WMU engineering students head to the tracks for experience

Western Michigan engineering students are getting a taste of the world outside academia as they compete in various venues.

One team is headed to the Society of Automotive engineers competition for Formula cars at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. WMU’s Society of Automotive Engineers chapter will send 18 student members with their newly completed Formula car to the competition that takes place May 11-14.

The event is expected to attract more than 100 collegiate engineering teams including some from as far away as Japan, Germany and India. About 2,000 students are expected to be in the stands.

Over the course of a three-day competition, a jury of experts from the motorsport, automotive and supplier industries will judge the design, cost and business planning of all the competitors as they look for the best team and vehicle.

The teams’ on-track performance scores also will be factored in the final decisions as they demonstrate how well the vehicles hold up under real-life conditions. The team judged to have the best overall vehicle design, cost management, sales presentation and on-track performance will win the competition.

Another group of WMU engineering students traveled with the solar race car Sunseeker for a May 5-7 track race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As part of the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 the track sponsored a race for solar vehicles. Emerging Tech Day, May 7, at the track highlighted the Indy’s original purpose of serving as a testing ground for new technology.

Sunseeker and its team of 15 students and two advisers left the WMU campus May 2, to travel to Indianapolis for the week. Sunseeker was among the cars that made the grade and took to the road track inside the speedway’s 2.5-mile oval for three days of racing. It placed sixth in the race.

Team adviser Abraham Poot says the WMU solar car is an extensively reworked version of the 2010 race car. Significant changes include replacement of the solar array shell with high-efficiency, terrestrial-grade solar cells. The new cells are a required for the upcoming 2012 cross country race. They are intended to lower the expense of solar racing and allowing more teams to field an entry.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Cheryl Roland, Western Michigan University