I’ve noticed that some teams have listed Borg Warner as one of their sponsors, and I have some questions.
There is a Borg Warner facility in Muncie, IN and I would very much like to vie for their permanent sponsorship. Do any team members, mentors, etc. know anything about the company or how to contact them?
I would very much appreciate any info that anyone could give me!
Please post any info here, or send to [email protected].
Thank you!
I believe that team 639, from Ithaca, NY, is sponsored by Borg Warner, but I could be wrong…
You’re not wrong, Jim 
Maybe Patrick knows more?
We have connections to BorgWarner, because some of the members of our team have parents who work there and they help us out.
Patrick’s probably got enough going on with the fact that Cornell started two days ago 
Anyhoo:
BorgWarner “sponsors” our team, but not in the monetary sense. When the team was first organized, two of the members, in the first year, were Brian and Jennifer Fornell - their father, Doug, is the head of the tool room at BorgWarnher here in Ithaca (heh… “room” is not a big enough of a word for it). He decided to volunteer to help the team and so did his wife, who managed the money and sponsorships. Since Doug’s head of the tool room, he has quite a few toolmakers on call who manufacture parts for us. This year, we had 13 toolmakers on call 
A new member on the team this year, Nick S., joined along with his father, who has the biggest office in R&D My dad has been lazy and hasn’t joined, but he’s one of the few materials guys so he could be helpful… Our BorgWarner “sponsorship” really consists of the big guys @ BorgWarner being able to help us, and them having a lot of engineers below them to do stuff - the pres of BorgWarner, obviously, had to allow for this to happen, so to thank him, we do a demo for him personally each year right before shipping (this year, he drove the robot better than any of us could on the first try; Greg and I were freaked out). We also have a wonderful electrical engineer on our team, Mr. Brooks, from another company. The 3 engineers, Fornell, Brooks, and Simpson, are present at 99% of the meetings, so I THANK THEM.
Yeah, so basically, BorgWarner doesn’t give us any money - we just get lots of technical support, and whenever we can’t machine something @ our available shops, we can always send a design there and have it expertly made. It’s nice, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. Roger, especially, is very motivated, and I’m sure they’ll stick with the team for as long as they can, helping to build future engineers.
Amanda, I’d suggest seeing if any people in the high school have parents that work at BorgWarner, and get them onto the team… they’ll have a bit more leverage when trying to ask the president for a sponsorship. You might be able to find contact info at www.bwauto.com
As for some insight upon the genius of our engineers, here’s a pic of them below that I took this year - I SEE NOTHING (Mr. Brooks), I SAY NOTHING (Mr. Fornell), I HEAR NOTHING (Mr. Simpson):
Wow, that picture bears a remarkable resemblance to the logo on our team t-shirts.
But anyways, the members of our team are from all over the state of Indiana, so very few have ties to local businesses.
*Originally posted by monsieurcoffee *
**Amanda, I’d suggest seeing if any people in the high school have parents that work at BorgWarner, and get them onto the team… they’ll have a bit more leverage when trying to ask the president for a sponsorship. **
As Josh said, that’s not really one of our options.
Our kids are from a charter high school, and come from all over the state of Indiana. There are no parents to help our team.
If any of your engineers know who the person to contact would be, or just how to get on the ‘inside’, it would be greatly appreciated… any tips, too.
Thanks for everyone’s help.
Just poking around www.bwauto.com I found the upper-most positioned person in Muncie, Indiana. Link to the frame in question.
Tom Schmaltz
Manager, Aftermarket Service/Sales
BorgWarner
TorqTransfer Systems
5401 Kilgore Avenue
Muncie, IN 47304
Phone: (765) 286-6522
Not the hardest information to find, but I thought I’d throw it up here, anyway.
Yan already did a nice job answering the question. I have a few comments to add.
BorgWarner does not sponsor the team financially (although they used to in 2001 but have since cut their financial sponsorship). However, more than a handful of engineers and machinists who work at BorgWarner help out with engineering and manufacturing, and BorgWarner allows their employees to assist the team by letting the employees use their equipment for team-related work.
If you are seeking financial sponsorship, unfortunately you probably can not mention that our team is sponsored by Borg Warner, since there is no (to my knowledge) official sponsorship going on. Borg Warner is listed on the team name because they are a huge resource to the team. In fact, without them I doubt there would be much of a team left at all.