RACING TEAM REVS UP FOR

CECIL WITHERSPOON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Sparks flew as mechanical engineering and computer science senior Sharome Burton cut and shaped a piece of metal in the Sikes Lake Center garage. Soon, the small piece disappeared into the body of a racecar - a racecar Burton and his teammates have designed and built themselves. Piece by piece, day by day, working through breaks and into the night, the MSU Formula Society of Automotive Engineers team is building a racecar from scratch. It’s a daunting task in its own right, but the FSAE team has even bigger ambitions - a trip to Brooklyn, Michigan, where the best Formula teams in the country compete.

Starting line

If MSU’s FSAE team succeeds in its goal and makes it to Michigan in May, it will mark the second year in a row MSU has taken part in the competition. But for every finish line there’s an equally important starting line. For the FSAE team, that start happened over two years ago.

Burton said the team began in January of 2021 when a group of engineering seniors pitched the idea. He said the initial response among students was largely incredulous.

“Really it was a pitch from a few nowgraduated engineering seniors. They said

“Let’s build a car,” and you know, they saw that we were doing a lot of you know undergraduate research and other things that could be helpful toward that. And the first reaction is always kind of like “What kind of car?” You know, ‘An RC car?’” Burton said.

He went on to explain that despite money concerns and no foundation to build off of, the willpower of those first few students got the project up and running.

“Long story short, it was a very, you know, very enterprising bunch of students. Those formed the organization from scratch, got the requisite number of members to start it,” Burton said.

Since then, the team has attracted and retained students through its mission and unique opportunities.

Burton said he’s remained involved because he wouldn’t otherwise get the handson experience building a racecar provides.

“But what really got me to stay was the access to manufacturing things, you know. As high-level of a vehicle as you actually put an actual person into. Not being an automotive person heading into it, you know, it’s something I saw that I could adapt into in order to get me some better opportunities career-wise,” Burton said.

The novelty of the team has even attracted non-engineering students to participate in the project in other capacities. Psychology senior Aretha Fontaine said was surprised when she heard there were MSU students building a real car, and joined the