Collegiate Rocketry and FSAE Teams Showcase their Work at LiveWorx 2023

Mixed into the Onshape booth exhibits were two PTC-sponsored collegiate student teams. From nearby Tufts University came the Tuft’s Electric Racing team that designed a single-seat electric race car for the Formula Hybrid competition, an offshoot of Formula SAE. From a little further away in Montreal, the RockÉTS team of École de Technologie Supérieure brought their 10-foot rocket that competed at Spaceport America Cup.

PTC sponsors collegiate teams across the globe with funding, free access to advanced versions of tools like Onshape, enablement content, and dedicated support. If you are a team or club at a university using CAD and interested in learning more, go to our collegiate teams page. 

As an engineer in the PTC Education group, I work directly with these teams, helping them implement Onshape. Supporting them has been very rewarding and I encourage other engineers in the industry to reach out to their local colleges and teams to see how you can support them. The students on these teams are the best and brightest of the workforce of the future.

RockÉTS 

Each year the RockÉTS team designs a rocket to compete at Spaceport America Cup and Launch Canada. For LiveWorx, they brought their previous year's design named Aarluk III. This rocket was designed to reach a maximum altitude of 30,000 feet and carry a 4kg 3U-sized payload. They also showed off their modular payload design for this year's competition.

At LiveWorx, the team received a lot of attention from industry experts who were impressed with their variable-driven design in Onshape and their manufacturing skills. 

Their airframe and fins are fully built in-house with carbon fiber and fiberglass layups. They even showed how strong their fin design is by laying it sidewise and standing on it! This strength is crucial to prevent fin flutter at the high speed their rocket achieves.

The team took time to enjoy all the other events going on at LiveWorx including the breakout sessions, keynote presentation, and even trying their hand at riding a mechanical bull during the Mix at 6. It was also their first time in Boston, so they spent some of their time in the evening exploring the sights like MIT and Harvard campuses, the Boston’s Museum of Science, and, of course, going to a Red Sox game.

Tufts Electric Racing

The Tufts Electric Racing team attended LiveWorx with their single-seat electric racecar built to compete against other colleges and universities at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway during the Formula Hybrid competition. 

For this year’s competition, they redesigned their battery packs for increased performance and capacity, made incremental improvements to driver systems, and plan to completely redesign their suspension in Onshape for next year.

The Tufts team also took advantage of all that LiveWorx had to offer, going to the keynotes, watching igniteTalx around Xtropolis, and enjoying the great food. 

They also had the opportunity to join the “CAM in the Cloud” breakout session where they heard about Onshape’s upcoming CAM Studio from its developers, Michael and Ryland Johnson. This was a big topic of interest for the team since they machine many of the car’s components themselves.

Don't Miss Out

Be sure to attend the next LiveWorx to learn from the amazing student teams that use Onshape and other PTC tools to excel in their competitions! Until then, you can also watch this year’s content on demand.

If you are part of a team and interested in how PTC and Onshape can support you, make sure to check out our collegiate teams page.