FINDLAY, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cooper Tire announced today it is a sponsor of the SAE International Formula SAE program for the 2016 competition year. An annual part of SAE’s Collegiate Design Series, Formula SAE brings together engineering students from more than 220 universities around the world. Devoted to helping young and upcoming engineers excel, Formula SAE is an international engineering design competition in which students build Formula-style race cars to compete against teams from around the world.

Student teams are judged across eight events, which include categories such as design, marketing, cost, and on-track performance, allowing students the opportunity to gain expertise in multiple areas of automotive engineering. Restrictions are placed on the car frame and engine, so the students’ knowledge, problem solving, creativity, and imagination are tested. This year’s Formula SAE events include the largest and the most prestigious global engineering collegiate competition to be held May 11 to 14 at the Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich., as well as the Formula SAE Lincoln and Formula SAE Electric events to be held June 15 to 18 in Lincoln, Neb.

To assist students in selecting tires for their vehicles, Cooper provided Avon race tires, a brand manufactured by the company’s Cooper Tire Europe subsidiary, to Calspan Corporation, a leading testing organization. The resulting “force and moment” tire performance data, funded by Cooper, was provided to Formula SAE teams by the Tire Test Consortium, a volunteer-managed organization of member schools that pool their financial resources to obtain tire data for the Formula SAE competitions. This data is used in simulations, which help guide the development and tuning of the vehicles, and offers a competitive edge in making a final tire selection.

“Cooper is proud to be a first-time sponsor of the Formula SAE program,” said Chuck Yurkovich, the company’s Senior Vice President of Global Research & Development. “The Cooper engineering team was able to work with Calspan, in conjunction with the Tire Test Consortium, to help provide these highly talented students with real-world testing data for Avon tires to help their teams address challenges and improve vehicle performance.

“The Formula SAE competition gives engineering students invaluable experience. It promotes careers and excellence in engineering as it encompasses all aspects of the automotive industry including design, manufacturing, testing, marketing, and management. Formula SAE takes students out of the classroom and gives them the opportunity to apply textbook theories to real world experiences,” Yurkovich added.

For more information on Formula SAE, visit http://students.sae.org/cds/formulaseries/ and for information on Avon, or to qualify for a Formula SAE student tire discount, visit http://www.avonmotorsport.com/resource-centre/tyre-applications/sae-formula-student.

About Cooper Tire & Rubber Company

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: CTB) is the parent company of a global family of companies that specializes in the design, manufacture, marketing and sale of passenger car and light truck tires. Cooper and its subsidiaries also sell medium truck, motorcycle and racing tires. Cooper's headquarters is in Findlay, Ohio, with manufacturing, sales, distribution, technical and design operations within its family of companies located in more than one dozen countries around the world. For more information on Cooper, visit www.coopertire.com, www.facebook.com/coopertire or www.twitter.com/coopertire.