Articles Curated by Formula SAE Judges
A Recipe for Success in the Cost and Manufacturing Event at FSAE Michigan
The Cost Report is a Bill of Materials detailing the costs to produce the team’s prototype vehicle using standardized cost references.
The Cost Scenario asks for each team’s strategic response to an event outside their control.
Conceptual and Objective Design in FSAE
How to find the optimum concept for your overall racecar
How to nail down the concept before putting effort into perfecting its systems
How to get more design points for overall racecar design
How to create a design process that can be handed down to succeeding teams
FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and its Usage in FSAE
FMEA can capture the dangerous things cars may do when put in an unsafe state, and can help the team verify they meet and exceed safety regulations and requirements.
Guide To The 2024 FSAE Cost Module Changes
Materials catalog updates
Process changes in forming, coatings, machining
Tooling changes: 3x metal, 2x plastic/rubber, 1x PCB
New materials for fasteners and standoffs
Guide to the 2023 FSAE Cost Module Changes
Significant revamp of Electrical and Drivetrain sections
New approach for custom PCB costing
Most electronic modules are still cost as bought
Field Guide To Design Finals
In the time it takes to read this sentence, design finalists are capable of presenting data from the same day’s Autocross, along with analysis of which assumptions the data validates or invalidates, how it fits with all their other testing, and what the next steps are to continue improving the car and drivers. They do this for everything, all year.
Competitive Intelligence
Doing research, reverse engineering, setting design targets. Additional insight for teams thinking about making the EV transition.
An Introduction to Cost in Engineering
Engineering is about finding the Goldilocks Solution. Cost is not separate from engineering; indeed it must go hand in hand with it. Good engineering practice goes beyond the merely technical, and encompasses knowledge of customers, supply chain, society, environmental impact etc.
A Field Guide to the Design Event
Chris Warren provides some tips for what to expect and how to approach the design event.
Writing the Design Report
Instead of thinking that you have to fill up X number of pages for the design report, the mentality should be “how can we fit all of our knowledge and work into these pages?”
Low-Cost Data Acquisition
Stopwatches, garage beams, thermometers, cameras, chalk, zip ties, yarn, and smartphones.