Pitt students

A small group of Pitt undergraduate engineering students have been working for almost a… A small group of Pitt undergraduate engineering students have been working for almost a year to build a car that’s acceleration speed, endurance and design will compete against those of 120 competitors.

This group of students makes up Formula SAE, a student design competition organized by SAE International, which was formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers. The group will compete in May.

According to the Panther Racing Web site, ‘The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item with 1,000 units being produced.’

Each year, Formula SAE teams from universities from both the United States and around the world gather in Detroit, Mich., to race their cars and give presentations based on the business models they created.

Competitors focus on creating a car suitable for a non-professional, weekend autocross racer.

All Formula SAE teams must follow the same set of rules, which are meant to promote creative problem-solving.

‘Formula SAE is a pure application of mechanical engineering, which is what’s so great about it. Everything I learn, I can apply to it,’ said Andy Schevets, president of Pitt’s chapter of the group.

Schevets has been spending countless hours at the workshop. The hard work the team puts into the competition, he said, is worth it because it gets to see its ideas come to fruition.

Schevets said this year has been ‘a challenge beyond all standards and basically a logistical nightmare to organize the team.’ The workshop moved from Benedum Hall to a facility in Harmarville.

SAE member Will Lauer added, ‘The 25-minute round trip [to the workshop] doesn’t sound like a lot until you realize that we do it five to six times a week. It’s costing team members who are driving a lot in gas money, and we are losing a lot of man-hours organizing carpools and commuting.’

There are advantages to using the workshop in Harmarville, though, said Schevets, because it’s a technical facility, which means the machinery they need to build the car is easy to access.

Also, it forces the team to be organized and set specific meeting times, said team member Mike Zimmerman.

That’s not the only challenge the team faces this year.

‘We had a lot of seniors graduate last year, which made this year even harder,’ said Schevets. ‘Also, there wasn’t a senior this year ready to take the position as president, so I stepped up as a junior.’

The team relies on incoming freshmen each year to continue progressing, he said. If we don’t have freshmen coming in to learn how Formula SAE works, the team won’t continue to function.

And now, with the workshop being moved off campus, ‘the biggest problem [becomes] recruiting new members,’ said Lauer.

Luckily, he said, ‘we have a few clutch freshmen who have stuck around through the inconvenience of the relocation of the shop, and they have become a real asset to the team.’

Schevets said he is constantly teaching next year’s potential leaders as he works.

‘It’s important to tell the guys who may step up for next year exactly what I’m doing and why I’m making changes,’ he said. ‘That way, they’ll have a much better idea of what they’re doing next year.’

But for now, the group’s sights are set on the competition in Detroit this May.

‘It’s crunch time,’ said Schevets.

Last year, the team came in 32nd place out of 120 teams. If the team hadn’t lost points for fuel economy, Schevets said, they would have come in 17th.

‘In the past few years, we just haven’t been able to get it together,’ he said, ‘but I think this year will be better.

‘And just in case I forgot to emphasize,’ he added, ‘all the work we do on the car, all the hell we go through, becomes totally worth it when we get to drive the car. It’s a feeling like no other, and you inevitably get out with a huge smile on your face.’