Students from India, Malaysia, Lithuania, Germany, and the UK have come together at the University of Liverpool to design and build a car for the annual Formula Student competition at the world-famous Silverstone motor racing track.
The team, supported by multinational industries, such as Ford Motor Company, have begun work on the design of a new race car as part of Europe’s biggest educational motorsport event. Formula Student aims to challenge aspiring engineers to build and compete as a team in a single seat racing car.
Mohammad Alfateh, from Bhopal, India, said: “I joined the team at the start of my third year of study in the School of Engineering at Liverpool. We are currently designing a car on the computer and will begin the physical build of it in December. The project offers a great opportunity to work as part of a team and enhance our engineering skills.”
Students at Liverpool are required to account for how and why they have chosen certain materials for their car, as well as present a business case for how the team will sell the design concept. They are also expected to produce a car that is fuel efficient and cost effective for the 22km endurance race.
During the two year-long project, students build on the skills they gain from their degree programme, which is geared towards realising the concept of ‘The Liverpool Engineer’, an initiative that aims to produce a new type of graduate who is ‘industry ready’ due to active participation in situations experienced by a professional engineer.
Dr Bob Mines, who oversees the team at the University’s School of Engineering, said: “This year we have a truly international team of students committed to developing their engineering knowledge and professional skills.
“We hope that students enrolling on engineering programmes in 2012 will learn from the success of our Formula Student activity and join us in producing high quality industry-relevant engineering projects.”
Students from the School of Engineering work in a £8 million facility, called the Active Learning Laboratory, one of the most advanced of its kind in Europe. The Laboratory spans over two storeys of the University’s Engineering building, where up to 250 students can experience various learning activities, such as building and testing cars, robots, large scale bridges, and remote control aircraft.