University of Michigan Baja SAE Racing Team

As the Treasurer for the 2019-2020 school year I oversaw a budget of over $50,000. I contacted sponsors to build and maintain relations, as well as help coordinate the team in pursuing our overall goal of retaining the Mike Schmidt Memorial Iron Team award.

As the composites lead for the 2018-2019 school year I had the goal of bolstering the teams composite manufacturing method and improving aerodynamic performance through validation and testing. 

I introduced resin infusion, an improved composite manufacturing method. As opposed to wet layups this method reduces waste resin, produces more consistent parts, and has an unlimited setup time. Although highly touted this method ultimately took more time than a wet layup and with more inconsistent results so I learned the importance of thorough testing to validate results. 

Additionally, I designed the side panels, hood, and rear fairings using Siemens NX then validated the design using Siemens Star CCM computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. This software allowed me to quantitatively compare several exterior panel shapes and configurations to determine the optimal overall panel design. I also ran more comprehensive CFD analysis by having rotating wheels and more realistic design parameters. This led to a further vehicle drag coefficient reduction of 4%.

As the aerodynamics co-lead for the 2017-2018 school year I helped design and build the body panels, which includes the hood, side panels, and rear fairings, for last year’s car and reduce the car’s drag coefficient by an impressive 9%. This improvement led to a one mph increase in the top speed of the vehicle. 

I iterated each panel design using the CAD software Catia V5. Once the designs were finalized, I created molds from the panel designs and then one of our sponsors, General Motors, fabricated those molds out of tooling board. The molds were then prepared for wet layups, the team's composite manufacturing method. I led teams of up to seven people manufacture most of the composite components using this process. 

The main aerodynamic improvements came from introducing rear fairings, which reduced flow separation at the rear of the vehicle and subsequently reduced pressure stagnation which slows down the car at high speeds. Additionally, the side panels were made smooth and continuous to avoid turbulence along the sides. These improvements were validated by testing the aerodynamics of the car with the previous years panels then the new panels in a Ford wind tunnel.