Bruin Formula Racing

2025-2026

As a third-year, I'm serving as a subteam lead for Mk. 11's EV powertrain subteam. This year, we are focusing on optimization of our current system, improving the packaging of our electronics and attempting to integrate ducting into our accumulator cooling system that allows to take advantage of airflow from the moving car. On the side, I am also leading the development of an all-new custom battery pack for Mk. 12 using Molicel 18650 cylincdrical cells. We're speccing a new cooling system as well as redesigning the packaging of our segments, hoping to minimize mass and volumetric footprint as compared to our previous battery packs.

2024-2025

As a second-year, I became the Responsible Engineer in charge of our segments and service section. We redesigned our accumulator to increase the serviceability of the service section (the part of the battery box containing the battery management system and some related electronics), improved our understanding of the cooling needs of the accumulator, and reduced its weight by implementing regenerative braking and optimized wire routing.

Mk. X was our first car to pass the Electrical Vehicle Active tech inspection at our annual competition at the Michigan International Speedway, a massive milestone for the team. We also ran a record number of laps in testing, a testament to the improved reliability of this vehicle.

CAD Portfolio

All five of our completed segments

Resistivity testing on our cell modules and busbars

The open accumulator at technical inspection

The service section, which consists of two aluminum baseplates housing our isolation relays, battery management system, and a few auxilliary PCBs and sits on top of our segments in the accumulator

The closed accumulator, showing ventilation holes in the side walls for air cooling and connectors that directly integrate with our lid

The team at comp!

2023-2024

As a new member on Mk. IX (2023-2024), the team's first ever electric vehicle, I joined the High Voltage/Powertrain subteam. My first project was to measure the heat output of our Enepaq cell pack in order to determine cooling needs. This was my first brush with basic thermodynamics, as well as with using MATLAB to generate plots and analyze results.

I was also responsible for the housing and mounting of a few components on the car. Pictures are shown below!

Custom plastic plug for insertion into the high voltage maintenance plugs on each accumulator segment in order to help remove them from the accumulator for servicing.

Custom shroud for insulation of an electrical component inside the service section.

Two-part emergency stop switch mount for the accumulator charging cart. This part took several iterations to design as it needed to precisely wrap around the handle of an off-the-shelf cart.

Final emergency stop mount for the accumulator charging cart. This mount accomodates a smaller switch the team decided to start using.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse