By Malcolm McLean
After a year of success and strong showings in all categories, Concordia SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is hard at work in the bowels of the Hall Building, aiming to win more recognition for Concordia engineering: in the air, on track, in rough terrain, and at the frontier of energy efficiency.
One of the oldest student associations at Concordia, “SAE is attracting more students, giving them a chance to pick up a wrench and apply what they’ve been learning, and to work with others in teams on real-world engineering challenges,” said Andréa Cartile, SAE President.
This year there is a sense of building on what has been accomplished, with solid transfers of information and documentation. “There’s continuity, taking what works from the previous design and focusing on improving the rest,” said Cartile.
The four Concordia SAE teams are: AeroDesign, Baja, Formula Racing and Supermileage.
Last year’s big breakthrough came for Concordia Supermileage in April during the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress and Exhibition in Detroit. The team won first place in the Student Exhibit Competition. “We were evaluated on vehicle design, team management and presentation quality, among other things. The judges were from Chrysler, GM, Ford, NASCAR and others. This was the first time Concordia University participated at this event,” said mechanical engineering student and Supermileage coordinator Patrick Leclerc.
At the SAE International Supermileage competition in Michigan in June, Supermileage finished 10th place overall with a fuel economy of 448 miles per gallon; the team’s best result in over 15 years. It also won the Endurance Trophy for the most durable and reliable vehicle. In fact, the Concordia vehicle’s many track runs the required the creation of an extra column on the results table.
In August, Supermileage sponsor NOK-Freudenberg invited the team to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) Management Briefing Seminars in Michigan, where the Concordia team was featured in Autoline TV.
Concordia’s Formula Racing team attended the Formula SAE Michigan competition in the summer, achieving 15th in the design component. The top ranked teams included Munich, Stuttgart and Concordia’s neighbour, ÉTS. Much of last year’s team is back and working on the 2014-2015 vehicle with high expectations. “We’re taking a very serious engineering approach, where everything is validated, and changes are made only where it is clearly demonstrated why. That, along with the actual performance of their vehicles, is the notable feature of teams that win these competitions,” noted Formula team member Cartile.
AeroDesign is gaining new members, and enjoying forward momentum. At the 2014 West competition in Fort Worth, Texas, a respectable 14th place finish was achieved by explaining to judges, very clearly, the reasons for and implications of a fatal electrical failure. This year, a new test plane is being developed, and the target is a top 5 ranking.
For the Baja team, where vehicle performance and durability are tested in an extreme environment, the results of the team’s new data acquisition system, backed up by extensive validation and testing, is pointing the way to substantial incremental vehicle improvements. This has raised hopes of making the top 20 at the SAE competition and top 10 at the Quebec contest, Épreuve du Nord.
Concordia SAE is a chapter of SAE International, which Concordia’s SAE teams do their work in The Cage, in the basement of the Hall Building, a facility set up with major support from Montreal-based company, Mechtronix. challenges students to design, manufacture, test and compete
a vehicle. These competitions draw more than 4,500 students from 500 universities around the world every year and provide students with the opportunity to fully experience engineering theory as applied to real applications.
“This kind of hands-on experience in aerospace and vehicular engineering does not come through courses alone,” said Andréa Cartile. “People find this tremendously motivates them to learn, as they apply it
to real-world engineering problems, cooperating intensely as a team, and competing keenly with the world.”