Student race-car team triumphs again at Formula SAE competition

By David Brand

Cornell engineering undergraduates swept the competition at the annual International Formula SAE collegiate design competition at the Pontiac, Mich., Silverdome, which began May 16 and ended May 20.

The SAE (for Society of Automotive Engineers) competition, regarded as the premier engineering student competition in the world, pits SAE student members against each other to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with small formula-style race cars.

Competing against students from over 100 universities from the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Korea and Japan, the 39 Cornell students triumphed in the overall scoring with a total of 904 points, way ahead of their nearest rival, the University of Missouri-Columbia, with 799 points. Ohio State University came in third.

The winning Cornell team was led by senior co-captains Benjamin Kolp, mechanical engineering, from Hyde Park, N.Y.; Philip Hodge, mechanical engineering, Marlborough, Mass.; Raina White, mechanical engineering, Ridgway, Pa.; Keith Epstein, mechanical engineering, Sodus, N.Y.; and Jordan Eber, electrical and computer engineering, Chappaqua, N.Y.

This is the sixth time since 1988 that Cornell students have won the overall victory at the intense, five-day competition. Cornell's last victory came in 1998, which was a back-to-back win with 1997.

"In addition to developing an outstanding engine and chassis, the Cornell team used a systems engineering approach to make all the parts of the car and organization work together to excel in all aspects of the competition. We also place a heavy emphasis on teamwork, helped by people from the Cornell Department of Communication. Great teamwork was part of our success," said the team's faculty adviser, Albert R. George, the J.F. Carr Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of Cornell's Systems Engineering Program. Brad Anton, associate professor of chemical engineering, and Francis McLeod of electrical and computer engineering also advised the team.

"The Cornell Formula SAE Racing Team is without question the best way to learn engineering at Cornell," said Kolp. "It is hands-on, fast paced and challenging. It allows students to apply the engineering tools that they learn in class. More important, team members gain skills like teamwork, project management and communication that cannot be learned elsewhere."

In addition to being overall winners of the SAE Foundation Cup, the Cornell students won the $3,000 Spirit of Excellence Award; the $1,500 U.S. Department of Energy/Argonne National Laboratory award; the $1,250 Ricardo Powertrain Development Award; and the $750 Altair Engineering Best Use of Optimization in Design Award. Other first-place awards taken home by the Cornell undergraduates were in skid pad, autocross, endurance and Russell Racing School dynamic performance.

The challenge of building an auto prototype for the competition spans both fall and spring terms at Cornell, with an emphasis on research and design in the fall and building in the spring. The project cost of more than $20,000 is funded by corporate donors, notably General Motors, First Manhattan Consulting, Hunter Industries, Boeing, Honeywell, Heller Industries and alumni.