About SAE Aero Design Events

About SAE Aero Design Series

The SAE Aero Design competition is intended to provide undergraduate and graduate engineering students with a real-life engineering challenge. The competition has been designed to provide exposure to the kinds of situations that engineers face in their real-life work environment. First and foremost a design competition, students will find themselves performing trade studies and making compromises to arrive at a design solution that will optimally meet the mission requirements while still conforming to the configuration limitations.


The importance of interpersonal communication skills is sometimes overlooked, yet both written and oral communication skills are vital in the engineering workplace. To help teams develop these skills, a high percentage of a team's score is devoted to the design report and the oral presentation required in the competition.


SAE Aero Design features three classes of competition-Regular, Advanced, and Micro. Regular Class continues to be the class with the purpose to develop the fundamental understanding of flight. We recommended Regular Class for first year teams interested in competing. Advanced Class requires teams to have a systems approach to the design while integrating several engineering disciplines: aeronautical, mechanical, electrical, and computer engineers. The ultimate end goal for this class is autonomous flight with a "purpose" decided every year by rules committee members. Micro Class teams are required to make trades between two potentially conflicting requirements, carrying the highest payload fraction possible, while simultaneously pursuing the lowest empty weight possible.

International Events


The official Collegiate Design Series competitions that are authorized and governed by SAE International are listed below. Unless listed below, the design competition or event is not an official SAE International competition, and is not authorized, sanctioned, or endorsed by SAE International.


Aero Design® Brazil
 

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Real-World Experience Meets the Future of Mobility

SAE International's Collegiate Design Series (CDS) programs prepare undergraduate and graduate engineering students in a variety of disciplines for future employment in mobility-related industries by challenging them with a real world, engineering application. Students engage with industry professionals to understand modern applications, build their network, and prepare for the workforce after graduation.

Collegiate Design Series Learning Objectives

  • Project management, budgeting, communication, and resource management skills
  • Team collaboration
  • Applying industry rules and regulations
  • Design, build, and test the performance of a real vehicle
  • Compete with other students from around the globe  
  • Develop and prepare technical documentation

International Events

The official Collegiate Design Series (CDS) competitions that are authorized and governed by SAE International are listed below. Unless listed below, the design competition or event is not an official SAE International competition, and is not authorized, sanctioned or endorsed by SAE International.

  • Baja SAE South Africa
  • Baja SAE Brazil
  • Baja SAE Korea
  • Baja SAE Mexico
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