Formula Student Symposium Gyor, Hungary,

[Claude Rouelle]

I participated this Tuesday March 31st and Wednesday April 1st to the Formula Student Symposium that was organized by the same group of people who do also organize the Formula Student Hungary in August.

I wanted to say a few words about this Symposium not only to share the joy of having participated to these amazing 2 days but to recommend students to attend this symposium next year. You should put it your calendar.

There were several lectures and workshops organized. Pat Clarke and I were happy to teach a few of them.

There were some absolutely amazing lectures given by highly professional people like for example (and just to name a few) Leo Spiegel who presented the boost (not turbo here but electrical additional power) management in Porsche tentative to (successfully) to get a lap time under 7 minutes on the Nurburgring with the Porsche 918. Or Ulrich Baretzky who designed the gasoline and diesel engines who won so many 24 hours of Le Mans and presented all the engineering challenges in the 2015 Le Mans engine design. Or Nisar Al-Hasan from Continental who gave a brilliant lecture on turbo charger.

I spoke about kinematic design and how to determine suspension stiffness and damping for a Formula Student car, how to create and use the yaw moment Vs. lateral acceleration method to get the most of grip, balance, control and stability in different part of a corner. I also spoke about why and how to achieve a low weight as one of the fundamental performance parameters. I was also happy to share my perspectives and experience as a race engineer and a design judge on the importance of team organization before even facing the engineering challenges of the Formula Student competitions

And all that in 2 days of fantastic atmosphere. A feast of information and networking with students from Hungary, Russia (some came from Siberia), Austria, Slovenia, Check Republic, Slovenia…

The organization was simply perfect. You could feel that the people who created this symposium not only put their brain but also their soul into it.

Frankly there is nothing like it. I do not know any other organization in the Formula Student world that can give so much from so many professional people in just 2 days.

I warmly recommend to students to attend the Formula Student Symposium next year in Gyor, Hungary.

Besides several weekends on the Hungaroring many years ago where I just knew the road from the airport to the hotel and the hotel to the circuit, I never had the chance to spend some time in Hungary. I found people who were excellent engineers, excellent organizers and who welcome you with an open heart. And I also tasted some amazingly good Hungarian wines  . I will do everything I can to be a design judge at FSH in August.

I you want to know more

fssymposium.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHVdoixH0FQ&feature=youtu.be

http://fshungary.hu/

[Pat Clarke]

Just to fully support what Claude has written above.

A fantastic symposium, the best of it's type I have been to.

Gyor, Audi Hungaria, the University, the Students and in particular the Conveners, the Supporters and the Sponsors were all fantastic.

Thanks to all for the invitation to do a keynote speech and present three workshops. I had a ball and the response from the audiences was brilliant.

Follow Claude's links and see if you can be there next year. You will not be sorry!

Pat.

[Claude Rouelle]

Some of the participants to this forum sent me a PM to ask about the benefit of attending such symposium. I will only tell one here: many students do not think outside the box of their university and do not take the opportunity (or lack vision or even maybe courage) to travel and visit companies or conference. A symposium like the one organized in Gyor is not only an eye opener or new knowledge but also an eye opener one new working "culture", whether it is the spirit of a company of the one of another FS team. The mood is different than the one at competitions. The FS / FSAE spirit of engineering challenge, inventiveness and camaraderie during the competitions is excellent but the stress is high on the competition itself and you do not have an as free mind and/or time than you have during this kind of symposium

Want another example of opportunity of such meeting: one of the speakers (who is in my opinion one of the most respected engineers in the racing engine world) said to the audience at the end of his presentation; "My power point presentation is available to you: just ask the FSS organizers. My name and email address is on it. We are looking for young engine engineers. If you are interested please email me" He also had numerous talk with students and I saw several business cards being exchanged.

That wouldn't happen if you stay home or in your university campus.