Student Projects

Northwestern Formula Racing

Project Manager

Skye Garcia, Student

Amount Requested

$5,000

Summary

Every year, over 60 students from around the world work toward the same goal: getting our car across the finish line. In the coming months, the engineers at Northwestern Formula Racing will design, manufacture and test every component of our Formula-1 style vehicle. 2023 demonstrated our passion for education and desire to tackle new challenges. As a first year electric team, we experienced a number of unexpected complications. Despite this, we managed to increase member retention, grow vehicle comprehension and encourage good engineering practices. For 2024, we hope to use NFR23 as a foundation to improve the quality of our designs, refine our manufacturing techniques, and continue to foster a safe and intellectual space for our student engineers. We know that Northwestern Formula Racing will prepare our members for today’s industry and beyond. NFR’s second electric vehicle will expose students to the high standards of EV companies and create a group of adept, talented engineers with the potential to accomplish just about anything. At this time, over 30 of our returning members have started work on designing the car. Our suspension and chassis teams meet weekly to finalize suspension geometry and frame. The new energetics team spends countless hours researching different battery cells, motors and cooling methods. Powertrain works to identify the most optimal final drive ratio. Formula SAE is known for its rigor, and our members contribute enormous amounts of time and energy to meet the challenge. Their dedication is demonstrated each and every day as they strive to be better engineers and leaders.

Planned Activities/Investments

With the Murphy Grant, one of our new initiatives is to design and test an accumulator container that incorporates pouch cells, rather than the cylindrical cells sponsored by Tesla. The energetics subteam- a new team introduced this year- and the powertrain subteam has spent countless hours researching the most efficient cells to use and how to cool them. Energetics has come to the conclusion that pouch cells would be better in terms of packaging, and the overall size of the container should decrease with their incorporation- one member argues that the size of the container could decrease by 50%. Still, there are a lot of unanswered questions; for example, how can we incorporate the busbars? The maintenance plugs? How would we organize the wiring? Where would we mount the daughter boards? The parent board? With the grant, we'd be able to develop a prototype before launching headfirst into the project and, hopefully, develop a design that is both well thought out and robust. This leads to another initiative: water-cooling the HV battery. Due to the inefficiency of air-cooling, this year we've decided to water-cool the cells. This decision, however, is easier said than done. Packaging the container will be more difficult, and this undertaking will require a larger budget due to the inevitable expenses a new project requires. The EV powertrain subteam, for example, was projected to spend only $3,500 of their $5,500 budget, but spent over $5,000 on new, unpredicted expenses. With the Murphy Grant, we'd be able to set aside a "Rainy Day Fund," in case this new territory proves to be more expensive than we first thought- like most things- and buy necessary items for the project, like cooling plates and non-conductive films.

Impact

Northwestern Formula Racing's first priority is to educate its members. Many undergraduates join the team to gain technical and managerial experience; in the process, they gain the skills needed to thrive in industry, including communication, leadership and teamwork. The team strives to provide its members with the opportunity to work on a fast-paced, interdisciplinary project that is relevant to today’s world. Electric vehicles are becoming more prevalent in the automotive industry, and the team's EV transition allowed members to gain exposure to the technology within an electric vehicle, like Tesla's sponsored battery cells or our custom battery management system (BMS). Additionally, our team prepares and qualifies its members for the workplace. Students from NFR are attractive and qualified candidates for jobs and internships in the EV industry. Northwestern Formula Racing's impact can easily be evaluated through our group of talented alumni, who do exceptional work for companies and nonprofits like Tesla, SpaceX, Rivian and Spark Shop. Additionally, our member's dedication can be measured through their design documentation- a compilation of all design choices, manufacturing techniques and notes from competition- which often surpasses 30 pages.

Sustainability

Northwestern Formula Racing is supported by monetary and in-kind donations from various sponsors, alumni donors, member donors and families. These generous contributions support the majority of our team's hard work and dedication. As we continue to set new – and expensive – goals for the team, we find new sources for funding and redevelop internal budgets. Although we've expanded our sponsorship portfolio and continue to expand it, an electric vehicle requires a significant increase to our budget. The Murphy Society has allowed us to purchase electric motors, a motor controller (inverter) and other required electrical components for our vehicle. In the future, our electric vehicles will continue to attract attention from sponsors in EV industries. Electric cars are increasing in popularity and companies like Tesla, Altium and Rivian look to support teams that employ electric drivetrains. Additionally, despite our transition to electric, we've managed to retain older sponsors and upkeep our last ICE vehicle. In other words, this project is a sustainable one.

Deliverables

Suspension geometry is to be finalized late July; frame design is finalized by early September. All design projects should be manufactured before mid-February. Rolling chassis- which includes the frame, the differential and most suspension components- should be done mid-February. First drive is next, and hopefully completed by mid-March. By this time, all components will be on the car and ready for testing and competition in mid-June. We want to complete these items earlier rather than later, so these dates are flexible. Our goal is to pass technical inspection and race in some dynamic events.

Previous Project

With the Murphy Grant's generosity, Northwestern Formula Racing was able to purchase all necessary safety equipment for the electric vehicle, including- but not limited to- HV insulating blankets, HV rated gloves, insulated cable shears, insulated screwdrivers, face shields, insulated socket wrenches and a multimeter with protected probe tips. Additionally, we were able to use the rest of the funds on 3D printing filaments and metal stock. We focused most of the funding toward the purchasing of necessary safety equipment due to our limited understanding of the EV car and desire to comply with all safety procedures.

Budget Overview

• $500 Prototype Materials: 3D printing filament, sheet metal; any other purchases for the prototyping process.
• $2,500 Cells + More: Pouch cells for prototyping + testing, any electrical wiring, boards, etc.
• $2,000 Cooling: Cooling plates, non-conductive film, tubing, pump, fittings, hose clamps, etc.

Total: $5,000

Advisor

Formula - Michael Beltran, Mechanical Engineering