Every year, more than 250 universities across the world compete in the Formula SAE Competition that demands they conceive, design, and fabricate a Formula-style vehicle from the ground up and then race that creation against other schools. SourceOne’s Engineering intern Channing Schulz has been competing in this contest for the University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s Husker Motorsports and he loves the thrill and challenge it brings.
When asked what the most challenging part of being part of UNL’s Formula team, Channing says “the most challenging part of being in the Society and competition is the organization and time management it demands. We only have a year to bring a Formula style race car from concept to completion. With school and work, this makes managing my time key when involved with something like this.”
For Channing, the results of hard work are always worth the time commitment in the end. He loves being able to meet people across the globe and see a commonality between everyone involved.
“It’s always cool when you show up to a competition and get to meet people around the world that have thought about the same things we have and came up with similar solutions.”
To win the Formula SAE, you need more than a fast car. Although about 60% of your score is calculated from the driving portion, judges also take design, the business pitch, price analysis, and safety measures into account for scoring. This creates more dimensions and a greater challenge for the students as they must consider multiple factors when developing their cars.
Channing finds that along with his time at SourceOne, Formula SAE offers another chance to explore his engineering passion in a lively competition. This year, the UNL team placed 41st out of 73 teams; finishing as high as 16th in Acceleration and Autocross. Now that it’s over, you can find Channing already at work helping with the concept of next year’s car.