Caltech Racing Returns to Formula SAE
Caltech Racing isn't just engineering an electric car; they're building a legacy. Originally founded in 2015 this student-run club competes in the annual Formula SAE Electric competition against universities worldwide. This year's event, held from June 12-15 at the Michigan International Speedway, marked Caltech Racing's first entry since the pandemic, which had left the team dormant. Although they didn't bring a car to race in the competition, the team participated in the design, cost, and business presentations, gaining valuable insights from other participants and judges.
Energized and inspired by their experience in Michigan, Caltech Racing is ready to make a strong comeback in the next academic year and establish a solid organizational structure to fuel continued success.
Appealing to the "Lizard Brain"
While many members of Caltech Racing were interested in cars before joining, the club is not strictly a haven for racing enthusiasts or Formula One fans. In an institute that specializes in fundamental research, Caltech Racing represents an opportunity for students to gain practical engineering knowledge and hands-on project experience. Other student clubs on campus like PARSEC (Propulsion, Aeronautics, and Rocket Systems Engineering at Caltech) and CAOS (Caltech Air and Outer Space) also offer tangible project experience with rockets and robots, but Caltech Racing offers something unique: the chance to sit behind the wheel of your project, step on the accelerator, and go really fast, right here on Earth.
"The point of our club is not only to build a car, but also to build a community where everybody is mutually learning from each other and developing their skillsets," says Madeline Egan, a rising third-year undergraduate student and Caltech Racing business lead. Along with the business sub-team, Caltech Racing includes mechanical and electrical sub-teams that work together on the design and implementation of a single electric vehicle optimized for competition. "At the end of the year, people can be proud of the work they put in to create the vehicle and they can see it racing around the track against other cars."
"This is project experience we can use for job applications or our personal benefit," adds David Melisso (BS '24), a recent graduate and lead of the electrical sub-team. Melisso, a first-year student when COVID hit, has been a member of Caltech Racing for five years and has experienced the highs of competition and the club's more recent inactivity. "Some people come in liking cars, but I think the idea of it appeals to the lizard brain in us that wants to see something cool."
Egan and Melisso stress that the goal of Caltech Racing is long term. The success of the club is not dependent on this year's competition; they are focused on next year and the year after next. As a result of the COVID pandemic, the club became mostly inactive, hindering the transfer of knowledge from experienced members to new members. "Now, we are building ourselves back up again," Egan says. "We have an amazing garage that the team renovated, and a community of passionate people on the team. We also have a lot of dedicated first-year students who will bring up the team through their time at Caltech and afterwards."
Caltech Racing receives logistical and organizational support from Guillaume Blanquart, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, as well as support from former members of Caltech Racing, but most of Caltech Racing's current know-how is self-taught. "We read the rules of competition, looked up resources on the internet, and sought advice from other teams," Melisso says. "We learned how to do it all ourselves for the most part."
Technical Inspection and Battery Innovation
Modeled after aspects of Formula-style, single-seater racing (e.g., Formula One), the Formula SAE Electric competition comprises a technical inspection, dynamic racing events, and static events, some of which don't require having a physical vehicle at all. These static events, like the design, cost, and business presentations, involve teams showing how their car might be put into production and where certain design trade-offs were made. For the Caltech Racing team, the design presentation provided the most feedback. Dynamic events involve vehicles racing on a track, and there are separate categories focused on acceleration, endurance, and obstacle avoidance (autocross). "The competition is about being a well-rounded engineer. Yes, it is about building a car, but it is also about being able to justify and thoroughly explain your design decisions," Egan says.
Beyond engineering and design, Caltech Racing must also field its own drivers when preparing for the competition. Having an efficient and lightweight car is important from a design perspective, but skilled drivers are needed to steer the car to victory. "We did time trials at K1 Speed. Everyone who wanted to drive got to compete against each other in go-karts to see who could do a lap the fastest," Egan says. From there, the team chose the best drivers for each racing event.
Before being allowed to participate in racing events at the competition, each team's vehicle must pass the rigorous technical inspection. Due to safety concerns, it is this portion of the competition that governs the design of the vehicle and acts as a major competitive hurdle. Everything from the vehicle's insulation to the driver kits (what the driver wears) is checked against a thorough list of safety regulations and specifications. "It is very difficult to pass technical inspection, especially as a first-year team. Last year, there were 61 teams who attempted the inspection and 21 teams passed and were able to compete in the endurance race. That is a pass rate of 34 percent," Egan says.
