UC professor awarded Formula SAE Mentor's Cup

Bearcat Motorsports, the University of Cincinnati’s Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) team, once again had a strong finish at this year’s East competition held at Michigan International Speedway.

The UC team placed 40^th out of 114 teams. This finish is the result of countless hours of time and commitment, but it’s also the result of outstanding mentorship.

At the 2018 Formula SAE Award’s Ceremony, Bearcat Motorsports faculty adviser Randall Allemang received the Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup. The Mentor’s Cup is the highest award a faculty adviser can receive from across the three different Formula competitions (Formula SAE, Formula Hybrid and Formula SAE Electric), recognizing “extraordinary levels of personal time and expertise given to engineering education and the ability to serve as an exceptional role model for students.”

In their nomination letter, team leader Jacob Frisco and graduate student Brian Steinbrunner said Allemang “has shaped young engineers with practical, effective and personal mentorship. His mentorship allows students to develop their engineering, interpersonal and management skills in a way that is not possible during regular coursework.”

Allemang has served as Bearcat Motorsports adviser for the last 16 years, teaching the class that mechanical engineering students can take as part of the senior design sequence in UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science. 

“Many senior design projects are simply paper design,” Allemang said. “This project offers students the opportunity to be part of many factors of an engineering project like building and testing.”

Allemang said his job as adviser is to educate the team, providing them direction but also giving them the opportunity to learn from their own mistakes. He enjoys the diverse combination of students a class like this brings together.

“It’s a really interesting mix of people that sometimes works well and sometimes not so well. You never know what to expect,” Allemang said. “My job is to manage this whole process, while verbalizing the limits the students are under, so the team doesn’t try to do too many things in a one-year cycle.”