Formula 1 always attract people attention because it is a race that not only challenge the drivers to drive the cars as fast as possible, but also challenge the cars itself. After a competition, most of the viewers will have a question in their mind, who is the fastest driver in this race? What car that he use? Who build the car? That's why people always enjoy to watch Formula 1 races and they always curious about it.
Knowing that Formula 1 is quite famous in the world, NUS also create its own Team. They call it Formula SAE Team. It is a project under guidance of Prof Seah Kar Heng which started the project since 2001. The team consist of 12 team members which is divided by 6 student from year 4 and the others from year 3. Actually, every year, Proff Seah select 12 students from year 2 to be trained for preparing them join the main team. But, after 1 year selection, there will be only 6 students who will join the main team in year 3.
The car they use to compete at Michigan is a car that they build themself, by selecting the material, calculating, and even constructing it. The car being constructed not only to reach a maximum speed, but also look for the safety of the driver because in this race we can say that the drivers put his life on the line. One miscalculation, and it is over.
Every year they have to use different car with different model and machine. Until this year, the FSAE team has already built 7 cars which is being used to compete in 7 competition at Michigan, USA. The result is very good. They always raise their rank in the world each year. However, they still have a long way to beat teams from Europe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have found that the sound of powerful engines and the smell of burnt rubber are always fascinating for men. Though the driver is an indispensable part of a car competition, most of the male audience may be more attracted by those state-of-art modern chariots. I believe it was the initial force that drove those young men in NUS to challenge themselves in that unfamiliar field. It was not so easy to build a car of real-life size, let alone a formula style race car. The NUS team, which took part in formula SAE organized by Society of Automotive Engineers, was faced many problems during its first try. The criteria for judging a good student designed car are quite complicated. They include design, cost, presentation, acceleration, skid pad, autocross, fuel economy and endurance.
ReplyDeleteApart from funding, the students in the team were also faced with many technical problems they had never learnt during class. This is the part I appreciate the most for this competition. For engineering students, one big problem is to apply the knowledge we have gained in class to real-life, real industry problems. Most of the time, these problems are much more difficult to tackle compared with the examples give during lessons. In this sense, Formulae SAE has provided a great platform for students to practice all the skills and to manage all kinds of problem they would not be able to learn during class like marketing and seeking funding. I hope more competition and opportunities would be provided for engineering students, preparing for their career.