Get me to the Formula SAE competition Melbourne

I'm an adult student and father to three wonderful children, and I'm fundraising to get me to a worldwide university event.

This is my 5th and final year of my Bachelor of Engineering Degree at Canterbury University. As part of my degree we each were selected to take part in a final project to complete our degrees. These projects are designed to use all of the knowledge we have previously learnt and apply it to a real situation, it involves design engineering and management tools along with other knowledge required dependent on the project.

I was selected to be part of the University of Canterbury Motorsport team (UCM). For our project we were to design and build a Formula SAE car, these cars are single seater, open wheel vehicles designed for low speed (~120km/hr) speed agility type courses. As a team we had to engineer our car from scratch, this involved designing most of our components, or optimising them for this type of race. Some of the things we designed and made ourselves were a full carbon fibre aerodynamic package including front and rear wings, body and undertray, these designs were verified in the university wind tunnel. We also designed the wheels, uprights, suspension and seat just to name a few. These designs were computer aided designs (CAD), built lightweight by ourselves or in the university workshop and used high tech computer programs to test things like strength and fatigue. This was a huge undertaking and many students have put in more than 700hrs on this project alone, this is on top of the other subjects we are taking.

We have successfully made a car that is possible to make a podium finish in the competition in Melbourne, and we are still in the testing phase to get the most out of it that we can.

The competition itself is an worldwide competition, although the Melbourne event is for Australasian Universities. There are different events encompassing both the racing side and the design side of the vehicles. It is not merely a who is the fastest type of race, but a complete design event where we present our cars to a judging panel who evaluate our team design. There is also a business case to present and a costing event. More about the competition can be read at the formula SAE website:

www.fsae.com

Our team is travelling to Melbourne in December to participate in this competition and our flights and accommodation are only partially subsidized by the university and sponsorship our team has received, I am requesting donations to go towards the remaining cost of my flights and accommodation. for the competition in December.

Any amount would be gratefully welcomed.

Thank you in advance.

Here is our team facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/UCMFSAE

And a sneak clip of our development:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HdSFC9D4cY&list=UU3OOsQXzTJUzKmHvoxRtneQ