2023-11-02 SDC Sync
- Daniel Puratich
Brief
@Daniel Puratich Representing WARG for second SDC sync of F23. This is directors only so if you have something you want Daniel to mention please discuss it in 2023-11-01 Leads Meeting .
Schedule
From Professor Teertstra: We will be holding our second team leads meeting this Thursday from 3:30 – 4:30pm in E5-2004. I’ve attached an agenda for the meeting – if there is anything you would like to add please let me know in advance.
Introductions
Vehicles
Purchase of new team vehicle
New driver registration, active drivers list
Branding of vehicles, trailers
Dashcam / ELD system updates
Sponsorship discussion – Jill Kennedy, Associate Director, Development, Faculty of Engineering
Giving Tuesday update
Proposed use of 2024 donations
Sharing details with potential donors via social media
Discussion – new student team formation, registration process
Miscellaneous
Branded items for loan from Engineering Events – tents, banners, etc.
Sandford Fleming Foundation travel grant
Pre-Notes
Discussed in #leads is some stuff about vehicle drivers list
We can reduce the having your G license for certain amount of time before being an SDC driver rule.
I have a feelin this is insurance required and no chance it’ll get changed but worth asking
This requirement doesn't do anything for safety
Upping the vehicle max speed
sometimes exceeding the limit is required for safety
Up from 105 to 130 ish
Notes
New dodge caravan for sdc, photos shown
minivan will have a trailer hitch for a small trailer
Concern of miles on Rav4, its getting old and could be a liability for long trips
focus it for close trips around town
no issues recently
not getting rid of it
new driver registration
Since may dedicated person for driver registration
for booking ask Graeme or Sarah to get her contact
some requirements to be aware of
interview is setup, screening proccess
how long have you had your license
privacy consent form to send your details to insurance company to see if u dont have outstanding legal issues
then you can book and use vehicles
keeping list current, contact teams twice a year
a lot of driving experience
this is considered
km driven is important on the
must have G license
hehe I asked question about requirement they essentially said dont worry about the time, just apply and you’ll most likely be accepted and then you’re good
The time you had your G1 and G2 is considerred
so everyone with a G already has like a year with their G1?
should be totally fine for people without any time to apply
Westmount signs is vinyl and carbon fiber printer for UWFE, uwaterloo will look into them
Dashcam system
the dashcam/ELD system
it uses OBD port on the vehicle
“if your driving good you wont realize it’s there”
GPS built in, records individuals driving styles
harsh brakes, harsh turning, unsafe things result in Teertstra emails
there are videos sent
audio and video is recorded
doing 110 in an 80 is not good (specific instance cited)
you must be comfortable with video in vehicles, this is true for all instances and you agree to it when signing
Repeated harsh events from a particular driver results in call from Teertstra
This device logs your hours so if you’re pulled over for inspection this provides evidence
app.gomotive.com
i did not ask about upping the speed limit, it seems kinda unnegotiable by the tone
truck and trailer trainning is done as needed so request if you want it
Companies in the past have approached SDC teams directly
i.e. Tesla Event, BETA event in the past term
If company sponsors our specific team then go for it and allow them to host events as long as its within your sponsorship package
If it is larger than just your team we want to provide equity to companies
Jill for advancement can help with setting this up
Ask companies to sponsor our team before allowing them to run an event, essentially they want it to be pay to win for companies
they pay for us in terms of sponsorships then we let them
to get access to all of us then they have to sponsor the entire university / sdc ?
Kind of an interesting angle from an “equity” perspective
Want to streamline the proccess of how to handle approaching companies
Jill’s team is up to review out sponsorship package, she can connect teams with us
companies are checking out our pages etc
Tesla and Rivian events were the big ones that caused this discussion
Tesla gave 625$s to every team that participated in their event
did we ever receive this?
hit up MNS if not?
we were clearly marked as a participating team and helped with coordination
this is a small amount considering the amount of exposure they got
Toyota does pay the university a lot of money (more than Tesla) and received worse access so that’s really not fair
Toyota gives money for the broad community and so does not sponsor teams directly, they gave a large amount to the faculty of engineering and some of that trickled down to SDC teams
Face time or recruiting opportunities should be included in our sponsorship packages
we are valuable as students
UWFE is the only team that has this currently (every other team doesn’t)
but they run it on a case by case basis when requested
leaving it open ended seems besr
Students have more personal interest, non-financial interest, in Tesla & Rivian then they do in Toyota so like are have more incentives for attendance to events
We have to send this through the proper SDC channels instead of handling directly
Formlabs came through a while ago
Formlabs felt better return from dealing with teams then they did from dealing with the university
How do we define a small amount, how is this policy of looking for equity on a company perspective, how is this enforceable? ← question i asked
response is essentially it cannot be enforced so its more a guideline thing?
