Quote:
Originally Posted by artK
Keep in mind that when you're going to college, there is a lot more than just learning your classes and building new robots. FSAE/Baja are great for those who enjoy mechanical design and spending time machining parts, but for a programmers, strategists, even electrical (though to a lesser extent), have less to do.
*snip*
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While it is probably true that programmers, strategists, and electrical-minded people have less to do in FSAE and Baja than the mechanical team members, there is still plenty of work to do!
Some teams build and program their own ECUs, traction control systems, dashboards, DAQ systems, etc. Programming work can be quite significant. Heck, even my small FSAE team made a custom power distribution board and CANbus dashboard.
Strategy is similar, there is a challenge and one must weigh different aspects of the challenge in order to determine which is most valuable within the scope of what one's team can accomplish. In FSAE there are scores for design, fuel economy, and cost in addition to all of the dynamic events. Balancing performance across all aspects of the competition is very important.