Formula Racecar System Design

For the 2018-2019 academic year I was team captain for the University of Illinois Illini Motorsports Formula SAE team. As team captain, I oversaw over 40 mechanical, electrical, and software engineers in the entire design and manufacturing process of our formula-style racecar.

This top down design process meant lengthy discussions among team leadership to establish overarching team goals. This process involved the use of competition point simulators to estimate the perceived competition advantages given by each target, with qualitative arguments given when there were factors which could not be easily simulated.

With these goals I ensured that each subsystem on our team would target projects and design criteria that focused on our team-wide objectives and that our individual design goals represented the team’s goals.

Beyond high-level planning I also focused on the interface between subsystems and ensured that subsystems were taking a holistic view on their project such that design compromises were made between subsystems for the benefit of the team.