First Place Finish for Penn’s Electric Race Car

First Place Finish for Penn's Electric Race Car

September 8, 2015, Volume 62, No. 04

 

The Penn Electric Racing team in Nebraska this summer: (back row, left to right) Jeremy Wright, Eli Gottlieb, Jay Fleischer, Tommy Sutton, David (Xiaohan) Chen, Manfred Reiche, Prith Gowda, Jason Chen and Courtney Kobata; (front row, left to right) Foster Collins, Dan Shanks, Adam Farabaugh (seated in car), Andrew Remec, Forrest Milburn and Parth Patel.All the students are in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM), except Parth Patel, who is in electrical and systems engineering (ESE).An additional 20 members of the team did not travel to Nebraska, but contributed to the design and construction of the car. The team members who returned to campus with SEAS Dean Vijay Kumar (in center): Parth Patel, Forrest Milburn, Jason Chen, Jay Fleischer, Andrew Remec, Prith Gowda, Jeremy Wright, Tyrrell McCurbin, Dan Shanks, Courtney Kobata and Penn Engineering Professor Andy Jackson.

Penn Electric Racing has taken home top honors at an international competition.

The automotive engineering society SAE International hosts an annual series of racing events designed to spur creativity, innovation and problem solving in the next generation of engineering students. Its Formula SAE competition pits custom-built, high-performance racecars against one another. This year, over the weekend of June 17, it brought in more than 100 teams, hailing from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India and Japan.

Gas-powered racers made up a majority of the field, but Penn's team set out to show that an electric car could hold its own against them. The more than 30 student members are united by their desire to push the envelope of what an electric car can do, not only in terms of its environmental bona fides but the qualities that make driving fun.A high-speed test track is the perfect venue for such a synthesis. 

Even getting on the track is an accomplishment. Most of the 20 electric racing teams that came to the Lincoln, Nebraska event, including peer automotive engineering powerhouses MIT and Carnegie Mellon, were disqualified during the event's exacting technical inspections.

Penn's car last year, REV0, met with that fate. Drawing on the lessons learned there, the team put a year's worth of fine-tuning into its successor, REV1. Beyond design upgrades in the shop, the team was able to do more rigorous field-testing of their vehicle this year. The opening of Pennovation Works (Almanac March 3, 2015) allowed for extra practice space.  

Their hard work paid off. REV1 took first place among electrics overall, winning seven of the eight categories. These included overall design, cornering, endurance and time-trials on a full racetrack. The acceleration test was one of the team's strongest suits; beyond taking first among electrics, REV1 would have beaten all but three of the gas-powered cars. 

"We had our fingers crossed, but we really didn't need to. The car worked flawlessly," said Andy Jackson, the team's faculty advisor, at a ceremony marking the team's return to campus.

Dr. Jackson, a professor of practice in the School of Engineering and Applied Science's department of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics (MEAM), stressed that his role on the team was merely an administrative one and that the students did all of the work on the car themselves.

Not only are they involved in all aspects of its design, fabrication and testing, but senior team members are also responsible for recruiting and training their successors.

The team is looking to raise additional funds for the 2015-2016 year. They have put together a budget with the goal of being the top-performing race car, gasoline or electric, in FSAE Lincoln in June 2016. They would like to identify a team sponsor and major donor, such as GM, and are working on this.

"This is an incredible learning experience for the students," Dr. Jackson said. "Next year, we expect to be not only the clear winner among electric cars but to beat most of the gasoline cars, too."

 

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