In Spring 2025, I ran for and was elected to be the Chief Mechanical Engineer for NER. Since, I have worked with all of the subteams, both mechanical and electrical, to design 25A, our next car.

First, I set vehicle goals. These goals were tailored to increase our score in competitions, focusing on the events with the most points. From these goals, we began conceptual design of the car.

Over the summer we develop the car from these goals, starting with a high level model, setting space and mass goals for each project, then moving onto detailed design. 

My role in this was to keep the entire team integrated together, and facilitating compromises between subteams. For example, I worked with the chassis, Vehicle Dynamics and powertrain sub teams to place our battery in the car, creating a compromise between center of mass, location of suspension mounts, and overall chassis geometry.

I also am responsible for our competition document submissions, so I have spent time auditing the car ensuring rules compliance as we prepare these submissions. This require me to be knowlagalbe about each project, and how the interact to form the entire vehicle.

Finally, I also teach the club's new members, including our shop safety/shop skills training, and a design for manufacturing workshop. Both of these are critical to train the next group of leaders in the club.

Starting in January 2024 I became the Head of the Ergonomics System. In this role, I manage the entire ergonomics system, consisting of 5 projects (Pedal box, Harness, Seat, Headrest, Driver IO. I work with the ergonomics project leads, ensuring that their projects can be completed successfully, while managing 2 of my own projects (pedal box and harness.

Design - 24A

Starting in summer 2024 I worked with the reset of the team on initial design concepts for 24A, the team's next vehicle. My first priority was determining the driver position - where the driver would be located relative to the roll hoops, how the driver's back would be angled, and how much space was needed in the nose of the car for the pedals. This is a critical task, as the driver is the single largest mass on the car, so has a large effect on performance. Also, to reduce overall weight and size, my goal was to shrink the cockpit, down to both the minimum allowed under FSAE regulations, and what would allow effective visibility and controls operation. These final points mandated physical testing.

The goal was to design an entire vehicle with a center of mass as low to the ground, with a 50/50 front to rear weight distribution. Having the mass low to the ground will decrease load transfer during cornering, increasing our cornering velocity.

The harness project required design for mounting points for the harness. This requires strict adherence to the competition rules on location and strength. Compliance was ensured using hand calculations for strength, as well as FEA.

FEA was preformed both on the mounting tabs themselves (in solidworks) as well as the entire chassis (in ansys). This was used to ensure safety in a collision.

I also prepared documentation, including technical drawings, for submission to our competitions to prove rules compliance.

Manufacturing - 24A

Throughout fall 2024, one of my focuses has been learning TIG welding, for manufacture of the chassis, and welding on mounts for projects. In December 2024, I participated in welding the chassis itself. From Top left and clockwise, the chassis still in jigs partially welded, the welding team, and the chassis after removal from the jigs.

Over the spring 2025 semester, I worked with the ergonomics leads and members to manufacture the ergonomics projects, and integrate them with the car. I taught CAM programing using HSMworks, and operation of a OMAX waterjet. Throughout this, I showed how design choices impacted manufacturing, showing how the design of the 24 pedal box, for example, contributed to a quick manufacturing cycle. Below, from top left and clockwise is the accelrator pedal after the first operation, then 24A fully assembled, and the pedals assembled.

Competitions

In spring and summer 2024, we attended Formula Hybrid + Electric (FHE) in New Hampshire, and FSAE Electric in Michigan, and competed against top formula student clubs from across North America. This was the first time our club attended FSAE Electric, and being able to compete at this competition was a long term goal for the club. We ultimately came in 44th out of 70 teams at FSAE, and 7th of 30 teams at FHE.

In April and June 2025 we competed at FHE and FSAE once again. At FHE, we placed in 3rd place, due to finishing the endurance event. At FSAE we improved our performance in all of the static events, resulting in 36th place.

At each competition, I presented our car at technical inspection to ensure compliance with safety regulations. I focused on the ergonomics rules compliance. I also presented both of our cars to panels of automotive industry experts during the design judging events. 

Both of these required me to have a deep understanding of all of the ergonomics systems, and each design decision we had. I presented the design process, from conceptual design on the ergonomics test bench, mechanical design and FEA, to manufacturing. I focused on how the decisions we made resulted in a higher performing vehicle - for example how reducing the driver cell size using Test bench results allowed a reduction in chassis mass.

Ergonomics System Lead
June 2023 - December 2023

From summer 2023 until December 2024 I was a lead in the ergonomics system. I was in charge of design, manufacturing and installation of three project for car 22A. These projects are: Pedal Box, Driver IO, and Floor. They are explained more in depth below.

Design - 22A

From summer 2023 until the beginning of fall semester 2023, I worked on design for each project. I inherited the pedal box design from the previous lead, and worked to finish the design. I started the floor and the Driver IO from scratch. All of these projects are for car 22A

Manufacturing

Other Projects

Outside of my role as Ergonomics Lead, I assisted in two other projects. 

First, I worked on designing and running FEA on accumulator mounts. The accumulator is the enclosure for the battery, and therefore its mounts must be able to survive a 10g deceleration during a collision. I used these simulations to help prepare the Structural Equivalency Sheet, which was submitted to FSAE to ensure the safety of our design.

I also simulated the front airfoil of the car, to determine its deflection. The FSAE rules define a maximum amount of deflection the airfoil can expedience when a load is applied to the end. I first created an assembly in solidworks of the airfoil and mounting, and ran FEA on it to determine the deflection.

Drivetrain System Member
January 2023 - May 2023

My first role on the team was as a member in the Drivetrain System. This was my role for the spring semester 2023. I worked on design, fabrication and testing car 17D, which was taken to a competition in late spring 2023. I also worked on design for the drive train for car 22A, which at this time was in the design phase.

Highlighted Projects