice)
    But just 5 combinations take 75% of the responses.
    Here the leader is "Improve your engineering skill set" plus"Build a cool car and have fun" making up 35% of responses.

    If you want to do you own analysis please see the data below and attached.

    Many thanks,
    William




    Single Response Count % Responses % Running % Participants
    Build a cool car and have fun 31 34% 34% 65%
    Improve your engineering skill set 23 26% 60% 48%
    Get a job in motorsports 14 16% 76% 29%
    Win the competition 14 16% 91% 29%
    Get a job 1 1% 92% 2%
    sharing experience with students (I am a design judge) 1 1% 93% 2%
    Fulfill graduation requirement (capstone / senior design) 1 1% 94% 2%
    pass along my engineering experience (as a design judge) 1 1% 96% 2%
    Be the best I can be (cliche, but true). 1 1% 97% 2%
    Apply my education directly to something I was interested in. 1 1% 98% 2%
    Applying theory to practice 1 1% 99% 2%
    because racecar 1 1% 100% 2%


    Response Pairs Count % Responses % Running
    Improve your engineering skill set, Build a cool car and have fun 17 35% 35%
    Get a job in motorsports, Build a cool car and have fun 7 15% 50%
    Win the competition, Get a job in motorsports 5 10% 60%
    Win the competition, Build a cool car and have fun 4 8% 69%
    Win the competition, Improve your engineering skill set 3 6% 75%
    Win the competition 1 2% 77%
    Get a job 1 2% 79%
    Build a cool car and have fun 1 2% 81%
    Improve your engineering skill set 1 2% 83%
    Build a cool car and have fun, Fulfill graduation requirement (capstone / senior design) 1 2% 85%
    Improve your engineering skill set, pass along my engineering experience (as a design judge) 1 2% 88%
    Win the competition, Be the best I can be (cliche, but true). 1 2% 90%
    Get a job in motorsports, Apply my education directly to something I was interested in. 1 2% 92%
    sharing experience with students (I am a design judge) 1 2% 94%
    Improve your engineering skill set, Applying theory to practice 1 2% 96%
    Build a cool car and have fun, because racecar 1 2% 98%
    Get a job in motorsports 1 2% 100%
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Will M; 06-08-2017 at 06:05 PM.

  7. #7
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    This was more or less my line of thinking




  8. #8
    I wanted to drive something that was considerably faster than I otherwise could.

    Convince sponsors to pay for a $5,000 shifter kart for an 18-year-old with no racing experience? Impossible (and all the money I earned from work was already long gone towards tuition and living costs).
    Convince businesses to pay for $35,000 worth of design projects so that between 5 and 12 of us would learn how to design useful parts and build a running racecar? Possible, and once they saw us at work, easy.
    Charles Kaneb
    Magna International
    FSAE Lincoln Design Judge - Frame/Body/Link judging area. Not a professional vehicle dynamicist.

  9. #9
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    Thank you everyone who has participated in this survey!
    We have gotten over 70 responses and some really interesting results.
    Particularly in the favorite / least favorite thing about FSAE section.

    I will leave the survey open indefinitely but I would like to share it with the leaders of FSAE.
    Can somebody hook me up with a way to contact them and share this data?

    70+ responses is great but I feel that there is an opportunity for a more comprehensive study.
    Maybe passing out flyers at competition with a link to the survey and a chance for their team to win a donation.
    Thoughts?

    Thanks,
    William

    Current Results

    % of Paired Responses
    32% Improve your engineering skill set, Build a cool car and have fun
    11% Get a job in motorsports, Build a cool car and have fun
    10% Win the competition, Improve your engineering skill set
    8% Win the competition, Get a job in motorsports
    7% Win the competition, Build a cool car and have fun
    4% Get a job, Build a cool car and have fun
    3% Improve your engineering skill set
    3% Get a job in motorsports, Improve your engineering skill set
    3% Get a job, Improve your engineering skill set
    1% Win the competition
    1% Get a job
    1% Build a cool car and have fun
    1% Build a cool car and have fun, Fulfill graduation requirement (capstone / senior design)
    1% Improve your engineering skill set, pass along my engineering experience (as a design judge)
    1% Win the competition, Be the best I can be (cliche, but true).
    1% Get a job in motorsports, Apply my education directly to something I was interested in.
    1% sharing experience with students (I am a design judge)
    1% Improve your engineering skill set, Applying theory to practice
    1% Build a cool car and have fun, because racecar
    1% Get a job in motorsports
    1% general interest in engineering , as well as complex systems.
    1% Win the competition, Get a job

    % Of Single Responses
    32% Build a cool car and have fun
    29% Improve your engineering skill set
    16% Win the competition
    14% Get a job in motorsports
    5% Get a job
    1% as well as complex systems.
    1% because racecar
    1% Applying theory to practice
    1% Apply my education directly to something I was interested in.
    1% Be the best I can be (cliche, but true).
    1% pass along my engineering experience (as a design judge)
    1% Fulfill graduation requirement (capstone / senior design)
    1% general interest in engineering
    1% sharing experience with students (I am a design judge)

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