Formula SAE

After leading projects on the engine subsystem team, I developed the skills required to efficiently manage a team and work cooperatively with a group of engineers.

I then transitioned to leading the administrative and external functions of the team as Team President. In this role, I organized and facilitated meetings for over 60 members, including both general sessions and leader-specific meetings. Additionally, I managed the team’s budget, overseeing the allocation of funds across six subsystems and maintaining detailed records of all transactions.

As the external image of the team I developed and maintained relationships with corporate sponsors and the university. To increase public awareness about our team and the field of engineering in general, I organized and held external events such as outreach events at highschools, engineering openhouse booths and student recruiting events at the university.

I succeeded in increasing student involvement from majors outside the engineering department, increasing sponsorship funding by 10% and created a new subsystem targeted towards Media and Business students.

Business and Sales Team 2016-2018

For this event, each team delivers a formal presentation aimed at convincing a panel of judges to invest in their race car business proposal. In this role-play scenario, the judges act as representatives of a fictitious manufacturing company. Teams are evaluated on their ability to create and present a compelling business case that demonstrates how their design meets the demands of the amateur weekend competition market, while also being profitable to manufacture and market. The judges assess the presentations based on predefined criteria, including content, presentation quality, delivery, and the team’s ability to defend their proposal during the Q&A session.

I was one of two presenters for this event and was actively involved in creating the presentation and conducting the market research. My primary responsibility was to develop a manufacturing plan detailing how and where all components would be produced, as well as the necessary machinery. Additionally, I gathered data to estimate annual target sales and identified strategies to persuade potential buyers to choose our race car over competing options.

My co-presenter and I have presented at 4 competitions so far. We have done extremely well securing 2nd place in Michigan FSAE two times and 1st plce at Lincoln FSAE.

Simulations Team Lead 2016-2017

The intake and exhaust geometries of the car were originally designed around five years ago for a Honda F4i engine. After transitioning to a Yamaha R6 engine, it became necessary to revalidate and redesign these geometries to optimize them for the new engine. GT-Power, a 2D simulation software, was used to model the engine, including the intake and exhaust geometries, to evaluate their effects on airflow and, ultimately, the engine’s power output and efficiency. By accurately modeling the engine and its components, parameters such as intake runner length and exhaust tube lengths can be adjusted to observe their impact on engine performance. The goal of this project was to determine how altering these geometries would affect the engine’s power output. Before conducting parameter sweeps, we compared the power curve predicted by GT-Power with experimental data obtained from a dynamometer to validate the software’s accuracy.

Simulation results indicated that changes to the exhaust length had little effect on the engine’s power curve. However, adjustments to the intake runner length showed a noticeable impact on power output. As a result, the runner length was increased from 160 mm to 220 mm, optimizing power for the car’s average RPM range during autocross and endurance events.

Currently, I am working with a team to couple Star CCM+ with the GT-Power model to account for the complex 3D shapes of the intake manifold. This coupling will enhance the accuracy of the model and enable analysis of various intake manifold designs.