If you happen to see me walking down Burdett on a Friday evening, you’ll probably be slightly bewildered. I’ll be wearing and old oil-stained, grungy sweatshirt, a pair of carpenter jeans with a hole in the right knee, work boots, and safety glasses on my head. In this get-up, I’m sure you’re assuming that I’m going to a beauty pageant, but I’m actually headed to build a race car. How did I get this awesome opportunity? By joining RPI’s Formula SAE team.
The Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers, not Sigma Alpha Epsilon) team spends the school year building a Formula One race car from scratch. Grinding tubes, welding, cutting carbon fiber panels, and wiring are just some of the things we do to convert piles of material to a fully functioning race car. In May, the team takes the car to Detroit, Mich., to compete against other schools across the country and the world. Last year, RPI placed 56 of 134 teams. The car is judged on many levels including presentation, design, and production cost.
Our shop on the corner of Burdett Avenue and Hoosick Street (not to be confused with the Student Auto Shop located near the Armory) is buzzing every weekend, full of team members working on the car. This is where I spend the majority of my weekend.
I’ve always been a car fanatic, but an interest in automobiles is not a prerequisite for the team. In fact, although the finished product is a Formula One race car, the main focus of the project is design and fabrication. Anyone who is interested in building things would fit right in the shop. Probably the best thing about the team is that they accept anyone who wants to join and put in time in the shop even if he or she has no experience. I didn’t know anything when I joined the team in September, but I feel that my help is appreciated and needed. All the shop veterans are great teachers. I still have tons to learn, but I don’t think it would be as enjoyable if there wasn’t anything new to master.
Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all work and no fun. We joke and play around in the shop while we get work done. The team is pretty close. We socialize outside the shop and probably get more satisfaction out of it because we relax together after working hard. My fellow teammates are the craziest and most fun people I know on campus. They are a mixture of all ages and concentrations, grads and undergrads. Some have tons of experience, and some, like me, have little or none.
It feels good to get something productive done over the weekend instead of spending most of the weekend passed out in my bed. In a way building the car is a learning aid. You actually use what you’re learning in class, such as points of pressure, trig fractions, and CAD. It brings the textbook to life. Being a part of the team is a great thing to put on my resume because it shows I have experience with engineering in real life and working with a team. I wouldn’t want to spend my weekends doing anything else. If you’re thinking the same thing, come visit us at the shop. We’d love an extra set of hands.
