Carnegie Mellon students learn by doing. They take fundamental principles and apply them to real-world projects. They create things, from art and music to robots, consumer products and computer programs. And even racecars.
For the past several years, Carnegie Mellon engineering and industrial design students have taken their expertise to the racetrack, where they’ve become racecar designers and drivers under the supervision of Adjunct Mechanical Engineering Professor John Wiss.
Wiss’s students, members of the university’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) club, have become a top-notch pit crew. They’ve used their knowledge to design and build a racecar to compete in the annual SAE Race, held at the Silver Dome in Pontiac, Mich., and the Caliguiri Collegiate Cup in Pittsburgh’s Vintage Grand Prix.
Both competitions give the students the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge in engineering and design into a real-world, hands-on experience. It also gives them a chance to actually drive and test their vehicle, allowing them to make modifications and improvements based on actual results.
Carnegie Mellon team members this past year included Christopher D'Eramo, Scott Israel, Drew Heutchy, Alex Long, Daniel Frey, Serge Gregory and Jonah Cohen.
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Engineering
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Mechanical Engineering
John Wiss
Society of Autmotive Engineers
