UE Team Performs Magnificently at SAE Formula Car Competition
May 19, 2009
Mechanical engineering students from the University of Evansville (UE) placed 16th at the SAE Formula Car Competition held May 14-17, 2009 at Michigan International Speedway. The international competition included 119 registered teams from five continents. The 16th place finish enabled UE to place higher than teams from the much larger universities, including Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Florida, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, Kansas, and every Ivy League school that entered the competition, including Cornell, Columbia, Penn, and Brown.
The vehicles, which are built and driven by student teams, are judged in several categories, including design, presentation, acceleration, endurance, skidpad, and autocross. The UE team finished 5nd in acceleration, 9th in skidpad, and 20th in Autocross. For only the second time in the team’s history, they completed the grueling 22-kilometer endurance and fuel economy event and placed 18th. UE was one of only 36 teams that were able to complete the difficult endurance course.
This marks the fourth straight year that UE’s team has improved in the standings, after finishing 109th in 2005, 76th in 2006, 61st in 2007, and 30th in 2008.
"I am amazed and humbled by the performance of our mechanical engineering students at the SAE competition at the Michigan International Speedway,” said Brian Swenty, chair of UE’s Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. "Despite having a substantially smaller budget than some of the other larger schools, UE’s team designed and built an outstanding vehicle, then performed magnificently at the competition. Their 5th place finish in the acceleration event was truly impressive. We are incredibly proud of this team.”
The competition’s overall champion was the Graz University of Technology from Austria, with four of the top ten teams coming from universities outside the United States. UE’s team placed 10th among universities from the United States.