Who Are We, Anyway?

OKAY!

So you found us during one of our events and you joined our Discord. You see the chaos that is the FRUCD server, you think to yourself:

Where do I begin?

Look no further. For we have created this blog which can help you navigate FRUCD and understand who we are a bit better, and how we function!

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Let's begin!

The best place to start is with our main subteams. There are five subteams which compose FRUCD. Within our five subteams, we have roles members can concentrate on. You aren't limited to one role! A member can be a part of multiple subteams and multiple roles within FRUCD.

Graphic showing FRUCD's various roles and subteams

Electrical

Of course, an electric racing car can't run without an electrical team. The electrical subteam is responsible for designing the electrical hardware for our racing cars - this includes the vehicle control systems, safety systems, PCB boards and telemetry - all of which are essential in producing our racing car.

Firmware writes and validates firmware for any board on the car with a microcontroller. The firmware team also supports telemetry related tasks.

Relevant Coursework

Electrical

EEC007: Introduction to Programming & Microcontrollers

ENG17 & EEC100: Circuits I and II

Firmware

ECS36A: Programming & Problem Solving

 

Electrical Leads

Powertrain

Who doesn't love a fast car? This subteam is responsible over the powertrain system, whose job is to deliver power from a source to the wheels.

Our power source in this case is the accumulator, which is a battery pack responsible for providing enough power throughout the powertrain and making our car MOVE!

The drivetrain members in particular focus on motor packaging, the motor controller and differential. This is of course essential since the drivetrain is responsible for delivering the power from the accumulator to the wheels. In the words of our current drivetrain lead, Juan Ramirez, the drivetrain...

Make the car go fast af

With all this in mind, we need to ensure the motor and motor controller are not overheating. For that reason, we have a cooling team whose task is to not only package a cooling system, but a lightweight one too. Every kilogram counts when it comes to designing and manufacturing our car.

Relevant Coursework

Accumulator

ENG100: Electronic Circuits & Systems

EME165: Heat Transfer

Cooling

ENG103: Fluid Mechanics

ENG105: Thermodynamics

EME106: Thermo-Fluid Dynamics

EME165: Heat Transfer

Drivetrain

ENG35: Statics

ENG17: Circuits I

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

EME150A/B: Mechanical Design

 

Powertrain Leads

Unsprung

Dynamics! Unsprung oversees a critical role in the car's handling and performance. The unsprung mass of a vehicle is defined as the weight of the car's components not supported by the suspension, therefore the unsprung team designs and manufactures the parts which most closely affect the car's feel (and safety) from the suspension to the ground.

Beginning with the suspension team - who are designing the shock-absorbing parts like springs and dampers. This is essential in mitigating body roll and for optimizing ride height!

Vehicle dynamics help improve tire modeling, testing, tuning, and telemetry. Anything related to understanding the physics of our car while in motion, vehicle dynamics is it!

Another unsprung role includes wheel package, who are responsible for, well, making sure the tires don't fly! This may include wheel hubs and any other linkages connecting to the axles.

Our team's controls system relates to designing and manufacturing parts connecting the driver to the floor. This includes our steering system and pedal system. Funnily enough, one of our team's drivers happened to join the controls team to help improve the car's direct response and feel.

That's pretty much unsprung! Simple, right?

Relevant Coursework

Suspension

ENG102: Dynamics

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

ENG122: Introduction to Mechanical Vibrations

Vehicle Dynamics

ENG6: Engineering Problem Solving

ENG102: Dynamics

EME171: Analysis, Simulation and Design of Mechatronic Systems

EME172: Automatic Control of Engineering Systems

Wheel Package

ENG102: Dynamics

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

EME150A/B: Mechanical Design

EME165: Heat Transfer

Controls

ENG102: Dynamics

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

EME150A/B: Mechanical Design

 

Unsprung Leads

Operations

Only one of the coolest subteams ever (said by the website editor) 😎.

While many of the other subteam members have engineering backgrounds, operations includes both engineering and non-engineering backgrounds such as Economics, Mathematics, and Business who offer a refreshing perspective on the engineering process. Operations is the backbone of the team, taking care of the tasks which keep the lights on in the background (sometimes the foreground, too) at FRUCD.

Some roles include the finance team, who of course handle the team's budget and ensure that we are allocating our money in the right places. In addition to budgeting, the finance team is responsible for handling part orders.

The marketing team leads FRUCD's artistic and public communications side, taking care of the team's social media pages, public relations, graphic design, and general communications. The website is also handled under the marketing team, along with the merchandise designs.

Lastly, the sponsor relations team focuses on nurturing correspondence with the many companies, organizations who monetarily support FRUCD. While finances oversee the team's budget, sponsor relations ensure that we are getting money in the first place! Acting as our catalyst.

Operations is a great place to work on soft skills and is extremely relevant to student engineers who wish to pursue engineering management in the future. A lot of the engineering students within operations also help around other more technical subteams!

Relevant Coursework

Finance

No relevant coursework, however we recommend having previous experience with Excel.

Marketing

ENG003: Introduction to Engineering Design

DES courses are awesome if you intend to help on graphic design, but not at all necessary.

Sponsor Relations

UWP/ENL courses are useful to hone in on written communication skills. We also recommend having some previous experience with Excel.

 

Operations Leads

Structures

This is structures! As implied by the name, the structures team designs and manufactures the pieces relating to the structural integrity and exterior of the car. When they're not consumed by Solidworks and Ansys errors, you can find the structures team hard at work at the ESDC welding or doing carbon fiber wet layups.

Think of the chassis as the skeleton of the vehicle, serving as the vehicle's frame and bearing weight to all the car's components. Thus, many chassis members spend their time optimizing vehicle weight and tube positions to both fit FSAE competition regulations and ensure driver safety.

The aerodynamics team is a new leaf within FRUCD, with our first aerodynamic package only being built last season for competition. These members spend much of their time creating theoretical models which aid in optimizing a most efficient aerodynamic package through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Any person who gains experience with this role will be sure to use their FRUCD skills in any engineering field.

Fittingly, composites builds all the carbon fiber parts present in our cars. Some parts include the seat, nosecone, pedal floor and headrest. As a matter of fact, the aerodynamics and composites teams work closely together during manufacturing since our airfoils are made of carbon fiber.

Ergonomics is responsible for the "driver fit" aspect of the vehicle - ensuring that our driver can operate the vehicle safely and comfortably, and that our vehicle dimensions fit a wide population who could be operating the vehicle during track days, testing, and competition. Ergonomics is largely focused on the seat, headrest, pedal linkage from a driver efficiency perspective.

Relevant Coursework

Chassis

ENG102: Dynamics

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

Aerodynamics

ENG103: Fluid Mechanics

EAE127: Applied Aircraft Aerodynamics

Composites

ENG35: Statics

ENG104: Mechanics of Materials

Ergonomics

EME050: Manufacturing Processes

 

Structures Leads

Final Thoughts

With that lengthy introduction, we hope that this post educated you on the many subteams and roles within FRUCD so that you can be a part of the team! If you are ever nervous or unsure of what team to join, please do not hesitate to reach any of these leads on Discord, and don't be afraid to make the leap forward! We are an inclusive community and we understand that the engineering design process is a difficult one. We were all once novices at FRUCD and our goal is to nurture a growing community of talented individuals. While some engineering fundamentals are sometimes necessary, we invite people of all backgrounds to join any subteam so long as you come in with an open mind.

If you're ready to join us, we are excited to have you! We can't wait to share our passion of engineering, pouring our hearts out to build a competition-winning car. See you then ⚡.