11/3/25 - 11/9/25: Catalyzer Final Update! / First PCB Arrival! / Competition Registration / HV Lead Highlight!
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Anton Walvoord
Nov 9, 2025, 8:43:41 PM11/9/25
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Catalyzer Final Update!
Hello Formula! Thank you once again to everyone who supported our campaign this past month. We received an incredible amount of donations that will make a world of difference for our club. At the end of everything, the final tally stands at a total of $16,580 raised -- more than 3x our original goal!
We are unbelievably grateful to everyone who helped us achieve this. Whether you donated or simply spread the word, you made a difference to us and the car we will build. Look out for more newsletters throughout the year updating you on our progress, and make sure to keep up to date on our [Instagram] and [Facebook]!
Returning mechanical members working
First PCB Arrival!
Our first PCB order of the year has finally arrived! With 11 different designs across all 3 of our electrical subteams, this is one of our largest PCB orders ever.
10 different board designs, fresh from production!
The boards above range all systems of the car, from drive critical components required by rules - to exciting technical projects that exist to push our team. Members have already begun soldering their boards and are moving to testing and debugging as fast as possible! We are so excited to get these boards talking to one another and propelling our car.
Number 11! Our SensePCB -- too large for the group photo above
Board Highlight: A SensePCB (pictured above) will lay across each of our accumulator segments, routing wiring for our custom BMS to cell monitor and balance, and to measure pack temperatures. In previous years, we connected these boards to our BMS daughter-boards by flexible printed circuits. This year, we're further simplifying assembly by using mezzanine connectors to mount the daughter-boards on top, allowing them to serve as segment covers as well!
Competition Registration:
This year SAE moved to a new registration method for all of its competitions. Instead of being a mad dash to register as soon as the website opened, they decided to implement a lottery system. They provided 2 weeks in which to enter the lottery, after which they did a random drawing to determine registration order.
As a result of this random drawing, NFR was initially placed as team #112. With 100 registration slots, this meant we were #12 on the wait-list. However, over the course of a week or two, 7 teams dropped off the registration list. As it stands now, we are #5 on the wait-list and are diligently checking our status daily.
Based on communication from SAE and past competitions, we are confident the wait-list will clear for us and we will have a registration slot. We will continue to provide updates throughout the year as the list updates. For now, it's business as usual. We're going to build an amazing car no matter what, and our motivation is as high as ever!
High Voltage Electronics Lead Highlight!
Our second electrical lead highlight -- Drake Vogelpohl!
Drake is a senior from Denver, Colorado studying Electrical and Computer Engineering. He joined Powertrain as a freshman, where he worked on the motor mount. He then moved to Electrical where he worked to design our fully custom battery management system (BMS). This year he is leading HV Electronics, responsible for the custom inverter, custom BMS, and other electronics related to the safety of the high voltage system. Outside of Formula Drake loves skiing and traveling (did you know he studied abroad in Madrid).
Drake has been pushing his members to do great work and hit deadlines. His subteam alone was responsible for 6 of the boards in our first order (over half)! We are full steam ahead building a fast, safe car with Drake in charge of high voltage!
With <3 from NFR
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