Kevin Hayward
02-15-2013, 09:37 PM
A quick update for the forums:
This week we held the first ever FSAE demonstration event in Western Australia. It was sponsored by the WA sporting car club and Edith Cowan University. 5 teams participated to put the FSAE vehicles and students on display for local high school students and industry representatives. The display was dynamic only and loosely followed the events of the competition, with a few changes to try new things. While times were recorded each team was there with the full understanding that it was a demonstration event and not a competition. As such teams tried a few changes to their vehicles and gave some of the inexperienced members a try in the cars.
Following the event a multi-day design seminar has been run covering all sorts of topics from application of statics and dynamics principles to systems engineering and project management and just about everything in-between. Altair Hyperworks (with Curtin University) has also organised free places for students to go on a 4 day training program involving FEM and advanced software.
A few observations of the event include the following:
- It went very smoothly. With the help of permanent garages and the aid of excellent volunteers from the WASCC the event was enjoyed by all. There attitude between teams was both professional and friendly. A lot of information was shared between teams.
- The high school students loved it. They got a chance to speak to both student and graduate engineers and find out about potential future careers in technical areas.
- The long time industry supporters of FSAE in Western Australia were incredibly impressed with the quality of the students work and their attitude. It will likely be a little easier to show the educational benefit of the competition to these supporters in WA.
A big thanks goes out to Swinburne Electric and the Alumni for both bringing vehicles. The electric car was particularly interesting for the spectators and showed an incredible amount of potential that was not necessarily apparent in Oz 2012. Also to Monash who brought the 2012 with an all new DRS system to test. They were both fast and friendly as usual.
It was great to see both the 2002 and 2011 UWA car out on track. Of interest to the followers of the event we decided to see just how much the vehicles had improved in the last 10 years. The two cars were both equipped with the same tyres. We had the same top level driver drive them on autocross on a 35s track. Both cars had finished second in their respective Australian comps. The new car was about 1.6s a lap faster.
Both Curtin and ECU had their 2011 and 2012 cars and it was clear to all how much progress both teams had made between the respective vehicles.
Of the 9 cars present all ran reliably and finished a simulated endurance (although we ran with 3 drivers per team instead of 2).
The event itself shows the excellent vision offered by the current board and leadership of SAE-A. There are great attempts being made to make SAE-A relevant to all states, promote engineering education to high schools and industry, and encourage engineering students from around Australia to have more interaction with each other. I hope we see more of these initiatives in the coming years.
Kev
This week we held the first ever FSAE demonstration event in Western Australia. It was sponsored by the WA sporting car club and Edith Cowan University. 5 teams participated to put the FSAE vehicles and students on display for local high school students and industry representatives. The display was dynamic only and loosely followed the events of the competition, with a few changes to try new things. While times were recorded each team was there with the full understanding that it was a demonstration event and not a competition. As such teams tried a few changes to their vehicles and gave some of the inexperienced members a try in the cars.
Following the event a multi-day design seminar has been run covering all sorts of topics from application of statics and dynamics principles to systems engineering and project management and just about everything in-between. Altair Hyperworks (with Curtin University) has also organised free places for students to go on a 4 day training program involving FEM and advanced software.
A few observations of the event include the following:
- It went very smoothly. With the help of permanent garages and the aid of excellent volunteers from the WASCC the event was enjoyed by all. There attitude between teams was both professional and friendly. A lot of information was shared between teams.
- The high school students loved it. They got a chance to speak to both student and graduate engineers and find out about potential future careers in technical areas.
- The long time industry supporters of FSAE in Western Australia were incredibly impressed with the quality of the students work and their attitude. It will likely be a little easier to show the educational benefit of the competition to these supporters in WA.
A big thanks goes out to Swinburne Electric and the Alumni for both bringing vehicles. The electric car was particularly interesting for the spectators and showed an incredible amount of potential that was not necessarily apparent in Oz 2012. Also to Monash who brought the 2012 with an all new DRS system to test. They were both fast and friendly as usual.
It was great to see both the 2002 and 2011 UWA car out on track. Of interest to the followers of the event we decided to see just how much the vehicles had improved in the last 10 years. The two cars were both equipped with the same tyres. We had the same top level driver drive them on autocross on a 35s track. Both cars had finished second in their respective Australian comps. The new car was about 1.6s a lap faster.
Both Curtin and ECU had their 2011 and 2012 cars and it was clear to all how much progress both teams had made between the respective vehicles.
Of the 9 cars present all ran reliably and finished a simulated endurance (although we ran with 3 drivers per team instead of 2).
The event itself shows the excellent vision offered by the current board and leadership of SAE-A. There are great attempts being made to make SAE-A relevant to all states, promote engineering education to high schools and industry, and encourage engineering students from around Australia to have more interaction with each other. I hope we see more of these initiatives in the coming years.
Kev