NIU engineering students raced their way into some impressive company with their hand-built Formula racing car, placing 19th out of a field of 108 teams representing the world’s top engineering schools.
The 15-person team from the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology designed and built the car, which was raced at the annual Formula SAE competition hosted by the Society for Automotive Engineers in Detroit last May. The car finished ahead of all other entries from Illinois and left in the dust cars from schools such as Michigan, MIT and Cornell. Also at the competition were teams from some of the top engineering schools in Austria, Australia, Canada, South America, South Korea and Japan.
The victory was a testament to the talents and determination of the entire team, said Eric Gotlund, who led the effort. He estimated that team members averaged more than 40 hours a week, per person, on the extra-curricular project. They designed, machined, installed, tested and refined nearly every piece of the car other than the engine and the wheels, Gotland said .
They cut the weight of their previous entry by 25 percent, doubled the power output of the engine and raised nearly $30,000 from donors to fund the project. Their efforts were meticulously recorded in an 800-page report reviewed by the judges.
In Detroit, the car was scrutinized by some of the auto industry’s top engineers and subjected to grueling tests, including a 22-mile marathon race that 70 percent of the student-built cars didn’t survive.
“What the students accomplished this year was quite remarkable. Schools that continually finish in the top tier are typically the engineering powerhouses, with budgets much larger than ours,” said Professor Brianno Coller, faculty adviser for the team. “What our students lacked in those areas, however, they made up for in smarts, creativity and sweat.”
The team’s commitment paid off in more than just an impressive finish at the competition. For the last two years, every graduating member of the NIU Motorsports Team left school with a job offer in hand, while all undergraduates landed internships.
“It sets you apart from other engineering students,” Gotlund said. “You walk into interviews with a portfolio full of work that most people don’t do until they get a job.”
For more pictures, video and information, visit the team’s Web site at www.niumotorsports.com.
- by Joe King, NIU Public Affairs