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Racecar

UTS Motorsports builds a race car with Basecamp

UTS Motorsports is a team of engineering students that, in their own time, design, build and market a formula style race car to compete in the annual Formula SAE run by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Below, team member Nick Newland explains how they use Basecamp to manage the team.

Building a race car for UTS Motorsports requires a significant commitment which students must balance between their studies, work and social activities. In the past this project was managed by emails and discussion boards which proved to be less effective.

Design

Two years ago one of our team members set up a Basecamp account — instead the emails and discussion boards we were used to — for project management. We realised that team members short on time could quickly and effectively communicate with the team and check progress. To-do lists allowed team members to see how each group’s section was progressing even though they were unable to meet on a regular basis.

By the end of the year, Basecamp had become our main communication and organisation tool.

Development

Last year our team explored using other aspects of Basecamp — such as setting up milestones and Writeboards. This allowed a group of people with vastly different timetables to work independently, yet move together, towards a common goal. 2009 was UTS Motorsports’ most successful event ever.

2010 is set to be an even better year for the team. Our Basecamp use has evolved even further so that each subsection of the car is run as its own project allowing each team to communicate and track progress more closely. Files are shared online using version control, and team meeting agendas are set using a Writeboard. The common reply to many questions is “Check it on Basecamp.”

Panic Board

Our most recent development is a “Panic Board” (right) which uses the Basecamp APIs to display upcoming deadlines and milestones on a monitor in our workshop. This allows team members to see upcoming dates at a glance and serves as a constant reminder of our time frame. Basecamp has facilitated effective communication and has been instrumental in the development and management of our team.

Learn more about UTS Motorsports

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