Author: carsenkline

Elections: Calling all candidates!

Posted on | by carsenkline | 11 Comments on Elections: Calling all candidates!

Two exec committee positions are up for election, and we’re looking for candidates NOW. This is a call to action for serious volunteers who want to see the BAA through the next couple years of growth. The two positions open this spring are President and Vice President. (Treasurer and Secretary will be filled in the fall so that we have some transitional overlap.)

If you’re interested, please comment on this news post with the position you want and, if you like, a campaign spiel. You can also send email to admin@cmubuggy.org if you’re too modest to speak out here.

Elections will be via an online poll early next week!

Here are some example criteria:

* Someone who has been vocal on the forum with good ideas and creative input.
* Someone who likes what we do and wants to be more involved.
* Someone who has plenty of time in the Spring to work on BAA stuff.
* Nominees do NOT have to be Pittsburgh locals.
* You can nominate someone else if he/she agrees.

Here’s a slice of what we do:
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Composites Forum Today

Posted on | by carsenkline | 4 Comments on Composites Forum Today

This is from John Thornton, former Fringe head mechanic and current employee in the Robotics Department who is developing a long-needed center for composites. There is a forum today on campus at 4:30. See the full details.

Composite technology has long been an underground phenomenon at Carnegie Mellon. It is now time to bring this movement into the open for the first time.

Please join the newly formed Composites Development Center, part of Carnegie Mellon’s Field Robotics Center, as it hosts Carnegie Mellon’s first Composites Forum this Monday, November 4, from 4:30 to 6:15 p.m. in Newell-Simon Hall room 1305. The discussion will feature NASA Senior Advisor for Composites and Structures Mark Shuart, as well as an overview of the Composites Development Center, Sweepstakes (Buggy), the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the Solar Boat project team. The Composites

Forum will be an opportunity to engage in a discussion about the evolution of composites development at Carnegie Mellon, current research and projects, and the future of composites technology and education at CMU.

Please forward this information along to anyone you think might be interested in composites development, current NASA projects, Buggy, SAE, or the Solar Boat project. We hope to see you there.

***Event Recap***

What: Composites Forum at Carnegie Mellon
When: Monday, November 9, from 4:30 – 6:15 pm [Pizza will be served]
Where: Newell-Simon Hall Rm. 1305 on Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus

Thank you,
John Thornton and the Composites Development Center team
Field Robotics Center
Carnegie Mellon University

SDC sweeps, smashes records

Posted on | by carsenkline | 6 Comments on SDC sweeps, smashes records

Sweepstakes 2009: Yes, there is a person in there – and Holy &!^@ did she go fast!

It was another record breaking year, something no one might have expected after last year’s impossibly fast times. The men’s and women’s course records (2:04.35 and 2:28.84) were shattered after only a year, replaced by SDC’s new times of 2:03.3 and 2:25.6.

Members of the Buggy Alumni Association will receive a special post-raceday wrapup email in the coming week. It will feature more facts and figures, observations from the hills, and a team by team analysis of performance this year. You can join today by visiting cmubuggy.org/Join. Until then, here are some highlights:

* It is the lowest First Day place for PiKA since 1969…they did get 3rd this year and in 2004 they were 4th after day 1…also 3rd in 1997 and 1989…the last time PiKA had a lower final place was 1985 due to the dqs. (thanks Revo)

* Fringe put on a great 40th anniversary show for their returning alumni, just edging out PiKA to take 2nd on the last roll of the day for a new team record 2:07.25.

* SigEp men’s A sliced 6 seconds off last year’s time, coming in with a 2:08:61, a time that would have won four of the last ten Sweepstakes. The SigEp women’s team got a trophy for the first time with third place.

* AEPi posted an 11th place finish, their best ever, separated from a spot in the finals by only 3 seconds.

* Beta was DQ’d and then banned from participating in buggy until fall of 2010 due to fire safety violations (5 gallons of flammable fluid were found in the Beta truck.)

* CIA produced their first new buggy in nine five years, named Renaissance.  It’s a radical departure from their traditional style of building, yet they still somehow made it look like a CIA buggy – including a windshield that is several inches longer on the left side than it is on the right, for “passing on the inside.”

* Due to a change in the conditions for winning the Spirit of Buggy award, exhibition heats were one of the highlights of Saturday morning. Anyone who went back to the old school practice of switching wheels at the bottom of hill 3 would be considered for the award, so Pioneers, KDR, AEPi, and CIA all made the switch after the chute.  AEPi had an entire F1-style pit crew working on the buggy, complete with a gas can, a foot massage, and a lollipop-sign guy. Pioneers won the award on their driver’s performance – she actually got out of the buggy, pulled the replacement wheel out of the buggy, replaced it herself, and then got back in to drove the rest of the race.

* Despite winning the Spirit of Buggy award, this might be Pioneers’ last year.  There are currently no members of Pioneers planning on returning next year. There is some word on the street that KapSig might be in line to race their buggies.