There’s not a dollar amount threshold
teams should only get involved if they’re getting sponsored directly
SDC isnt in business of doing recruiting events exactly how employers want
want to funnel events through the proper channels
teams decide their own sponsorship packages and dollar values
from univ perspective, company needs to pay university or teams to get a recruitment event
recruiting events are a banefit for students and not just companies
as students we dont want to force companies to pay
the tesla event was a whole lot less hectic because set up by us students
students come to teams to build the resume
Univ wants to value us as well,
more coordinated is the goal of this conversation, will not be hard requirements for sponsors in the future to have to pay to have an event
univ wants to keep equity to keep their existing sponsors happy
Tesla in total spent more money transporting their people (thirteen people) then they spent on donating to our teams
Beth handles the legal aspects of insurance for these events, insurance was required for MNS,
Can email Teertstra or Jill as well!
From Teertstra “we are undervaluing with we’re worth to companies”
They will step in for larger events with lots of students
Giving Tuesday
photos have been sent in, will be given to all donors from last year to prime them for this year
last year we got 28k, we fully spent that money on two minivans
this year we’re expecting same amount or more,
there isn’t a large capital item we’re thinking about so “dream fund concept” is proposed on a handout (will be uploaded).
is uploaded below
note this is currently just a concept
instead of giving each team an even split (would be 700 dollars per team), we would have to make a proposal. Think similar to dean’s funding
do not include regular operating exepnses
think of something thats normally not paid for
we have no way of doing it without this sponsorship
something we’ve wanted to do but can’t afford
something that can be done in short term
Teertstra wouldn’t be on this committee for evaluation, donors or student gov or deans funding people will be on this committee
this will sell really well to donors!
example of something to be covered:
UWFE taking car to Europe competition
Expand test track
should teams try to request it all or do small amounts? do we encompass the entire amount?
if it’s divided out to 40 teams it’s divided into nothing
maybe it gets split between like 5 teams, maybe a cap on how much that can be requested similar to how dean’s fund does
reasonable cap for a dream lol we dunno
goal to fund like five or six “dreams”
open to feedback and suggestions
the goal is to benefit SDC students and get cool stories to tell to future sponsors, committee include someone from the SDC, maybe a student, committee membership will be decided as a group of SDC leads
Not all purchases benefit everyone so to be fair having a capital item isnt really doable
Watonomous doesn’t have a competition
making this fair is tough
if there are cool capital purchases that should be considerred, let Teertstra know!
university matches funds from donors for challenges, the SDC in total gets a lot of money, sending stuff out on our socials during giving tuesday week is really important, oppertunities for bonus dollars for us if we do this?
leaving the new team formation / registration proccess for another time bc running out of time
banners/tents for events
there are uwaterloo eng banners in the closets that graeme and terrtstra have access to
ask them when were going to competition
two banners
three tents
usable for competition, just request and we take em
take advantage of these branded items
Stanford flemming foundation
big uwaterloo donor
travel and exchange support
they have undergraduate travel grants, max 1k per team or 250 per person
1k cap on this travel
not a lot of effort in applying
can be used to offset travel planes
write proposal to this
very undersubscribed
lots of extra funds that arent given out every year
awarded annually, deadline for submission is end of winter term, only taken once every year
they do retroactive so it goves back in time.
if we want for may we should submit by winter, see their website
a few teams have done this (UWFE and Baja)
they have requested a lot more than 1k and gotten away with it
theyre very generous
travel grant straight fwd, other grants can be more monies
Post Meeting Notes
For safety inspection Graeme said there’s a google doc for adding in our name, today is booked but coming days are available
Document for dreams fund idea:
