Stephen Harasym sits at the wheel of the car designed and built by the UAlberta Formula SAE team. The group is competing at the Formula SAE Competition in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Edmonton-He graduated with a degree in mechanical June 9 but Stephen Harasym is still hard at work in Faculty of Engineering, leading the University of Alberta's Formula Society of Automotive Engineers race team to an international competition in the U.S. this week.
Harasym and the team, consisting of engineering students and an engineering alumnus now working on his MBA, are putting their car to the test against about 80 university teams at the Formula SAE Competition in Lincoln, Nebraska. You can follow the students' progress on the team's blog.
The students have designed and build a formula-style autocross race car that has plenty of get-up-and-go. With 45 horsepower, the vehicle has a top speed of 120 mph and accelerates from zero to 60 mph is just over four seconds.
But the competition is about more than who has the fastest car. Each team's goal is to design and build a winning vehicle and persuade "investors" to manufacture it.
"The overarching concept of the competition is that this is your prototype vehicle and there are dynamic tests such as acceleration and handing and how fast you can move around track but there are also static events which are cost reports and production cost estimates and a business presentation," said Harasym.
"You make a business pitch for the vehicle-and there is a design event where we talk to industry pros and they critique and question you."
That event-going face to face with industry heavyweights representing companies like SpaceX, Tesla, Honda and Ford-can be nerve-wracking.
"You have to submit a design report-we give the judges binders full of information about our design," he said. "And if someone asks you a question that you aren't sure how to answer? There's no faking it."
Harasym says one positive element about taking part in student projects like the formula team is that students learn from one another. And as a co-op student, Harasym says he used his engineering co-op work experience to help the team as well.
He explains that in searching engineering job openings for co-op students, he found one that required a lot of use of computational fluid dynamics software. And because the team wanted to add aerodynamic "wings" to its vehicle this year, Harasym knew that working with the software daily, on a co-op placement, would enable him to do the calculations necessary for the wing designs on his own time, after work.
The team has a solid track record in the North American competition, consistently finishing in the top 10 in recent years. In 2013, it travelled to a competition in Germany, where it finished in the middle of the pack. The team took a year off from competitions in 2014 and hopes to have another strong showing this year at the Nebraska competition.
Having had the car out on the track a few times before leaving to test it out, Harasym says the team is confident.
"We're hoping to be in the top 10," he said.
The competition runs June 17 to 20.