Illini Formula Electric: Burn rubber not gas

Illini Formula Electric (IFE) is the University of Illinois’s Formula SAE Electric team. Each year, they build an all-electric open-wheel race car that allows members to obtain hands-on experience in industry-leading engineering designs and practices. Their competition is part of the Formula SAE competition; however, they compete in a separate electric-vehicle-only category.

Last year, IFE began designing an all-wheel drive car, where each wheel has its own motor. Due to the pandemic, all designs were completed remotely. Around November 2020 they decided it was unrealistic to manufacture their new design due to the number of members on campus and limited shop access. They shifted gears and began to update their previous vehicle in order to compete with a rules-compliant vehicle at the end of the year.

Despite the COVID-related difficulties, they were able to finish building a vehicle. This past June, IFE drove to Las Vegas for competition. Out of 20 teams registered from top universities such as MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and others, IFE was one of only three to pass electrical inspection, arguably the most difficult inspection. However, their car was then subjected to a “rain test” where water is poured onto the car for a significant length of time to test the ingress protection on electrical housings. Unfortunately, their car’s Isolation Monitoring Device triggered, indicating an electrical short, failing the test. The team rushed to take apart the battery pack where water is suspected to have leaked into. They dried, sealed, and reassembled the entire pack under the shortened time frame due to the immense heat in Las Vegas causing a schedule change. However, they ultimately were not able to pass rain test for the second time and were unable to compete in the dynamic driving events. But because they were one of the three teams to pass other technical inspections, the team ranked third at the competition.

Learning from the lesson at competition this past summer, IFE is restarting their year with a strong determination to address all previous design flaws. This year, IFE is not only hoping to manufacture the all-wheel drive car they designed last fall with more modifications such as a new compound planetary gearbox and pouch-cell battery back, but also ensure that the issues occurred in the previous year won’t happen again. IFE also recently restructured their team to now include a total of 10 sub-systems evenly split across mechanical and electrical subsystems.

On the mechanical side is drivetrain, suspension, aerodynamics, chassis, and integration. On the electrical side there’s circuit design, wire harness, motors and controls, software, and data acquisition. Additionally, they have a business team, media team, and IT team for logistics. The team consists of students from all engineering majors and others. Most students begin on a few of these sub-teams to explore their interest, typically transitioning to only participating in one.

“IFE was the place where I found the opportunity to combine my interests in cars and learn about the future of transportation that is undoubtedly shifting towards electrification” said David Lam, President of the team.

Interested in getting involved? Fill out the form on their website.  Make sure to join their Mattermost for the most updated information. Instructions to join can be found here.