Most people do not realize they are an engineering team.

Formula SAE is a student organization that designs and manufactures cars twice a year in order to compete in a world-wide engineering competition while supplying its participants with a hands-on experience.

While the acronym stands for Society of Automotive Engineers, the contests now include all kinds of similar organizations.

At their informational meeting Sept. 5, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering major Ryan Hoadley emphasized the design aspect of Formula SAE’s that prospective team members often overlook.

“Some people think we’re gonna be working on the cars the whole time,” he said. “We spend three out of four months actually designing the car.”

Hoadley, who also serves as team lead for suspension and brakes, said that his duties include a great deal of project management, which he failed to foresee early on.

“There’s a lot of management of what people are doing at all times,” he said. “There’s a lot that I have to teach myself.”

New team captain, Scott Banman, stated his willingness to keep up the momentum and partial success from last year’s competition — which he attributes to the affirmed leadership of previous team captain Keith Schmunz — as well as providing rewarding, real-world expertise to his fellow team members. Some of his responsibilities include controlling the overall team and making people aware of their deadlines.

“We ran into some trouble in the past year, but we were the best in design, which had always been one of our weak points,” he said. “Our team leads also do an incredible job.”

Before becoming team lead for cockpit controls, sophomore Preston Hart had expressed interest in learning more about cars and, as soon as he heard about Formula SAE in high school, he wanted to join the organization right away.

“You definitely learn a lot of stuff, like the chronological way things work,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot of hands-on work and applications. This is my first year to design, so I get to see the other side of what we do.”

Despite the nature of the organization, Formula SAE is open to all majors, and continues to accept applications.