Last weekend, the FSAE Electric Racecar team presented the racecar at the UROP Symposium. The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program has been a major supporter of the FSAE Electric team for years. We appreciate their support, so the FSAE Electric Racecar team was happy to bring the racecar to the UROP Symposium and answer questions. The UROP Symposium is a chance …

Last week, we were able to test the car. A running car is a major step for the FSAE Electric Racecar team. Comparing schedules, we are significantly ahead of last year’s racecar. At the rate that the car is improving, the FSAE Electric Racecar is in a good position to meet our goal of placing in the top 5 at …

Our new lithium-ion batteries have finally arrived. Up until this point, we have been using heavy and relatively inefficient LiFePO4 cells to store energy for the car. With the new lithium-ion batteries, we can reduce the weight of our battery box by almost 100 lbs while maintaining similar performance to the LiFePO4 cells. This weight reduction is from a number …

Over the last three weeks, the FSAE Electric Racecar team has been helping run the UCI Energy Invitational. The Energy Invitational is a competition that challenges local high schools to develop a car that only uses a dollar worth of energy over an hour-long race. The car that travels the furthest without exceeding the time or energy limits is crowned …

For the last few weeks, the FSAE Electric Racecar team has been working towards a fully “tech ready” car. At competition, all cars are inspected to ensure they are rules compliant and safe to drive. A “tech ready” car is one that is able to pass both electrical and mechanical inspection at competition. This is a significant challenge because there …

With the start of Spring Quarter, the FSAE Electric Racecar team has recruited a number of new members. These new members are from a variety of majors, ranging from electrical engineering to business. We hope to train these new members over this quarter so that they can help us with this year’s car, but more importantly, these new members will …

Last week, the FSAE Electric Racecar team focused on completing the design report and cost report. While the most exciting part of FSAE Electric is racing against other schools, it is important to remember that FSAE Electric is a design competition. This means that over a third of our score comes from static events such as the Cost Analysis and …

Last week, the FSAE Electric Racecar attended the Winter Design Review. There, we presented the car to fellow engineering students, professors, and the dean.  The Winter Design Review is one of the most important parts of the quarter for the FSAE Electric Racecar Team, as it is a chance for us to show the skill and effort that went into …

Last week, the FSAE Electric Racecar team was able to get the racecar running! After putting in an unhealthy amount of time assembling the racecar, we were able to get the racecar to drive with its own power. This milestone shows how much the FSAE Electric Racecar team have improved compared to last year. At end of winter quarter last …

Last week, the FSAE Electric Racecar worked hard assembling the car. At the rate that we are going, we will have a running vehicle by the end of week 9. This week, Ken Tran will be describing the design of the Controller Area Network, the system that allows all the electronics on the car to communicate with each other. Controller …