XTUP 2 SPEED

An SAE IntErnAtIonAl nEwSlEttEr for SponSorS, fAculty, profESSIonAlS, And StudEntS

VolumE 2: ISSuE 21JunE 2010

2010 SJSU Formula SAE West

June 16 2010, our SJSU FSAE team was among the very first to arrive at Auto Club Speedway, Fontana CA. That’s because a few of our members drove throughout the night, pulling an exhausting all nighter. Everyone who wasn’t too sleepy was very excited to finally be at competition. The first day was scheduled for team registrations and vehicle technical inspections. Unfortunately, through a “take a number” system error, we wound up near the end of the line for tech inspections which de-layed our schedule for the next few days. This worked out just fine though, as many team mem-bers were eager to catch some z’s in the shade after a long night’s travel. A few of us took this time to wander through the paddock and meet the other 60 teams that had arrived from all over the world, including teams from India, Japan, Mexico, and Canada.

At the end of the day SAE International had a raffle going for all teams. The first giveaway was a deli-cious $150 gift certificate to Burger King. The second and final giveaway was a 182 piece Craftsman tool set encased in a red box that shined like a gem. Our team was there to see the winning team run off to Burger King to fill their growling stomachs. All the other teams watched us walk away with almost 40lbs of engraved bling that read Craftsman. So despite our scheduling setbacks throughout the day, everyone was in great spirits. After a bit of relaxing, our team made final preparations for the design, business, and cost events.

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By: John Wolf 2010-2011 FSAE Vehicle Dynamics Team Lead

Day two of competition proved to be a busy day. As soon as the tech areas were open we sent the car off to finish its initial safety and mechanical inspections just in time for the moment that so many of us had waited for: the Design Event.

A panel of judges (engineering industry profession-als) worked their way through the team and asked our respective student designers difficult questions about how they engineered their systems. This part of the competition allowed our team members to express their understanding and knowledge of what they designed. A display with posters of technical data proved to be helpful in explaining main aspects of the car to the judges. After almost 35 minutes of explaining our designs, the judges grouped up and compared how well we understood our engineering against all the other teams.

The review went quicker than expected and the car went immediately afterwards to get fueled up and onto the tilt test. The car was tilted to an extreme angle to verify that it would not leak and that it would be stable in the event of a roll over. The team then split off and the car went to brake and noise testing while our student chapter President, Randy Floresca, presented at the Business Plan presentation event.

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...more FSAE West

www.spartanracing.net

On day three we set up camp as early as we could to get the judges to ap-prove our drivers escaping the car in less than 5 seconds: the driver egress test. We also had a couple of muffler solutions in store for the very last of our safety inspections, the sound test, which was taken care of just in time for the beginning of the dynamic events. The dynamic events were the main at-traction for Friday, which included the acceleration event, skid pad, and auto-cross. All three went well, thanks to our drivers! We placed 4th, 10th, and 13th, respectively.

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for highlights and results

please click below

please CLICK below for more pictures

www.spartanracing.net

SJSU’S ConCrete Canoe team an ameriCan SoCiety of Civil engineerS StUdent proJeCt

San Jose State University’s concrete canoe team recently returned from competing in San Luis Obispo at ASCE’s (American Society of Civil Engineers) National Concrete Canoe competition. The team is proud to have earned an 8th place overall finish with its entry Orion among the coun-try’s top 22 schools. The breakdown of our scores are as follows: 4th in Oral Presentation, 7th in the Design Paper, 12th Final Product, and 8th Paddling. This followed a 2nd place overall win at the regional competition in April where SJSU placed 1st in both the Oral Presentation and Design Paper categories, 2nd in Paddling, and 4th in Final Product.

The concrete canoe com-petition tests many differ-ent skills of civil engineers. Each of the four scor-ing categories is equally weighted at 25% of the overall score. Each team must build a canoe with a concrete mix designed by the team in compli-ance with the rules and regulations set by the National Concrete Canoe Committee. The team’s construction, workman-ship, and aesthetic design creativity along with the

By: Alana Guzzetta 2009-2010 Concrete Canoe Project Manager

www.sjsucanoe.com

constructed display table and cross section are all judged in the Final Product category. Each team also submits a technical paper 1 month before the regional competition and performs a 5 minute oral presentation followed by a 7 minute question and answer session. Lastly, the paddling team practices at least two times a week throughout both fall and spring semesters to compete in the 5 races at competition. The national competition concluded a 10 month season of work. Students designed a concrete mix with 100% recycled aggre-gate consisting of Cenosphere hollow ce-ramic spheres and Poraver recycled glass spheres. Additionally, the amount of Port-land Cement was decreased with the use of VCAS 140, a supplementary cementi-tious material. This structural mix has a unit weight of 55 pcf, making the entire canoe inherently buoyant! The hull’s primary rein-forcement consists of custom placed longi-tudinal and transverse carbon fiber strands. The hull’s structure features two rib-thwarts and 1/8 inch-thick blue and white integrally colored aesthetic overlays.

www.sjsucanoe.com

At competition, the start of the races were delayed over 1 hour due to very strong winds that persisted throughout the day. It was a very hard fought battle by our paddlers with the women’s sprint team and the coed sprint team qualifying to compete in the petite-final heats.

