This fall, Alan will be going to Clarkston University in up-state New York (Potsdam). I will be hard to see him go, but we are excited for him.
Clarkston is a good school. His major will be Aeronautical Engineering although his real interests are in super-cars (the Ferrari, Lamborgini type). High performace cars like this actually have a lot in common with airplane. There weren't any schools that had majors in super-car making, so this course of study is probably the best. And Alan will also be able to work on a car while he is there too.
We visited the school in February. When they took us on a walking tour of the campus, we walked through their labs. They had some interesting projects: a low environment-impact snowmobile, an amphibious Baja buggy and a formula SEA race car. Alan really zeroed in on the race car.
The Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) has made a specification for a class of race car. Every year, a number of schools design and build up a car to this specification from scratch. Then they compete. The car is more designed for agility than speed (max race speeds are around 60 mph).
This is last-years car. Alan has driven it. And he is on the team making this year's car. His roommate is also on the team, so they have a great time together!