The Formula Student competition, which is organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, challenges the students to use their creativity and technical skills to design, build and race single seater cars.
Mirroring real world trends of vehicle electrification, this year’s line-up features 33 electric vehicle entries compared with last year’s 24, including Loughborough University, University of Portsmouth, Queen’s University Belfast and Oxford Brookes University who are entering the electric competition for the first time.
Similarly, FS-AI has more than doubled in size following its inaugural competition last year. Teams from Egypt, Australia as well as UK universities will join 2019 winners Edinburgh University in the challenge to develop the best autonomous vehicle systems.
Lucy Killington, Project Manager of Formula Student, said: “FS-AI has really taken off, with 12 teams from all over the world participating. This is a huge increase on last year’s 5 teams and a real testament to the UK’s competition model which offers the opportunity for budding CAV engineers to utilise the IMechE’s ADS-DV (automated driving system – dedicated vehicle) if they don’t have the resource to build their own.”
Developed with funding from the government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, the ADS-DV is unique to this competition and enables a wider variety of students studying STEM topics to participate and develop their skills.
Andrew Deakin, chairman of Formula Student, said: “The expansion of the FS-AI competition this year is really exciting and we’re very grateful for the support of all our partners to keep this side of the competition growing. Formula Student has always been proud of the work it does to prepare students for the real world of industry and FS-AI will help us achieve that in the ever-expanding area of autonomous vehicles.”
Formula Student continues to be a key part of the Institution’s vision to develop the next generation of superstar engineers.