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Our student chapter spent an evening giving back to the commu-nity. Our President, Randy Floresca, alumni Karina Zafiro, and Formula Hybrid team member Brian Lai presented at Regnart Elementary in Cupertino, CA. They gave a presentation that catered to 3rd-5th grade students and focused it on the impor-tance of math, science, engineering, literature and art. They also displayed the 2009 SJSU FSAE racecar and gave the kids a chance to take photos while in the car. Thank you to Regnart Elementary for giving us this opportunity.

Tech Club at Regnart Elementary:Regnart’s Tech Club is a fun-filled, exciting and dynamic way for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to learn about Garage Band, Game Programming, Photo Journalism/Web Page Design, Animation, Electronics, Robotics, and iMovie. Students are taught and men-tored by an all-volunteer parent team that has a special interest in technology and helping students learn about various technolo-gies.

For more information and pictures from this event please visit:http://saeinternationalsjsu.blogspot.com/

Sae international at the teCh ClUbhoSted by regnart elementary pta

Workshops and projects with students and parents

An introduction by the principal

Photo ops for the kids

Please allow me to introduce you to Charlie. He might not look like much, but don’t let his coolant stains and worn bearings fool you. He is the heart and soul of SAE International at SJSU’s manufacturing efforts.

Charlie is a thirteen-hundred pound four-axis CNC mill. He is one of very few Ea-gle 4-axis CNCs and runs off of Anilam 1100 software. If you are familiar with the Anilam suite of CNC control systems, then surely you understand what Spartan Racing students are building with. Let me give it to you bluntly: this machine is old! Anilam 1100, outdated since the

By: Josh Hogan 2009-2010 Formula Hybrid Team Manager

in the maChining Corner

early 1990s, offers very little capabilities by today’s standards and runs exclusively off of .g code, a file type which has been long replaced by .nc.

Despite his old age, lack of abilities, and wear & tear, we certainly value Charlie. It isn’t every day that you find a CNC willing to put up with the abuse we give him. Through twelve cast alloy steel hubs, countless (failed) upright attempts, several wheel centers, gear boxes, and motor mounts, Charlie still soldiers on. This past year, his z-axis broke down due to a faulty encoder. We found ourselves desperate to machine two-dimensional parts by raising the knee as if using a conventional mill (all while the 2-d program was running!). Even through that, he continued to turn out parts which were used on all three vehicles this year.

Unfortunately, Charlie can’t live forever. Our racing teams are all at a point where they have special manufacturing needs, quite often requiring 5- or 6-axis machine processes. As fun as it has been getting to know Charlie, we feel that he is ready for retirement. If you know a possible lead on a 4-, 5-, or 6-axis CNC, please contact us! Sponsorship packages are available with all three racing teams, and we would love to give Charlie a rest.

Please contact: josh.s.hogan@gmail.com

this is Charlie

Charlie’s lubriCation system

Charlie’s way of CommuniCating

The SJSU Baja SAE team has returned home from the 2010 Baja SAE Western Washington event. Unlike other years, the 2010 Baja SAE Western Washington was scheduled earlier in year (during finals!) but the date did not discour-age the SJSU team. The team finished the car two days before traveling to Washington and used those two days wisely to test different systems as brakes, suspension and the new gearbox. Competition started on Thursday with registration, paddock set-up, and engine check. Friday was statics day with tech inspection, design judging, sales presentation, and brake check. Saturday was dynamics day with acceleration, hill climb, rock crawl, and land maneuverability. Sunday was endurance and awards ceremony.

Sunday, the endurance event started at 9:10 am and it ran until 1:10 pm. The endurance grid posi-tion was directed by the acceleration event. By the first hour, SJSU already had their 3rd driver in the vehicle. Around 10:30am, the vehicle was out of the competition due to a fuel system problem. Overall The SJSU Baja SAE team finished in the middle of the field; unfortunately there were no trophies to bring home this year.

SJSU Baja SAE will be working hard on repairing and developing the car before the next competi-tion in 2011. Thank you to all the SJSU Baja SAE sponsors for the continuous support.