For more highlights from the weekend, check out the Tartan’s Sweepstakes coverage. We’ll excuse the minor inaccuracies since they were awfully quick to go to press with this story. Also, it’s pretty obvious the author took buggy descriptions from our Raceday Guide that has unpainted buggies from before Truck Weekend. We’ll take that as a compliment!

Also view a video of AEPi’s pit stop.

Buggy Times, 3/21/09

Posted on | by carsenkline | 7 Comments on Buggy Times, 3/21/09

Aside from the Rolls Report, here at Buggy Alumni HQ we’re coming up with ways to feed your inner gambler. One way we’re doing this is by taking times at various spots on the course to give a cross section of team performance. Today we give you times from down in the chute: transistion to chute flag, chute flag to window 0, and a ratio of the first time over the second time. We recorded as many times as our crude stopwatches would let us. Here’s today’s sampling. It was a pretty slow day overall, with SDC and PiKA well off the pace.

The ratio is a number we’re throwing out there to give some idea of how well the buggy maintains its speed in the turn. For example, Mirage came into the chute flag nearly 0.8 s faster than Psychosis, yet Mirage had only a 0.3 s advantage after the chute. Where’d the half second go?

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at a different part of the course.

Freeroll Practice, 10/19/08

Posted on | by carsenkline | 3 Comments on Freeroll Practice, 10/19/08

Stay updated with cmubuggy RSS Feeds. Don’t miss the Homecoming News post. Also bookmark the Buggy Geeks journal for further updates, stories, and different views on buggy news.

Pioneers did not roll today because didn’t pass capes. Driver/chair Vincent Zeng, former CIA chair and driver, tipped over in Keres during a cape attempt and the pushbar broke. We wish them luck and hope to seem them out soon.

With most teams scratched for Mid-Semester break, today’s freerolls seemed destined for chaos and anarchy. However, with Sweepstakes chair Andrew Hundt’s good foresight and a lot of cooperation from the teams, the day went smoothly. An interim assistant chair was appointed for the weekend to help with Sweepstakes duties. Alumni were solicited for barricade duty, but it wasn’t necessary in the end because non-rolling teams came out to do their chores.

Six teams rolled, seven scratched, and “rollarounds” were allowed. In theory this means that a team completing their freeroll has the option to roll again from the top of Hill 2 if the following team scratches. In reality, it meant that some teams just rolled whenever there was a gap. Here’s the breakdown.

Click on buggy names for info and a picture.
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Proposed rule changes, take 2

Posted on | by carsenkline

After discussing the rules amendments at the Sweepstakes meeting, the following has developed as v2. It looks like it will be put to vote next week. The big differences are that instead of increasing fines for chores violations, the fines will be transfered to the account of the org that covers the chores. So, as in last weekend, CIA’s drivers would have earned the team a free day of bagels and juice.

Second thing is that the fall sweepstakes meeting would be held at least one week earlier, but not necessarily the week after races. Discuss it *here*!

Full text of the rule proposals:

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First day of freerolls

Posted on | by carsenkline | 4 Comments on First day of freerolls

It was an exciting morning as ten teams turned out for the first day of freeroll practice. The sun was shining, buggies were bagged and lots of new drivers took the wheel to kick off the ’08-’09 season. The Sweepstakes committee did a great job of getting things moving and keeping the momentum through the morning. Here’s how the teams faired:

Pioneers, and Beta did not roll. CIA did Beta’s chores for the day, and the Phipps barricades were guarded by three of CIA’s six drivers.

KDR had a very short first day on the course, hitting the curb near transition after being the first buggy to roll for the year. They scratched the rest of the day.

SAE/Kappa: This combo team of SAE and Kappa Kappa Gamma brings back SAE’s late 90s buggy, Rubicon, and gives Kappa’s sisters a little more refined machine than Ursula. First roll, hatch dragged through the chute. Second roll, the driver lost visibility and made a beeline for the monument, nearly hitting it before making a sharp right turn towards the curb and stopping just in time.

AEPi: Big attendance, two buggies (Zephyrus and Camo).

SigNu: The Zoo rolled King of Spades, Tenth Commandment, and Skua. A memorable hill 5 was pushed by this guy:

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Great News!

Posted on | by carsenkline

I just got the update from the administration’s meeting about Alumni Interest Group spending from Sarah McMullen. The bottom line is that we will soon be able to accept tax-deductible gifts and donations, and spend that money to fund our buggy-related programs. Whereas before buggy was not considered an educational activity, we now have the go-ahead to sponsor team startups, buy equipment for Sweepstakes, etc.

There will be two accounts; one non tax deductible account for dues, merchandise income and the like, that doesn’t expire at FY end; and another as I described above, with the only catch being that the funds will expire at FY end and go into the University’s coffers.

The latter account hasn’t been set up yet, and this may take a couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted.