This story was originally published in Vol. 33, Issue 6 (February 2023)
WSU Vancouver’s Formula VanCougs club is a small team of students dedicated to designing, building and racing a car in the annual Formula SAE student design competition.
The team is currently in the conceptual design phase of the creation process, with construction of the car scheduled to begin in the summer, according to Chief Engineer Mason Richardson. They will spend the entirety of next school year testing the car before the 2024 competition.
Formula VanCougs’ membership is composed of students from various fields, including mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, business majors and finance majors, according to Richardson.
Richardson said that the path to competition has been filled with many obstacles, such as having no dedicated shop space for working on the car. Formula VanCougs have never competed in the Formula SAE before, whereas WSU Pullman has been racing for decades. Richardson was a member of Pullman’s team before the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasized that there are key differences between working on an established team and a new team.
“The biggest challenge is taking something that has no instructions to build, no real direction other than [Formula SAE] textbooks available. … How do I build a race car from nothing?” said Richardson.
Steven Selix, the club’s president, said that funding one of these cars is no easy task. Previously, Selix and Richardson would handle the administration, business and sponsorship end of the club, as well as leading the assembling of the race car. Finding someone separate to handle the business and administration end of the club was an important step. Marketing student Robert Pinedo now handles the business administration of things as chief of operations, a change that both Richardson and Selix emphasize as crucial.
“It’s a huge task to raise [$50,000] to build one of these cars from scratch and [Pinedo] has a very solid business plan that should be recognized as a necessary variable of our team’s success,” Selix said. “We are a multidisciplinary team by the nature of our project, so all areas should be recognized for their contributions, as all of them are needed to bring a [Formula SAE] car to realization.”
The team received $5,000 for batteries from Tesla, who is sponsoring the team. Additionally, the team is also sponsored by HYDAC, SolidWorks and Mastercam. Richardson equated what they’re building to a business, with the product being the car they deliver to the sponsors and the Formula SAE judges.
Richardson said that the coursework at WSU Vancouver and the club’s goals are highly aligned. Classes such as dynamic systems and control, heat transfer design and computer aided engineering are directly related to designing a car like this. Involvement in Formula VanCougs has the potential to prepare students in advance for their classes.
“It’s really cool. And especially like the people I’m leading. … they’re doing something a year before they’re supposed to learn it. So they’ll go in and basically kind of know what’s up,” said Richardson.
Part of the challenge at the Formula SAE is passing the inspection set by the committee responsible for the competition. 75 teams attend the competition each year but few pass inspections set by the competition committee to compete in dynamic events or races and autocross events, according to Richardson. There are also static events, like tilting the car.
Currently the team is looking for people to join, as they wrap up the design phase and begin registration next September for the 2024 Formula SAE competition in June. Strong communication and dedication to the club is crucial to their success, according to Richardson.
To stay updated on the Formula VanCougs’ progress, follow them on Facebook, Coug Presence or Instagram at @formulavan- cougsofficial.
Shawyan is a junior studying computer science at WSU Vancouver.