UNMC IMechE Student Chapter: Student member newsletter

Flying the chequered flag for engineering

Summer is a time for relaxing and winding down after the long slog of exams, right? Wrong. Summer is an adrenaline-packed, turbocharged season of racing. In this month’s special edition of the IMechE newsletter, we have all the news from this year’s Formula Student. We profile Simon Speidel, a member of the victorious University of Stuttgart team, and tell you how you can use your experience to get young people excited about careers in engineering at events like Greenpower. We also discuss the future of motor racing in our Topic of the Month.


	IMechE Member Profile Simon Speidel, University of Stuttgart, Formula Student team member Why did you get involved with Formula Student? I’m fascinated by motorsports and FS is a great way to gain experience of working in a team. I had already heard of the team at Stuttgart, and I joined after an information event at the university. It was very easy to do. Sometimes the project requires long hours, and you really need to keep your head up and stay on the course. It’s all worthwhile when you see your team succeed at competitions though. Do you think today’s Formula Student engineers will be tomorrow’s F1 winners? Yes, definitely! In FS you gain a lot of experience of designing and racing cars. It’s all good preparation for a career in racing engineering. Would you recommend other students get involved? Yes, I would. You get so much experience with FS; meeting people from other countries, working with engineering companies and sponsors, engineering and, of course, racing! Are you tipping the University of Stuttgart team to win again next year? It’s always hard to win, but we will definitely be well prepared next year and try our best.

Stuttgart Storms to Victory The only thing more unpredictable than British summer weather is the podium at Formula Student. With the teams from Germany putting in a strong showing last year, competition was even fiercer this time around. Over 2,300 students in 125 teams from 34 countries participated this year, making Formula Student the world’s largest student motorsport competition. Teams were pitted against each other over four days at Silverstone, with cars judged on their speed, acceleration, handling and endurance, and teams tested on their design, costing and business presentation skills. “Vorsprung Durch Technik” was the order of the day again this year, as the team from the University of Stuttgart took first place in the headline Class One race, but there were other winners too. Read the story and get the full results.
Got the power Formula Student isn’t the only way you can get involved in the future of racing. Earlier this summer, around 50 STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Maths) Ambassadors descended on the rolling hills of Yorkshire to help run the Greenpower electric car racing event for local schools. Greenpower aims to get more young people into engineering careers. Each team is given the same motor and battery capacity, and has to build the best electric racing car they can for a four mile endurance race. Check out a BBC news report on the event. Volunteering at events such as these is not just great fun; you also get excellent experience of managing a group, and it looks fantastic on your CV. Read more about in your local area.
Racing ahead Professional racing cars are already ruthlessly efficient machines. But with increasing pressure on oil supplies, engineers are looking to alternative fuel sources to power the race cars of tomorrow. With that in mind, we asked whether you thought Formula One would change much over the coming years as the teams adopt new technology such as that on show at Formula Student. IMechE member Paul Davis points out that other racing classes have already seen big changes over the past few years. He thinks Formula One could go the same way, but that the governing bodies need to relax some of the regulatory restrictions for it to happen. One thing is for certain; with the amount of engineering talent on display at events like Formula Student and Greenpower, the future looks good for racing!