Second years utilised lab equipment such as our wind tunnel to investigate aerodynamics
Guest speakers, Professional Development and hands-on in the Automotive Workshop
It’s been an exciting and busy semester for Automotive and Motorsport Engineering students in the Department of Engineering. First year students have welcomed two guest speakers from Caterpillar and McLaren Automotive. They are also looking forward to their Vehicle Principles and Professional Development lectures and getting into the Automotive Workshop.
Final year students have been starting to develop their final proposals for the Engineering Project module, there’s some exciting projects around the Formula Student car design as well as looking at battery technology and sensors in vehicles.
Foundation students have been learning about engineering principles and getting practical experience with the labs, as well as having specialist lectures on automotive powertrains so that they can start to build on this once they’re in their second year.
Track day and aerodynamics lab sessions
Our second year students have all participated in a track day experience this year, replicating the “arrive and drive” concept – they plan the whole event, making sure that the transport meets specifications, that the track car is prepared and set up and then each gets the opportunity to be a passenger for several hot laps, gathering vehicle data that they can then analyse back in the workshop. They’ve also just completed their laboratory sessions for aerodynamics, exploring the effect of streamlining on the drag produced by an object.
Formula Student team members on our Student Connect Podcast
Automotive and Motorsport and Formula Student team members Angel and Alex joined our student-led podcast to talk all things Formula Student and their experience making lifelong friendships, networking with teams from around the world, and festival vibes racing at Silverstone on our award-winning Staffordshire Racing team.
Watch or listen here
What's next?
A range of Automotive and Motorsport students are going on a visit to BMW Mini Oxford soon where they will look around the factory and get to see a fully operational automotive factory in operation.
Final year students are further preparing their Final Year Projects which they will showcase to industry at GradEx. This is a valuable opportunity to network with potential employers. Guest judges will be attending from national and local industry.