Formula SAE/Formula Student encompasses students to engage themselves into a work environment similar to the engineering industry. These students are challenged to incorporate their classroom knowledge into effective designs related to the automotive industry. In the end, the experience and opportunity young students gain from such an engineering project produces engineers not found in classrooms alone.

The concept of the program is that a fictitious manufacturing company has contracted a group of engineers to manufacture a prototype formula style racecar to be evaluated for production. The vehicle must have high performance in terms of acceleration, braking, and handling capabilities. At the same time, the car must also be aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, and easy to maintain. With the same considerations as any engineering business, the students must also evaluate cost, manufacturing capabilities, and reliability of the racecar. The teams are tested to design a “complete package” that includes both racer and business strategy.

With a given set of rules, teams are faced with the challenge of orchestrating their entire operations. They must coordinate budgets, schedules, purchasing, designs, manufacturing, testing, and more. Once at competition, both the car and the team are judged in a series of static and dynamic events. The jury is comprised of leading industry professionals in the field of motorsports. They will judge the team’s ability to present their engineering designs, cost planning, and marketing objectives. The rest of the scoring is ultimately determined by the racecar’s performance on the track.