In addition to employing a passive battery cooling system, Melisso has also implemented an innovative solution for battery serviceability that does not compromise on space efficiency. Formula-style electric vehicles require a series of electric batteries placed terminal to terminal, like how you load AA or AAA batteries in a flashlight or remote control. Typically, teams have physically welded these batteries together to maintain terminal contact. If just one battery in a segment stops working, the larger segment must still be replaced. "With the way we did it, you can physically unscrew a smaller segment of batteries and then replace just that segment. So, instead of replacing 50 or 60 batteries, you are only replacing seven," Melisso says. This solution optimizes the car for the long run, saving the team both time and money on battery replacement.
In the weeks leading up to the competition, the Caltech Racing team continued to make improvements on their innovative design, positioning themselves to make the most of their experience in Michigan.
The Competition Experience
This year's competition in Michigan acted as a sort of reconnaissance mission for Caltech Racing, a chance to get feedback on their design and observe how other teams operated. "It didn't make sense for us to bring our car as it was not close enough to being finished," Melisso says. "Instead, we focused on making our design binder and we presented that. We are going to use all that information to finish up the car by January." Although attending the competition without a car meant Caltech Racing finished last, as even the design and cost presentations include points for physical implementation, this experience shifted the team's focus to learning as much as possible for next year.
"We competed in all the competitions that you don't need a car for. One of the most informative ones for us was the design competition," Egan adds. "We were grilled by seven judges at once about our design, and after that, they gave us some great feedback. We had an hour-long conversation with the judges talking about where we can improve, and all of us found that useful."
Along with the guidance received from the judges, the willingness of other teams to share their expertise enabled Caltech Racing to turn what might have otherwise been an anticlimactic experience into one rich with discovery. Caltech Racing was the only team without a car at the competition, but they could be seen all over, notepads at the ready, observing teams working on their cars and discussing everything from technical processes to organizational structure. For instance, during the presentation on cost, the Caltech team saw how one team received points for showing simulations of potential design changes to reduce the cost of their car's production. In another example, a different team showed how they implemented a key feature of their design as well as how they validated that choice.
"When you see all these different people who all came at it from their own perspective, you open your mind to a lot of different possibilities and ways of doing things," Melisso says. One possibility that Melisso and Egan observed centered around the concept of accountability. Students from other teams described a culture where each team lead fully owns their system; leads were responsible not only for specifications but also for their timeline.
"Each individual on the teams we observed took ownership over one specific part of their car. We are shifting more to that model," Egan says. "It takes a lot of organization to build a car, and I think we are just realizing how much it really takes. We do have a lot of support from Caltech on the funding side, for instance. The George W. Housner Student Discovery Fund and the Moore-Hufstedler Fund have been very generous, and so has the Mechanical and Civil Engineering Department."
Even without bringing a car to this year's competition, Caltech Racing gained a clear vision of what it will be like when they have their own car ready. The experience gave the team insight into how they might improve upon their car's design and how they can organize themselves to make next year's iteration of the Caltech Racing team more effective. "I really think that next year is going to be the year for us because we now have a foundation of members who are really motivated and excited, especially after going to competition," Egan says.
Gearing Up for Next Year
This summer, the Caltech Racing team is laying the foundation for next year's competition, with an emphasis on training incoming first-year students and other new members. On the electrical side, Melisso is leading an effort to create written tutorials and a mini-course to help incoming electrical engineers stay up to date on the car's progress. These tutorials will enable the team to spend more time on advanced concepts rather than basic explanations, allowing for earlier hands-on work with the car.
On the recruitment side, the team is eager to attract new talent by showcasing their progress. They aim to have a part of the car built by September or October, in time for the club fair, where they can show off the car and appeal to potential new members, demonstrating their cool factor and the exciting opportunities within the team.
Contrary to the competitive nature of the Formula SAE Electric competition, Melisso and Egan stress that winning is not their primary goal. Instead, the primary focus of the team is on providing a valuable learning experience, where students can join Caltech Racing with little knowledge of car design and leave with expertise in the field, and with real-world project experience they can use to land future jobs or internships. The team also hopes to make an impact on the Caltech community, beyond winning an award.
"Getting more recognition within Caltech and showing off for Caltech would be a much more exciting accomplishment than the actual competition itself," Melisso says. "I'd rather that Caltech Racing was a space where people can learn how to use their skills— and how to learn a skill that may not even be relevant to their major. I want us to show off for the school and be a hallmark of what we can accomplish on campus."
"I'm really excited for the future of Caltech Racing. I feel like it is a great community within Caltech, where there is so much theory," Egan says. "There are always sets to be doing, classes to be going to, and Caltech Racing is this nice step away where you get to apply your knowledge and see your efforts come to fruition."
To learn more about Caltech Racing, or to support the team, please visit the Caltech Racing website.
