Taipei Tech Racing (TTR) turned a complex launch event into a repeatable playbook. Here is how the student team planned, built, and showcased their new car while keeping engineering knowledge and event operations in one place with HackMD.
Team Snapshot
Taipei Tech Racing (TTR) comprises three main divisions: Chassis, Body, and Powertrain. Each group plays a critical role in the car’s design and development, and together they have found HackMD to be an essential tool. Whether documenting technical R&D, assembling tutorials, or preserving the process behind significant events like their car showcase, HackMD helps the team stay aligned.
Alongside HackMD, the team also uses Synology forms for early data collection and Discord for day-to-day communication. As Fan Shao-Chieh explained, HackMD’s most significant advantage is that “you do not have to worry about line breaks or fonts. Just record the work. HackMD keeps the layout clean and consistent.”
The Challenge
Student racing teams move fast. Designs change, code evolves, and new members join every year. When it came time to launch a new car and run a public showcase on campus, TTR needed to make sure two things happened. First, their engineering documentation had to be detailed enough to give future members a head start. Second, the event itself needed to be organized and repeatable, so that anyone planning future showcases could pick up where the last group left off.
Why HackMD
The team had tried traditional editors like Word and PowerPoint, as well as other Markdown tools, but HackMD stood out for its simplicity and versatility. Writing in pure Markdown allowed them to move quickly without worrying about formatting.
Notes looked consistent no matter who wrote them, and the output was easy to share both internally and externally. For TTR, the ability to export documents to PDF or Markdown and to set permissions with just a link made collaboration far smoother. As Shao-Chieh put it, “Compared to Word or PowerPoint, recording is much faster. And compared to other Markdown apps, HackMD’s sharing and output are more convenient.”
How TTR Documents Engineering Work
One example comes from the team’s work on an anemometer. Their HackMD document for the component included a table to track development, inline images to explain wiring and placement, and code blocks with detailed commentary. This allowed members to understand the logic behind each function, reuse snippets, and continue development without having to guess what had already been done.
For assembly guides, TTR created step-by-step instructions paired with images and captions. These documents read like lightweight manuals that evolve with each iteration of the car. Other divisions used HackMD in their own ways:
- Chassis: kept tutorials for CAD and related software.
- Body: tracked design processes and photo references.
- Powertrain: accumulated the most documents due to firmware, control logic, and research.
In every case, the record acted as a bridge for teammates and future members to recall work or understand dependencies. As Shao-Chieh noted, “We can share our design process with members or people outside the team. When we return to a project weeks later, the record shows exactly where we left off.”
Running the Car Showcase With HackMD
While early registrations and forms were handled with Synology, the showcase itself leaned heavily on HackMD. The team created a single note that functioned as the source of truth for the event. It contained the run-of-show and administrative checklist, including application steps, sponsor acknowledgment, and venue coordination.
Screenshots and photos documented approvals and on-site setup. Afterward, the team wrote a post-event recap that outlined what worked, what needed improvement, and provided links to technical highlights that could be shared with sponsors or the press. This transformed the showcase into a repeatable playbook, so future organizers could follow the same process instead of starting from scratch.
Adoption and Onboarding
At first, new members often assumed they had to manage fonts or line breaks, but onboarding quickly cleared this up. TTR introduces new users with a simple template that includes headings, a parts table, and a code block. From there, they only need to learn a few Markdown patterns, such as how to embed images or links.
Once comfortable, members find that note-taking is far faster than with Word or similar software. HackMD has also improved small details that make adoption easier. For example, creating a new note while inside a folder now places it in that folder automatically, which aligns better with the team’s habits.
What Improved
Using HackMD has brought continuity to TTR’s work. Members can step away from a project for weeks and return without losing context. Cross-team clarity has improved because the Chassis, Body, and Powertrain divisions can all read each other’s notes and understand dependencies.
For events, the preserved checklists and logs mean that future launches begin with a tested procedure rather than a blank page. And externally, sharing is straightforward: exporting to PDF or sharing a link with permissions makes it simple to circulate notes with sponsors, partners, or recruits.
What’s Next for TTR on HackMD
With HackMD’s upcoming redesign of Team Public Pages, TTR sees an opportunity to publish more of their work publicly. These pages will function like a lightweight blog where the team can pin press updates, share technical write-ups, or publish event recaps. The upcoming Community Page will allow visitors to discover teams like TTR by interest, increasing visibility and opening doors to new partnerships.
As Shao-Chieh observed, “Publishing on HackMD could help us connect with more professionals and similar groups. We hope to share more of our work with the community.”
Final Takeaway
TTR did not overhaul its toolset. Instead, they committed to writing clearer notes. By using HackMD as the common layer for engineering and operations, the team managed a successful showcase and left behind a playbook that will serve future members.
For student teams, the lesson is simple: capture your work in a shared folder with a straightforward template, and your effort will compound. Every build and every event becomes easier, more organized, and more lasting.
