Formula Student 2
For a little background on the Formula Student project, check out my post from April.
I’ve just done a Google search for “Sussex Formula Student 2007″, as I wanted to see if I could find any details on how the Sussex University team are getting along; perhaps their webcam would be functioning, so we could watch the build, etc.
What I found out, though, is that my previous post on the subject comes up top of the list and there’s nothing anywhere to indicate what’s happening with the Sussex team at the moment.
If you’re part of the team and want to send me a link to a site where people can check out your progress, please do. If there isn’t a site and you’d like me to update people on your behalf, again let me know and I’ll be happy to do it.
The competition is drawing near and it would be great to find out how things are going.
Formula Student - not as successful as it could be?
I wanted to put a link here to the University of Sussex Formula Student webcam, but at the moment it appears not to be working; this could be because the UniSus Formula Student car is not working. Recent testing has proved to be problematic to say the least. (If the camera - or indeed the car - starts to work, I’ll update the post.)
But what is Formula Student I hear you ask (or at least I think I do - or perhaps the medication is wearing off). It’s the British equivalent of an American competition - Formula SAE- that aims to promote understanding of, and participation in, automotive engineering amongst university students, by getting them to build and then compete a single-seater racing car.
The premise of the competition is that the students are preparing a prototype car to present to a multinational car company. They have to design the car (within limitations laid down in the competition rules), build it, finance it and also present the car. The idea is that - as an elective project for engineering students - Formula Student will give participants the chance to put into practice the theory that they learn in their lectures.
My experience of Formula Student is third-hand; a friend of mine is a research student at Sussex, and is writing a thesis on the Educational Worth of Formula Student. A thesis which I’ve been dragged into as editor. In addition to this, in 2003 I went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where a number of the more successful teams - including that of Brunel University - were showing their cars and looking for sponsorship.
On the face of it, Formula Student seems like a good idea; as a non-engineering type of guy, I think I’d jump at the chance to be involved in a competition such as this. But in practice it seems that the competition suffers for several reasons.
First is timing; the competition takes place in July which is exam season. If you’re studying hard for your degree and you’re also involved in a non-credit project, which are you going to drop when time gets short?
Second is the fact that it is a non-credit, elective course. There is no incentive to complete the course, no tying it in with the curriculum, no credits gained towards the degree.
Third is the lack of support that some teams have to suffer with. Some universities - Bath, Leeds and Brunel have good reputations here - integrate Formula Student very well and the team has the support of academic and technical staff to get the car to the competition and make sure it does well when it gets there. Other universities do not have this support - whether because of a lack of resources or lack of interest from staff - and this indifference transmits itself to the team.
A number of papers on this subject have been submitted to the SAE: Integrating Formula SAE, Project Based Learning and Culture, and the just published Culture, Money and Space and are well worth checking out.
What I’d like to see is Formula Student made an integral part of the Engineering curriculum, with faculty committed to helping their students get through to the competition where they successfully complete all the events (are you listening Sussex?:-)). Until then, it’s really not worth the effort.
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