Happy September!

The team has been staying active this fall semester! Read on for details about our second general meeting, manufacturing updates, and more on what we have been up to this past month.

General Meeting II

Peterbilt Motors Company + Evolution Dynamics

Richard Fielder talking about his experience with Peterbilt + Evolution Dynamics

For our second general meeting we were joined by guest speaker, Richard Fielder, a manufacturing engineering manager for Peterbilt Motors and the co-founder of Evolution Dynamics.

We loved hearing about his expertise in the industry about the fundamentals of vehicle dynamics, Peterbilt’s award-winning vehicle manufacturing techniques, and more on project management and engineering.

His continued support from both Peterbilt and Evolution Dynamics has been invaluable. Whether by enabling us to cut foam molds for our aerodynamics package to allowing our IC powertrain team to conduct dyno measurements on the car - his support has allowed our team to truly grow to new heights!

SurfacePrep Tour

Anselm showing the team the technology they use.

Our team had an incredible opportunity to tour the SurfacePrep warehouse, guided by Anselm Ball. It was an insightful experience to see how their advanced surface finishing solutions play a crucial role in the automotive and aerospace industries.

Anselm walked us through the meticulous processes that helps ensure materials are prepped for top performance—a key takeaway as we continue to innovate and fine-tune our design.

A huge thank you to Anselm and the SurfacePrep team for their time and expertise!

Manufacturing Updates

Tormach 770M CNC Mill

Final Cut of the Bell Cranks

This semester Tormach provided us with a 770M CNC Mill to help manufacture parts for all our vehicles. This not only breaks cost barriers but also provides us with a more efficient way to fabricate parts in-house. Because of the 770M CNC Mill, our students are getting hands on learning and experience in manufacturing.

We're excited to share that we’ve successfully machined our first part – bell cranks for our 2025 EV car. This is a huge step for our team, and we’re grateful for Tormach’s support in helping us bring our designs to life. Here’s to many more parts and milestones ahead!

TACCSTER

Texas Advanced Computing Center

This month we were invited to present at the Texas Advanced Computing Center yearly research event! We presented our poster alongside a strong team of UT Dallas research groups who presented posters and were judged by a panel of experts. UT Dallas won a poster award for best in show, and we are excited to have been able to present our large Multi Objective Optimization efforts that our aerodynamics team is working on for the 2025 competition season.

To view the poster we presented, click the link below

Meet Dr. White!

Welcome Aboard!

We would like to welcome Dr. White as the new department head of the Mechanical Engineering Department!

Dr. White has been a regular guest by our shop this month, and we cannot wait to work more with him in the future.

Faculty Coaches!

Glad to have y’all!

Dr. Leonardi                                  Dr.Jin                                    Dr. Wang

We would like to welcome our new faculty coaches to the team! Dr. Leonardi, Dr. Jin, and Dr. Wang will be assisting the team with the research and development of the 2025 and 2026 race cars.

Dr. Leonardi is the new head of HPC at UT Dallas and will be mentoring the team on their CFD models and will be teaching the fundamentals of fluid modeling.

Dr. Jin will be mentoring the Electric Vehicle team on their thermal analysis for their accumulator and the design of the Battery Management System.

Dr. Wang specializes in vehicle dynamics modeling and will be contributing to the creation of a digital twin of the car.

UT Autocross Recap

This weekend the team was racing at UT Arlington for Texas Autocross Weekend!

We want to thank UT Arlington and Dr. Bob Woods for hosting our team, as well as the many other teams from around the country that joined us this weekend. We would like to thank our friends at UT Austin, A&M IC and Electric, Mizzou Racing, Tiger Racing, University of Houston, Red Raider Racing, Bullet Racing, UNT Mean Green, and the FSAE Judges for their hospitality and support in the paddock.

It was a blast seeing all the other teams on track, and we cannot wait to see everyone again at competition in May!

Sponsor Shoutout

We would like to thank the Texas Advanced Computing Center for supporting our simulation and analysis efforts. The research and development of our aero package for the 2025 season would not be possible without their support!

We would also like to thank Sasmita Mohapatra for advocating for us and pushing our proposal to get supported!

Thank you for reading, see you next month!