In the past at Deakin Uni, the car has been designed, built and raced by final year engineering students who leave the subsequent year taking all they learnt with them. It's usually a few keen 3rd years that take over the show and run with it the following year. This is less than ideal as the guys making the major decisions have only at the very most the experience of one competition and I feel this is why Deakin has had a lack of design "evolution" showing up with vastly different designs year in year out. Unfortunatly, this year will be no exception. We are working to change it but I'd like to know how other uni's do it.
Do academic staff fully support the FSAE program and encourage 1st years to get involved or is it up to the team to recruit?
Do you have subjects available devoted to FSAE as part of your course?
Does the university supply most of your resources or are you left to your own devices to seek sponsorship?
Does your Faculty Advisor guide the team towards a particular design? Is that why some teams have similar cars year after year?
We (the students) like to think we make the decisions but do you have complete freedom or do you need to convince staff before you can head in a different design direction?
What process is in place for the transition from one years team to the next?
Are your teams made up of much more than just engineering students? ie jounalist, web designers, commerce, marketing, graphic artists, etc. Our team is all engineers with one exception.
Cheers,
Aaron Harnden
Phantom Engineering
Chief Design Engineer 2004
I may not always be right, but i'm never wrong...