Design Teams

Student design teams

Two University of Waterloo teams, both since September 2026. Team work goes through design review, so it has to be manufacturable and fit real hardware, not just work in CAD.

UW Formula Electric

Chassis Subteam Member

Sep 2026 – Present

Seatbelt shaft collar

  • The seatbelts wrapped around the chassis seatbelt tube could slide side to side along it.
  • Designed a split shaft collar in SolidWorks to restrain them axially, FDM printed the prototype, and fit-checked it on the tube.
  • Result: the collar fit and stopped the seatbelts sliding along the tube.
SolidWorks model
FDM prototype
Placement sketch
3D
Drag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom

Spacer fitment

  • Found a chassis fitment issue while replacing plastic spacers with metal ones: the original spacer tolerance didn't allow for manufacturing variation.
  • Revised the spacer tolerance so parts assemble reliably.
On the car in the team bay, replacing a chassis spacer

UW Concrete Toboggan

Brake Design Core Member

Sep 2026 – Present

Brake retraction system

  • Designed and modelled a V1 retraction system with a hand-wheel crank and pulley path so the brake no longer has to be pulled back up by hand.
  • Design review found poor force transfer and a costly welded bracket; I redesigned it as a V2 spring-return cable with an aligned pull path and fewer parts.
  • Used the 102.8 N maximum retraction load to evaluate the V2 force path and pulley routing, with final cable, spring, and off-the-shelf component selection still in progress.
In the toboggan bay, measuring the brake area of the frame
V1Crank and pulley
V2Spring-return cable
View the full project →