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Donation enabled UC Berkeley engineering students access to highly complex, machined parts at a fraction of the standard amount of time and cost
SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2022 – Fictiv, the leader in high-quality, on-demand manufacturing recently congratulated Formula Electric at Berkeley, the electric vehicle team at the University of California, Berkeley, for successfully participating in the Formula SAE (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) Electric Vehicle Competition, which is part of the largest student engineering competition in the world. Fictiv contributed $10,000 in essential machined parts to Formula Electric at Berkeley’s student-designed electric vehicle to complete the construction of the race car.
Fictiv, which produces parts for major U.S.-based electric car makers, manufactured multiple mechanical components including the front and rear uprights, brake rotors, motor shaft, and bearing retainers for the UC Berkeley race vehicle using CNC machining. Fictiv’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which offers instant design for manufacturability feedback, paired with its highly vetted network of manufacturing partners, helped the students optimize their designs in order to meet the needs of their formula-style electric race car.
“Fictiv’s mission is to give engineers the freedom to focus on their creations instead of going back and forth with vendors, and wading through red tape just to get their parts into production,” said Michael Amico, business unit director – advanced manufacturing at Fictiv.
“It’s been incredibly rewarding eliminating those logistical challenges for the next generation of engineers, and I know these elite engineering students participating in the Formula Electric at Berkeley project will achieve great things beyond this competition.”
Michael Amico, Business Unit Director at Fictiv
The SAE event, which took place in Brooklyn, Michigan, June 15-18, featured university student competitors from around the world including teams representing not only UC Berkeley, but also Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Georgia Institute of Technology.
“We couldn’t have participated in the event successfully without Fictiv,” said Christopher Leafstrand, a member of the Formula Electric at Berkeley Dynamics Subteam and a second-year student at UC Berkeley College of Engineering.
“Fictiv made the most important parts of our electric vehicle, parts that require very tight tolerances, very tight machining, and very high precision. These are parts our team had never made before, and are a very difficult part of the inspection process to proceed in the event.”
Christopher Leafstrand, member of the Formula Electric
Formula Electric at Berkeley formed in 2020. The project brings together a diverse community of individuals for the purpose of researching, designing, testing, and manufacturing efficient, sustainable technology at UC Berkeley.
“Working with Fictiv made the process of getting critical, quality vehicle parts as easy as possible,” said Tijmen Sep, program manager for Formula Electric at Berkeley and a third-year student at UC Berkeley College of Engineering. “The Fictiv team gave a group of students with a relatively small order a lot of personalized attention and were happy to help – even meeting with us face to face. Beyond the smooth parts development process, we’re also grateful for Fictiv’s overall support. Students typically spend upwards of $20,000 constructing electric vehicles for Formula SAE, so Fictiv’s donation provided not only needed functional parts, but incredible savings.”
Formula SAE was founded in 1981 to provide teams of college undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to design and build formula-style vehicles. In 2013, Formula SAE expanded to include a separate electric vehicle competition.
About Fictiv
Fictiv operates a globally dispersed Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem that rapidly delivers custom mechanical parts on-demand. Its quality-driven ecosystem offers customers unprecedented manufacturing agility and speed through a digital quote-to-order platform, a highly vetted and managed global partner network, and a team of manufacturing experts that manage programs and inspect quality every step of the way. Different from traditional contract manufacturers, Fictiv’s operations are built around a digital core that leverages proprietary AI algorithms to deliver instant pricing, design for manufacturability feedback, and production transparency. Fictiv’s portfolio of optimized manufacturing services includes 3D printing, CNC machining, urethane casting, and injection molding with business solutions for new product development, engineer-to-order, and maintenance, repair and operations. Over the last eight years, Fictiv has manufactured more than 19 million parts for early-stage companies and large enterprises alike, helping them innovate with agility and get products to market faster.
