Whereas siblings Kevin Chan ’17 and rising senior Monica Chan could also be seven years aside in age, as Monica Chan places it, “we’re eight grades aside, so, like, eight life-years aside.”
Regardless of this age hole — Kevin left for school when Monica was in fifth grade — the siblings share remarkably comparable experiences and pursuits. Each led subteams on the MIT Motorsports staff, albeit eight years aside. Kevin was the electrical techniques lead from 2015 to 2017, and Monica is the present software program lead.
Based in 2001 by Wealthy James ’04, SM ’06 and Nick Gidwani ’04, and supported by the Edgerton Heart, MIT Motorsports designs and builds a high-caliber Method SAE automobile to race in yearly competitions. Over the previous 23 years, MIT Motorsports has constructed 19 automobiles, received 10 trophies, and has had lots of of staff members. Alumni are die-hard followers and established an endowed fund for his or her twentieth anniversary to make sure the staff’s longevity. In 2017, Kevin’s staff received Second Place General on the Method SAE Electrical competitors in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Kevin was one in all two electrical engineering college students on the staff, and as we speak Monica oversees a subteam of 10 college students. The subteam enlargement has facilitated the event of a customized telemetry system. “You’ll be able to view dwell knowledge coming off of the automobile that’s transmitted by way of radio, and we’ve got a customized dashboard that we created with a customized PCB that transmits all that knowledge now,” Monica says.
“It’s so humorous to listen to Monica speaking about this, as a result of after I was on the staff, our UI [user interface] for the driving force and every part was so easy. It was just a bit, single-line show that confirmed the max cell temperature and minimal cell voltage,” Kevin chuckles. “After which we actually had a sticky observe on the dashboard that was like, don’t go above this temperature. Don’t go beneath this voltage.”
Whereas at MIT, Kevin saved up along with his sister weekly, updating her on every part taking place at Method Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE). “A giant piece of recommendation Kevin gave me when I used to be a junior in highschool was that you simply’re by no means too younger to do one thing superb,” Monica says. “He informed me again then that ‘you are not going to be a lot smarter two years from now than you are actually.’ That piece of recommendation helped me get by way of highschool and pushed me to do my greatest to do the onerous and tough issues as a result of certainly, it’s extra in regards to the private qualities you’ve that push you to do the onerous initiatives. Information can at all times be acquired, however the drive is the tougher half.”
Traditions are a part of the material of the staff tradition. Their staff stretch on the finish of each assembly is an everlasting custom. “Everybody simply extends their arms out whereas standing up after which does a squat. Then, they clap. That is only a factor that has been completed on the staff since earlier than I used to be on the staff. They stated that the origin of it was the stretch that Japanese autoworkers do initially of the day to stretch out their jumpsuits within the manufacturing unit and make the knees slightly bit extra versatile. And it’s simply fascinating, as a result of this stretch is now nearly 20 years previous on the staff,” Kevin says.
“Hitting Roman,” the day the automobile first rolls, is a vital milestone. “Once I was on the staff, we had been satisfied that saying that the automobile was going to run was dangerous luck,” Kevin says. “We had been attempting to give you a brand new time period to exchange the time period ‘operating automobile’ as a result of we thought that saying the phrases ‘operating automobile’ would make it in order that the automobile by no means ran. So as a substitute of calling it a operating automobile, we referred to as it ‘Roman Chariot.’” The identify caught, and Monica’s staff hit Roman in April.
For Kevin, the spirit of Motorsports stays ever-present, as he shares his residence with 4 Motorsports alums and collaborates with three Motorsports alums at Tesla, the place he serves as a workers vitality techniques design/structure engineer.
“FSAE and the Edgerton Heart performed an enormous function in soar beginning my profession and my internships. I feel there’s not many locations the place you will get each the breadth and the depth of the design course of,” Kevin says.
For Monica, “Race automobile places many issues in perspective the place you implement quite a lot of the issues that you simply be taught in school right into a bodily challenge. Typically I be taught issues by way of race automobile earlier than I be taught them in school. After which after I return to class, it provides me a greater bodily instinct for the way one thing works as a result of I’ve expertise implementing it.”
The staff not too long ago returned from the Method Hybrid competitors in Loudon, New Hampshire, the place they completed first in design, first in scrutineering [mandatory technical, safety, and administrative checks], second in acceleration, third within the racing problem, fourth in challenge administration, and fifth total. Edgerton Heart Technical Teacher Pat McAtamney reviews, “I’ve by no means seen a staff full a brakes check in a single strive.”
