Formula UBC 2019
Your support helps improve Formula UBC’s performance on an international stage while providing hands-on experience to young engineers.
Story Description
The Formula SAE Intercollegiate Design Series, hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers, is an engineering competition constructed around the exciting subject of motorsport. Every year, 12 competitions are held across four continents with over 550 teams. Teams design and build their cars from the ground up to compete in a variety of events that evaluate engineering design, cost, efficiency, marketing plan, and finally vehicle performance on track. Competitors are judged by industry professionals, including engineers from Tesla, Ford, Honda, Bosch, and more.
The Formula UBC Racing team competes annually at Formula SAE Michigan, North America’s largest and most competitive event in the series. Last year, UBC placed 38th out of 120 teams from around the world, and 6th out of the 17 Canadian teams in attendance. This year the team aims to break into the top 20 overall and top 3 among Canadian teams. Formula UBC plans to build on last year’s accomplishments by designing a faster, lighter, and more reliable car for this year’s competition.
Challenges & Impact of Your Support
The team is fortunate to have the support of many local companies, but lacks the financial support required to tackle the increasingly more advanced projects required to compete at the highest level.
Your generous donation will directly contribute to the design and production of our 2019 racecar. A myriad of exciting projects are planned for the coming year, including the development of structural carbon fiber composite components, improvements to our vehicle’s on-board data acquisition system, a custom power distribution module, and validation of our simulations through extensive track testing. These projects will not only advance UBC’s placement at competition, but also provide our members with more opportunities to gain exposure to cutting-edge technologies and engineering methodologies not typically covered in the engineering curriculum. Some of the expenses your contribution will support are:
- Competition registration: $3000
- Tires for competition and testing use: $2800
- Tubing for the vehicle’s chassis: $3200
- Composite materials for bodywork, aerodynamics package, suspension linkages, material testing and characterization, and other vehicle components: $3500
- Materials for mould making: $750
- PCBs, connectors, and electrical components for student designed electrical and data acquisition systems: $1100
- Design software for engine and suspension modelling and simulation: $950
- Materials for student designed exhaust and muffler: $700
About Formula UBC
Founded in 1991, Formula UBC is a platform for students who are determined to get the most out of their educational experience. The team has progressed significantly over the last few years, greatly improving our level of performance and placing consistently among the top universities in the world. Formula UBC alumni have gone on to work in high class racing series, like Formula E, Formula 1, and Indycar; automotive companies, like Tesla, General Motors, and Ford; and a variety of non-automotive industries, including additive manufacturing (3D printing of metals and plastics), aerospace, wind energy, and nuclear fusion technology.
After 27 years of innovative vehicles and inspirational success stories, Formula UBC is ready to carry the team to the next level while continuing to transform students into well-rounded professionals. Recently, the team has expanded to include computer science and business students in order to expand our capabilities and skill sets while providing more opportunities of interdisciplinary collaboration within the team.
The team functions on the principle that each member contributes their skills in a specialized area of interest such as marketing, powertrain, chassis, software, suspension, electronics, materials, controls, and aerodynamics. In addition to encouraging students to apply academic theories taught in classes, Formula UBC strives to provide opportunities for students to gain technical skills that are not provided in the standard curriculum. Our members are encouraged to enhance their learning with peer mentorship and projects involving custom vehicle systems, data acquisition, data analysis, and advanced simulation and engineering techniques.
