The Texas A&M Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is a student organization that give its members hands-on engineering experience. The organization’s design teams work on vehicles in four categories – Formula Internal Combustion, Formula Electric, Baja and Solar. At the end of each design cycle, each team competes against other student designed cars from different universities.

The design cycle is one year for all the teams expect for the solar team, which runs on a two year design cycle. Each team builds their car from scratch with a budget ranging from $40,000 - $80,000. The fall semester is spent designing the vehicles to meet all the requirements for each event and to pass a technical inspection. In the spring, the teams manufacture the vehicles from the ground up with competitions happening late spring to early summer.

The experience of building a car from scratch gives the engineering students in SAE an in-depth hands-on experience that can’t be found in the classroom. “Being able to see projects at that scale from start to finish has been a great experience in terms of gaining knowledge of engineering,” SAE President Andrew Lafferty said. “I learned how to apply what I was learning in class, which is something that was very important to me and something our team members value a lot.”

Members of SAE learn the skills they need to complete their projects through their engineering curriculum, network of alumni, industry contacts and online resources. They also spend time analyzing previous vehicles and deciding what pieces work and what needs improvement. Each team has a project manager that helps make sure everything is on track to be completed by competition.

“It's a very difficult technical challenge, which is why all of our engineers sign up for it,” said Lafferty. “We can engineer a solution to any problems that come up, which is the essence of engineering.”

Not only does SAE give students hands on engineering experience, but the organization also allows them soft skills that are needed for a successful career. Leadership, time management, working with a team and business skills are all needed for each design team to see their project from start to finish. “I would not be as prepared for my feature career without this organization,” said Lafferty. “I have no idea where I'm going to end up after graduation, but I can say no matter where I land, the things that I've learned in this organization have made me better as an engineer, made me better as a communicator and pretty much better at any aspect of life.”

SAE unveiled this year’s projects on March 24 at an event complete with food, music and activities in Aggie Park.