Engineers at UE Take Formula Car to Competition at Ford Proving Grounds
May 14, 2007

A group of mechanical engineering students from the University of Evansville are hopeful they will place highly in this year’s Formula SAE Competition, May 16-20 at the Ford Motor Company’s Proving Grounds in Romeo, Mich. The students leave Tuesday (May 15) for the Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) event which is designed as an opportunity for students to conceive, design, fabricate, and compete with small formula-style racing cars. The restrictions on the car frame and engine are limited so that the knowledge, creativity and imagination of the students are challenged. The cars are built as a team, over a period of about a year.

This year there are 130 teams in the competition from across the nation and around the world including Canada, Venezuela, Australia, Brazil, Austria, Japan and South Korea.

Listed below are the students involved in the project.

Seniors:

• Todd Chandler of Owensville, Ind.
• Steven Burch of Loogootee, Ind.

Juniors:

• Ian McGiffin of Vincennes, Ind.
• David Mills of Evansville, Ind.
• Tamara Esche of Evansville, Ind.
• Nathan Schmitt of Evansville, Ind.
• Dustin Jones of Richland, Ind.
• Adam Schroeder of Jasper, Ind.
• Nick Wathan of Loogootee, Ind.
• Brian Dean of Evansville, Ind.

Sophomores:

• Matthew Bridges of Henderson, Ky.
• Eric Bunner of Rockport, Ind.
• Lee Riddle of Leavenworth, Ind.

Freshman:

• Joseph Raber of Greenwood, Ind.
• Matt Kaufman of Santa Claus, Ind.
• Ryan Buxton of Boonville, Ind.
• Joshua Dickman of Evansville, Ind.
• Taylor Clinton of Noble, Ill.
• Wesley Walker of Fredericksburg, Ind.

Teams will be judged on design, presentation, quality, cost and how well their car competes in four races – acceleration, skidpad, autocross and endurance. This year’s car is a complete re-design of the 2006 car, although a few components from the previous year were reused. Last year the team finished 76th overall out of 125 teams in the competition.

The UE Formula Car was made possible by donations and help by the University of Evansville faculty, the UE Business and Engineering Advisory Council, Allied Equipment, Bootz Industries, ADCO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing-Indiana, Frontier Kemper, AEP Rockport, Allison Transmissions, Heritage Federal Credit Union, IN SAE Section, Ubelhor Motors, Jasper Engines and Trasmissions, Tri-State SPE Section, Ameristam/Sign-A-Rama, Specialty Tooling, Whirlpool Model Shop, Evansville Print Specialist, Inc., BGF Composites, NAPA of Sullivan, SMC Pneumatics, Earl’s Indy, UE SDF, R & M Welding, and Friends of UE Engineering.