The MSU Formula Racing Team represents Michigan State University’s entry into the Formula SAE collegiate design series, a competition sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Formula SAE promotes innovation and education by challenging students to fund, design, manufacture, and race small, open-wheel racecars. Since its inception in 1981, this series has experienced tremendous participant growth, earning the title of the largest engineering competition in the world and currently hosting nine events in seven countries annually. To date, there are nearly five hundred teams around the globe.

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Every Spring, 120 schools from all over the globe, representing five of seven continents, converge at the Michigan International Speedway to duke it out for the title of Formula SAE World Champion. Five days after arriving, one school heads home with the glory of beating the best of the best in collegiate automotive engineering.

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The demand from schools to compete in the Formula SAE series has grown so much that the Society of Automotive Engineers has created a second U.S.-based competition, known as FSAE West, held annually at the Lincoln Airpark, located in Lincoln, Nebraska. The U.S. based competitions are just two of seven Formula SAE competitions around the world each year.

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The objective of the collegiate series is to provide an avenue for aspiring world-class engineers to compete against other schools from around the world. The problem statement posed to the students is simple: design and build a single-seat open-wheeled race car to compete in the Formula SAE Series. Each team is evaluated on this in seven different event categories, four dynamic and three static, emphasizing the importance of the entire engineering process.

 

More information can be found through the Society of Automotive Engineers at: http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries