CMR 15e is coming together nicely. After numerous hours being spent on the designs of the vehicle, we have just gotten our chassis tubes back from Cartesian and progress is currently being made to weld it together. CMR 15e will be an even greater success than CMR 14e and more updates will be coming on 15e’s status. Thanks again Cartesian!
The Carnegie Mellon Racing Team participated in the annual fall activities fair this past week, which gave the team the opportunity to interact with both new and returning students. The activities fair was a great way to increase awareness of our team on campus and that led to a growing interest in our organization. The activities fair was a huge success as the team was able to recruit several new members for this upcoming year and that will aid us greatly in our goal to build a new electric vehicle from scratch.
The Formula SAE Hybrid Competition in New Hampshire was a great learning experience for our team and it was a great way to prepare the team for the Formula SAE Lincoln Competition. CMR received the IEEE’s Engineering the Future Award for meeting the requirements of being a “highly integrated team representing multiple IEEE technologies of interest, a vehicle that piques interest as a proper race car, and design and fabrication both ingenious and interesting.” CMR is grateful for this award and we hope to continue our success at the Lincoln Competition as our aim is to place 1st overall.
After a challenging month leading up to and during Formula Hybrid Competition, CMR has officially competed in our first electric competition!
In one of the most successful finishes in CMR history, 14e took home 3rd place overall in the electric category, but winning 1st place in design! This in addition to the IEEE Engineering the Future Award which recognized the most progressive and technologically advanced vehicle.
Although a week of all-nighters during competition for our electric team was not enough to overcome the electronics issues and ultimately prevented us from passing inspection, as a first-year vehicle CMR has accomplished much more than any competitor or judge ever anticipated.
We are looking forward to build on this success at our next competition this June in Lincoln, Nebraska, and also for next year’s vehicle.
With Hybrid Competition closing in, wiring has reached a never before seen level at CMR. Orange conduit surrounds the tractive system and the Charge Car Garage is humming non-stop until competition. Look out for us at Formula Hybrid starting on Monday!
Today CMR hosted it first ever unveiling for our new electric vehicle. CMR 14e braved the rain in all but our battery packs to show off to the CMU community and new President Subra Suresh. He was very excited about the project and told us to go for the win!
Several all-nighters in the past week have pushed us extremely close to driving, with only a few more wires in the accumulator containers to run, along with attaching conduit for the Hybrid competition in 17 days.
The past two weeks have seen the majority of all mechanical systems get mounted to the chassis, including the motor supports and drivetrain.
We were also very excited to welcome our Formula Hybrid mentors: Nathalie, Zachary, and Scott from GM in our Garage. They had extremely helpful feedback and prepared us well for how Hybrid will operate.
All 6 deadlines in the past week (2 competitions worth) have been submitted as well, leaving CMR to focus on wiring and getting the wheels spinning.
CMR has been working the past two weeks assembling the high voltage battery modules. The packing straps and endplates are now on 3 of our 4 modules, and the accumulator containers are ready to go!
Suspension has also been finalized, with body work chugging along with their fiberglass layups. The next week will see a whole lot of wiring so stay tuned while CMR 14e gets Energized!
With Spring Break now here at CMU giving our team a much needed break from classes, CMR has stepped up with some major achievements.
This past week saw our entire suspension come together and allowed us to reach the rolling chassis stage. In an exciting process, 14e was rolled down Forbes avenue to the Charge Car garage where it will undergo all electronic work and testing.
Two battery modules have also been completed, meaning we are already halfway done with our accumulators without any major issues.
CMR also visited Sci-Tech Day to demonstrate 67 to middle school students. Many were happy to sit in a real race car and experience real engineering!
Wow, what a gorgeous chassis.
With a beautiful Carnegie Mellon Racing Red powdercoat, our completed chassis is now gracing our Garage. Assembly is now set to begin! Look for more exciting progress in the next week.
