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The Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences celebrates the success of the Australian Formula Collective (AFC), a team of UWA and Edith Cowan University (ECU) engineering students who recently competed in Formula Student UK.

Formula Student (FS) is Europe’s most recognised educational engineering competition which aims to grow enthusiasm in forward thinkers and young innovators in the field of Engineering.

Master of Professional Engineering (Mechanical) students Alan Landman and Ryan Pallas and two Bachelor of Science (Engineering Science and Physics) students including Ben Riley, travelled to the UK to represent the wider UWA team and compete against universities from across the globe at Silverstone Circuit, England.

The competition provides a platform for teams to gain real-world engineering experience as they are tasked to produce a prototype of a single-seat race car and submit a pitch to a hypothetical manufacturing firm. The AFC race car was designed, built and tested in Australia and flown to the UK for the competition. Two other UWA students who remained in Perth played a critical role in the design of parts for the prototype.

FS teams are assessed by experienced industry professionals and must demonstrate their technical, engineering design and manufacturing skills through a series of rigorous Static events and Dynamic events tests.

The AFC placed highly among the 81 teams competing in the Static events, securing 10th place in the Design event and 7th in the Cost event for financial modelling. The prototype also showed promise in the Dynamic events, demonstrating great ‘pace’ in the Sprint event despite a mechanical failure which prematurely ended the Endurance event.

The AFC was awarded the coveted ExxonMobil Innovation Award in recognition of the race car's integrated approach to aerodynamics, suspension and powertrain. When asked about the award Mr Landman said, “The team is incredibly grateful to ExxonMobil for their sponsorship of the award and supporting innovative design in Formula Student.”

“These results were achieved through strong presentation and science communication skills, along with comprehensive engineering understanding of racecar systems,” Mr Landman said. “We are incredibly grateful to the University and sponsors for giving us this amazing opportunity to represent UWA on such a world stage and are extremely excited to develop this car to its full potential.”

The AFC will be entering the Australian Formula Student competition in Melbourne at the end of this year.

Media references

Caitlin White (UWA Faculty of Engineering Mathematical Sciences) (+61 8) 6488 2260