Northwestern Formula Racing

Formula SAE (FSAE) is an intercollegiate design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers, where student teams design, build, and race formula-style cars. FSAE began in the USA in 1978, and now invites hundreds of teams to compete in eight competitions around the world. 

Northwestern Formula Racing participates in the competition every year. With over a dozen completed, we have an impressive history and a promising future as we build our second electric vehicle.

2023 demonstrated our passion for education and desire to tackle new challenges. As a first-year electric team, we experienced a number of unexpected complications. Despite this, we managed to increase member retention, grow vehicle comprehension and encourage good engineering practices. For 2024, we hope to use NFR23 as a foundation to improve the quality of our designs, refine our manufacturing techniques, and continue to foster a safe and intellectual space for our student engineers.

Last season, we were able to expand our use of more professional electric standards: we designed custom PCBs; adopted an industry-style CAN architecture; developed a custom software library; and improved the manufacture of our harness, allowing for a twenty-minute install. This season, we aim to refine, streamline, and better integrate our electrical systems, with the ultimate goal of competing among the best electric teams in the nation.

Some highlights from last season are described below.

Battery Management System (BMS)

Pictured above is our custom BMS daughter board. It’s the most complicated board on our 2023 vehicle. Each daughter board manages the temperatures and cell voltages for one battery segment. It communicates this information to the parent board, which decides if the battery is operating properly.

Electronic Throttle Control

The E-Throttle was an involved intermediate-level project that a younger member could handle and, more importantly, learn a lot from—especially in the area of PCB design. This board was part of the shutdown circuit, a critical component of the electrical architecture that shuts off battery voltage if the vehicle doesn’t pass all safety checks. The final design used a 4-layer board to integrate the board's logic chips and MCU in a cost-effective, roughly 6x6cm footprint.

These boards represent only a fraction of the electrical work we completed last year. With a goal of refining our electrical integration, we will not reuse a single board from last year's car. This means more PCB purchasing, and the way we see it, more opportunities for our younger members to learn the industry standards within the PCB design pipeline: from layout to manufacturing to part population. PCBWay's support will expand our opportunities for learning by giving us an industry partner in the PCB manufacturing field, as well as face less issues meeting the tight timelines on our one-year design cycle. Furthermore, beginning a partnership now would mean that within two years, dozens of the brightest engineering students at Northwestern University will have had experience working with PCBWay when they enter industry.

As a young EV team, the support of PCBWay would help us meet our ambitious goals, all while providing an avenue for our members to learn more about PCB design and manufacturing.