My recommendation is that of a вЂњlong form five paragraph essayвЂќ. Starting with last yearвЂ™s report and adding/subtracting/editing it can lead to high scores, however a brand new report written from scratch, then compared to previous reports and then improved upon will more than likely garner a higher level of understanding and technical communication. Once you start to actually write the report, youвЂ™ll want to tell a (technical) story of your progress. Take photos and keep track of tests done on subsystems, as theyвЂ™ll provide valuable insight on the overall design. Note the design compromises and refer back to previous teamвЂ™s reports to see if youвЂ™ve made an overall improvement or have chosen a different point along the existing curve. Keep notes from design reviews, along with what assumptions youвЂ™ve had to make.

Even if these are just quick notes and back of the envelope calculations, youвЂ™ll want to record these for later. So from the initial conceptual design and brainstorming, itвЂ™s best to document your progress. To start with, your team will want to be collecting information all along the way. So, how does one ensure your team is in the top group? What are the characteristics of the best teams? Each design queue knows this, and if your teamвЂ™s report is not in their top one or two, it is much more difficult to make it to design finals. As the date gets closer to the competition the captains will distribute the reports across the design baysвЂ¦ essentially trying to evenly distribute the expected top teams across the queues, along with the mid pack teams and so on. From the first read, the reports are given a rough estimate of the quality of the team/car. Once you submit the design report, the design judge captains go through and read each and every one of them. Understanding the event and how itвЂ™s run and scored will greatly help you prepare for it. There is a lot of information out there that describes the design event, and so I recommend reading up on the details of it. Consider the design report your teamвЂ™s first chance to make a good impression. ItвЂ™s been a rude awakening being on the other side (as a design judge). We were pretty proud of ourselves if we got it in more than 12 hours before it was due. The poor leader would then have to compile everything, make it look nice, and write an intro. WeвЂ™d then split up the subsections based off of whatever weвЂ™ve worked on, throw together a handful of paragraphs, use some fancy words and send this to the team leader about 36 hours before the report was due. If youвЂ™re anything like me, your FSAE team probably doesnвЂ™t start on the design report until the week before its due.

Fsae car body design