faculty advsior. Are they needed?

[chassisMAN!]

How crucial is it that each team have their faculty advisor at the event (FSAE West). Also, are there any forms that they should submit in their absence?

[chassisMAN!]

How crucial is it that each team have their faculty advisor at the event (FSAE West). Also, are there any forms that they should submit in their absence?

[Jersey Tom]

Ours didn't come to Detroit. Was no big deal. No one noticed.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

The 4 years I have been in SAE our advisor has been to 0 competitions for any team that I know of, 0 formula meetings and 0 general SAE meetings.

He signs the papers.

[Dr Claw]

signs the SAE papers?

Thats about all ours does.. It's sort of the root of our crashing the car, and getting the car finished late all the time.

We've done consistantly bad since 1996 with our current advisor - if we had one that was more involved, we would have had a few top 10 finishes in there. it's sad.

[Kurt Bilinski]

Then you know what the problem is! Yes, part of the blame is certainly an uninvolved advisor, but using him as The Excuse year after year is no good either. It's up to the team themselves to be self-motivated enough to make it happen, in spite of a lack of support.

That said, I know how bad it is, trying to motivate people who know full well that you can't do anything to them if they flake out. Kinda like being "team leader" at your job. Since you're not their supervisor/boss, you have no power to make them do what you want. Slackers!

[Jersey Tom]

Its my opinion that having an advisor who's too hands on and is trying to take the lead on major design and team decisions is a very bad thing. But so is a totally uninvolved advisor.

As I'm sure many of you know its extremely difficult to manage and motivate a group of peers on a project like this. For us there was no real hard accountability for a long time, and when people flaked off and blew deadlines there wasnt anything the captains could do about it until end of the semester peer evaluations, by which time it was too late.

Having a faculty member (or members as the case will be with us) to hold people accountable for doing their job continuously through the year is key.

[Zanini]

The guy asked a simple question so just answer it.

In 2006 FSAE-EAST my team didn't have a faculty advisor so we were assigned one by the organizers. In Formula Student going back to 2002 my team has never had a Faculty Advisor attend. Issues have come up where having a Faculty Advisor on hand may have proved useful.

The organizers are more willing to talk about rules/procedures/complaints/challenges with a Faculty Advisor because as any one can see a lot of student team members, even some the leaders, can be a little immature/unprofessional/annoying as hell.

Its probably best if you are a new team to notify the organizers that you won't have a Faculty Advisor attending and tell them who your team leader is as that person will be the team's representative if any problems arise and the organizers will know who to address any issues with. If you are part of an established team hopefully the organizers know that not bringing a Faculty Advisor is the norm for your team and you have been able to build up a good rapport with the organizers.

As for the actual role a Faculty Advisor plays on a team, that is the subject of another thread.

[js10coastr]

They are not needed, but they are helpful. We ran into some problems passing tech in '05 over a design issue that passed the three years before and the year after. It was something that we as students could not argue against because we were students and this was our car. Our advisor, had he been there, would have been able to argue our point for us with a bit more authority.

It's also nice to have an extra body to go get food or things left at the hotel.

[Dr Claw]

Well, i can tell you a team with a very hands-on advisor just won FSAE East...

Another issue is: uni-Credit team, or club team. Couple either with a non-existant F.A. and you get drasticaly different results..

Where i come from, FSAE is the easiest Senior Project (obviously for-credit) to do. It takes no immagination, and sombody else can/will do your work for you if you're home watching TV. The bonus on top of this, is you will graduate regardless of what you do because the FA isn't there to see the slacker in action.

All that is required, no matter how much the Team Leaders vouch for your uselessness, is to write your own personal fundraising check and you get a D-.

Case in point, if grades are involved, a non-existant FA is the worst thing your program can have. Hands on FA's are extrememly needed..