Wonderful learning weekend

Formula Student UK is done and dusted. Start preparing for the next one! Best business and project planning training on the planet!

Every student attending will have had an intense learning weekend. Experienced people such as myself always learn something too. This year many teams stood out but the biggest surprise was the dominance in the dynamic events of one group. From a university in Perth in Western Australia the Edith Cowan University team came first in sprint and acceleration, second in acceleration and skid pan, as well as second in economy. Just to rub it in they also won the design event and were well placed in other static events to take the overall Formula Student win.

A team of 15 students with a smaller budget than many, they could not afford the rush to electrification and were forced to simplify their design ideas to get the car built and ready for competition. They had the advantage of competing in Australia already which may be a key takeaway for other teams. The lesson is get the car ready very early and get out testing so you can get it reliable and get your drivers practising.

Formula Student is a worldwide competition with over 1000 university teams competing (it was derived from Formula SAE which continues in the USA and Australasia). The concept is for students to form a "company" that has to plan and complete a complex product to a tight time schedule. The biggest challenge is project planning and resource management. Most students are attracted by the motorsport aspect of it but it is so much more than that.

A business presentation, a cost report, and a design report are all part of the event and the judging of these can be quite tough. Excellent preparation for the real world. The product (a car) has to be created, finished and tested by the event and competes in the 4 disciplines mentioned (along with economy). The UK competition is fascinating because petrol, hybrid and electric cars compete side by side. So, it was particularly surprising that this petrol car came second in economy (electric car won).

The design final was VERY close with 6 of the many teams competing (over 110 teams in a number of classes) fighting intelligently to win it.

Trophy winners were getting so excited we had to ask them not to leap up and down on the stage - the bigger teams have a lot of momentum when they get going!

Formula Student now have an increased AI competition with about 20 teams competing and with a row of standard AI based cars the students can drive. Another important step in the drive to educate more of tomorrow's leading engineers.

And of course there were many potential employers at the event looking to capitalise on the almost graduated talent pool available. Would love to see more!

I'm already looking forward to the next competition to see how much teams have grown over the next year! Look at my LinkedIn articles for any that may relate to Formula Student and, if you need guidance, start with the Learn and compete Formula Student books available via Kimberly Media. Make sure you get the updated (2023) version. Lots has been updated and added.

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