Overview
As a member of the Longhorn Racing Composites Division, I contributed to the design and fabrication of structural components for UT Austin’s Formula SAE combustion car. The work combined hands-on manufacturing with CAD-driven design iteration under competition weight and safety constraints.
Methods / Approach
- Fabricated wet-layup carbon fiber and fiberglass panels for bodywork and structural components using vacuum bagging and post-cure oven cycles.
- Designed a lightweight carbon fiber steering wheel in SolidWorks, optimizing ply orientation and geometry for torsional stiffness, weight targets (~300 g), and thermal management near the exhaust path.
- Followed GD&T tolerancing standards and conducted dimensional inspection on finished parts to verify conformance with design specifications.
- Applied Lean Six Sigma principles to reduce material waste in the layup process and improve cycle time between mold preparations.
Key Results
- Steering wheel design met weight target and passed structural load testing at the UT Austin Formula SAE competition build review.
- Contributed fabricated components to a vehicle that competed in the Formula SAE Michigan 2022 competition.
- Developed hands-on expertise in advanced composites manufacturing including mold prep, resin systems, and cure cycle management.
- SolidWorks — 3D part design, ply-stack modeling, and assembly validation
- Carbon Fiber / Fiberglass — wet-layup, vacuum bagging, oven post-cure
- GD&T — dimensional tolerancing and quality inspection
- Lean Six Sigma — waste reduction in manufacturing workflow