EAST LANSING, Mich. — Members of Michigan State University’s Formula Racing Team have a display at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit featuring open-wheeled cars they have designed and built.
The MSU exhibit showcases the work of students who design, manufacture, race and market small, open-wheel racecars for the Society of Automotive Engineers Formula SAE collegiate contests. The group is exhibiting three of the racecars built for past competitions: Car 9 (2007), Car 51 (2008), and Car 71 (2010) at the Detroit auto show.
The team is made up of about 20 primarily undergraduate students from across the university, with majors ranging from engineering to supply chain management to economics. Throughout the year, they engage in a “design, build, race” project cycle that includes designing a vehicle, procuring and fabricating parts, building a prototype and engaging in extensive vehicle testing.
In May, they will join more than 125 student groups from around the world at Michigan International Speedway in competitions that test the design, efficiency, endurance and performance of the vehicles they have engineered.
“Formula SAE has broadened my education by allowing me the opportunity to apply my thoughts and ideas to a real-world application,” said Joshua Frontiera, applied engineering sciences junior and project manager for MSU Formula Racing. “In Formula, there are always difficult problems and no one else to fix them but yourself. Members of the FSAE team have an advantage as we enter the working environment – we’re already prepared to identify problems and develop working solutions quickly.”
Sponsors for MSU’s NAIAS exhibit include the MSU College of Engineering, Skyline Exhibits, D.E. McNabb Flooring, Convention Show Services, Allegra Printing, ASAP Printing and the North American International Auto Show.
The auto show runs through Jan. 23 at Detroit’s Cobo Center.
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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.