Throwback on Last Semester

Written by Lars van der Lee Photo by Marion Christine Løkkevig

The fall semester is the shortest of the two NTNU semesters. Beginning in late august, and ending in December, which means it only lasts for a little under 4 months. During these months, the new team is recruited, plans are made, parts are designed and production has to be planned. All this in addition to following the full-time studies we are attending. To achieve this, we divide the semester into some phases, with a lot of help from Alumni and sponsors. The team is recruited in the beginning of September, and gets thrown in at the deep end right away. To get started, a lot has to be learned about the cars, Formula Student and engineering in general. This is done with the help of Alumni during the bootcamp. Over two weeks, we attend many lectures, workshops and demonstrations with Alumni. In addition to learning as much as possible, we also focus on team building. You cannot build a racecar without a good team!

When the bootcamp ends, the first main phase of the project starts. The concept phase is all about analysis, new ideas, goals and performance parameters. The overall goals are set using data from the previous season and an analysis of where we can improve. Using the experiences from the previous seasons and input from Alumni, the team sets goals for each system. These will be the guidelines for all decisions we will take for the duration of the season. Setting goals is a tricky process, as they should be possible to measure and verify to see if we are going in the right direction and have achieved what we set out to do. At the end of every phase, we invite Alumni to Trondheim to discuss our plans.The team presents their ideas, thoughts and reasoning behind them, before being grilled by experienced Alumni to guide us. This is one of the ways Revolve can keep on improving year after year. Without guidance from Alumni, we would not progress!

Shortly after the concept phase, when the mechanical groups have started designing parts, the PCBs are sent to production. We produce two rounds of all PCBs, in order to debug the

first design. The electrical systems need to be reliable throughout the season, as testing time is scarce. The first revision of the PCBs are all soldered and tested before christmas to identify issues in the schematics. All PCBs are soldered by hand, and tested circuit by circuit. Following the test plans so that we can eliminate as many errors as possible and use the early part of the winter to fix the issues for revision 2. Meanwhile, the mechanical groups have all started designing parts for the new car. Some parts can be adapted from the year before, but a lot of parts need to be redesigned. Making faster cars usually means that the parts need to be lighter, stiffer and stronger. Optimizing all these parameters is an impossible task, which instead requires some thought through compromises to get the best performance out of the car. In addition to having the best performance possible, all parts have to fit together. Therefore, every other week the mechanical groups perform a CAD check.

After the Sunday-meeting, our weekly status update for the entire team, everyone is divided into groups and start going through all parts to find collisions and errors that need to be fixed. Just like after the concept phase, we also have a design review. Again, Alumni came to Trondheim to help us solve problems that had appeared, and help with planning the next steps for the designs and helping with their input. In between electronic circuits and CAD checks, the marketing group has also been busy. The business plan presentation stands for 75 points, and requires a good business case in order to succeed. After watching the presentations from finals the last years, and analysing what sort of concepts get points, the team was gathered for a big brainstorming session. Divided into groups, the team was tasked with finding everyday problems they want to get solved. The workshop even ended in a pitching contest, with each group presenting their best idea. These ideas will be taken further to ensure that we can put together two cases for the competitions this summer.

Now that Christmas is over, the team is getting ready for production. During the next 4 months, all drawings, ideas, circuits and events will come together to create the next generation of Revolve NTNU race cars. We are looking forward to working together with all our sponsors, supporting us with everything from monocoque production and soldering to machining and assembly to get everything ready for the summer!