USC Racing feat. Maximilian Bui, Eric Hovanessian, Vihan Krishnan

On college campuses across the nation, thousands of students explore their passions and future career paths through involvement in student affinity groups and clubs. In this episode, host Dennis Wisco comes to you live from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business with guests Maximilian Bui, Vihan Krishnan, Eric Hovanessian from the USC Formula SAE Team. These dedicated students discuss how Formula SAE has defined their college experiences, the competition timeline, and their motivations for growing in the automobility industry. Formula SAE is an international collegiate design competition that challenges student teams to design and manufacture an open-wheel race car during the academic year. There are two annual Formula SAE competitions in the United States that consist of three judged phases - Design, Performance, and Business. Team members are expected to participate in cutting-edge research, analysis, and manufacturing in order to craft a high-performance racing vehicle to take to the competition. A winning team must also excel in project management, teamwork, and business skills. The University of Southern California chapter of Formula SAE is a student-run organization that designs, constructs, tests, and races high performance autocross race cars over the course of the academic year. For over ten years, the USC Formula SAE club has welcomed all students interested in engineering, computer science , motorsports, and in general, automotive enthusiasts, regardless of past experiences. The fifty-member team is housed in the Rapp Engineering Building, and is enthusiastic about inviting new members with a willingness to get hands-on and dirty with automotive engineering. In 2019, USC Racing finished 6th in the "Business" phase of the national FSAE competition. In this episode, Eric, Max, and Vihan, discuss balancing their membership in FSAE with academic and personal interests, leadership dynamics within the club, and staying on-schedule when engineering their competition car. Tune in to hear how participation in Formula SAE -- like USC Racing -- fuels an excitement to influence the business models for the mobility of people and goods for the future.