The SJSU student chapter of the Society for Automotive Engineers International (SAEI) was the People's Choice 1st-place winner for their BE U.NITED idea at the SJSU Neat Ideas Fair. Team members include Kenneth Lau, Ruben Delgadillo and Randy Floresca. The fair took place in the Student Union Barrett Ballroom on Wednesday, December 3.
The students have founded the group BE U.NITED in order to promote and encourage interdisciplinary projects amongst students from different colleges and majors. The title of their idea reflects two things: first, for students to "be you," whether they are engineering, humanities or business majors. Second, the title affirms the group's goal to bridge the divide between the academic disciplines, encouraging different majors to work together as a team. The students believe that cross-college collaboration raises the level of their educational experience.
The inspiration for such an idea originated when SAEI students decided to enter into Formula SAE, a national college design competition held annually. College teams must design, engineer, build and market a small scale version of a Formula race car for a fictional manufacturing company. The SJSU SAEI team was comprised of only mechanical engineering students.
"Although we are capable of completing such an involved and intense project, we would be even more successful if we partnered with students from other disciplines" said Randy Floresca, president of the SAEI student chapter.
The engineering students began recruiting peers from other disciplines, finance, marketing, management, graphic design, and English, to assemble a strong interdisciplinary team of students, with expertise in all areas of the competition. Currently, team members from non-engineering disciplines include geology and business.
The students realized that this project provides an opportunity for a wide-range of disciplines to put into practice what they are learning in the classroom. Hands-on experience reinforces classroom learning and builds resumes.
The SAEI team will compete in the Formula SAE from June 17-20 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
The Neat Ideas Fair is an annual competition, which aims to promote creativity and entrepreneurship at SJSU by generating and highlighting, quite simply, neat business ideas. It is hosted by the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship.
