Tom Heath wrote:
You know, we're hearing a lot of rumblings from colleges looking to put a challenge effort together for $2010. Your school could be one of them...
Are there other colleges coming besides us and GA Tech? That'd be awesome if there were.
To the OP, if you're interested in starting up a school-sponsored Challenge team, let me know. I'm the Project Manager for Texas A&M's program, and our school funds our shop and car. On the surface, this event seems like a junkyard race, but in reality there's a huge amount of engineering merit for things other than motorsports.
First and foremost is the budget. From an engineering perspective, this teaches students how to creatively solve a series of problems in a group. When you can't throw money at a problem, your creative juices get flowing and you come up with very unique and elegant solutions, something that can be applied to any area of engineering. Reducing cost is always appreciated, and here, the organizers just force your hand.
Second is the technical aspect. To make any car go fast and be successful, you have to have a concrete understanding of the science behind what you're doing. Turbocharged engines are a great application of your Fluid Mechanics and Power classes.
Third is the project management behind the cars. When we were deciding on our car for last year, we approached it as we would any other engineering problem. We set forth a goal (show up at the '09 Challenge with a running, respectable, competitive car in that order), and derived the steps necessary to achieve that goal, and laid out a timeline. For us, that car was a 92-95 Civic. We ran a simple engine we could understand, supported the chassis with quality parts, and made sure to not get ourselves in over our heads to ensure we would place and earn our school some respect our rookie season. I feel like we succeeded. We took the same approach to this year's car, and we're optimistic about success in 2010 as well.
On an administrative level, I have the responsibility of managing a two-car, 30+ person racing team's logistical, technical, human, and financial resources. It all comes down to me and my assistants to make sure we show up with two running, competitive race cars in October. That's a lot of responsibility, but it sure as hell will look good on a resume, and it's for damn sure rewarding.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there's anything I can do to help you guys show up to Gainesville in October. There's nothing more fun than missing two exams and a lab to go racing.