For more information about our Baja SAE Team please visit: www.engr.sjsu.edu/sae/minibaja/or email: darrenschwald@gmail.com

SJSU baJa SaehoSted by WeStern WaShington UniverSity

By: Darren Schwald 2009-2010 Baja Team Manager

acceleration

hill climb

rock crawl

endurance

www.spartanracing.netTop: 2010 SJSU FSAE TeamMid: 2010 SJSU FSAE Team and car w/ the 2009 SJSU Rookie of the Year carBot lef t : 2010 car Bot r ight: Our team WON a free pass to next years competit ion ($2,000 value).

This was during the raff le after the competit ion awards ceremony.

The final day of competition came at last with one final event: endurance. The team was careful to pay close attention to the condition of the car and make the nec-essary adjustments to ensure that it would hold up in endurance. But alas, after about ten minutes of racing, a suspension joint in the rear suspension failed, render-ing the car undriveable. And with that, endurance was over for us with a zero out of 400 possible points for the event (out of 1000 points total). Many agree that it was a difficult problem to foresee, while others chalk it up to, “that’s racing.” There were mixed feelings in the SJSU pit, most of us stayed positive and were still glad to have been able to get as far as we did. Our pad-dock area was later graced by the presence of one of the design judges, the great Claude Rouelle. He told us that he liked our car, and did not want us to feel upset because our formula SAE experiences will one day be only a good memory to us. He felt that more important than winning is what we learn through being a part of the project- character, ambition, respecting each other, and building leadership skills that are desperately needed in this world.

Please visit our site at: www.spartanracing.net

Professional companies and concrete canoe alumni support made SJSU’s successful season possible. This was the second time in the school’s history that the team competed at the nation-al competition, with the first team competing in 1997. The team greatly appreciates the help of everyone who was involved and looks forward to next year!!

For more information about the SJSU Concrete Canoe Team please visit: www.sjsucanoe.comor email: sjsucanoe@hotmail.com

www.sjsucanoe.com

Once finals week is over most students remove themselves from anything academic. Some prefer to sit on the couch while others have plans with fam-ily and friends. After all, a hard week of cramming, no sleep, pots of coffee, and several hour-long tests can be very demanding on a person both mentally and physically. Once summer time rolls around stu-dents want nothing to do with academics. No more lectures. No more reading books. And certainly no more midterms. After all it’s summer time, right?

If you ask an SJSU Formula Hybrid member what they plan on doing over the summer break you will find there is no time for vegging out on the couch. For us, summer is a time to get ahead of the game and get right down to business.Our Formula-Hybrid team has been busy researching, designing, presenting, networking, and recruit-ing for the 2011 team. When not at one of our multiple weekly meetings the team is off at events, raising awareness while gaining exposure. On June16th the team had the privilege of presenting to the Power Electronics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It was very exciting being able to present to such a fine group of professional engineers.

Athena (our 2010 car) was then displayed at the 15th annual SAE Motorfest hosted by BAE Systems. We spent the day talking and showing the car to hundreds of vehicle enthusiasts. Athena was on dis-play along with muscle cars, hot rods, motorcycles, formula racecars, airplanes, and tanks. Thank you to BAE Systems for a great day!

After the SAE Motorfest, our team was back out showcas-ing Athena and gave presen-tations during the Generation Green Expo. This event was held at the San Jose Con-vention Center and had over 2,000 people attending.

For more information about our Formula Hybrid Team please visit:www.fhsjsu.com

Manuel Mangrobang, Edison Miguel, and Brian Lai with Athena at the Generation Green Expo.

If you are interested in PARTNERING

up with SJSU’s

Student Organization of the Year

SAE Internationalplease contact

sae.sjsu@gmail.comwww.engr.sjsu.edu/sae/

a SUmmer formUlaBy: John Monson 2011-2011 Formula Hybrid Team Manager

Thank You to Our Sponsors

upcomIng EVEntS

July 9-11, 2010SFR SCCA & SJSU SAE

Hot San Jose NightsSanta Clara Fairgrounds

www.hotsanjosenights.com

July 23-25, 2010Volunteering

Red Bull Moto GPMazda Raceway Laguna Seca

www.mazdaraceway.com

August 4-8, 2010Formula Student Germany

Hockenheim, Germanywww.formulastudent.de

August 12-15, 2010Volunteering

Rolex Monterey Motorsports ReunionMazda Raceway Laguna Seca

www.mazdaraceway.com

August 23, 2010Fall Semester Begins

SJSU

For more events and updates please visit:

www.engr.sjsu.edu/sae/calendar.html

Newsletter StaffEditor/Writer: Randy FlorescaWriters: Alana GuzzettaJohn MonsonJosh HoganDarren Schwald John Wolf

Randy Floresca, PresidentSAE International SJSU

(510) 206 - 3229randyfloresca@gmail.com

www.engr.sjsu.edu/sae

atSan Jose State University