A team of undergraduate Mechanical Engineers from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (SMAE) at Queens took part in the Institute of Mechanical Engineers Formula Student Competition at the Silverstone Racing Circuit in England from 20 – 23 July 2017.

Formula Student (FS) is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition. Backed by industry and high-profile engineers such as Patron, Ross Brawn OBE, the competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering. The format of the event provides an ideal opportunity for the students to test, demonstrate and improve their capabilities to deliver a complex and integrated product in the demanding environment of a motorsport competition.

The Formula Student project at Queens is mainly resourced through our undergraduate project modules and is viewed by the motorsport industry as the standard for engineering graduates to meet, transitioning them from university to the workplace. It is a kite-mark for real-world engineering experience.  Competing against other Universities from across the world, the students designed, constructed and operated their car across two academic semesters starting in October 2016.   The SMAE team included:  Amber Nelson, Andra Jivan, David Kinley, Jack Wilson, Jamie Corr, Jamie Gardiner, Jamie Higgins, Jamie McMillan (Team Manager), John McClelland (Phd), Luke Jonhston, Matthew Elliott (Phd), Niall Beggan, Simon King, Vincent McKenna (Phd), Andrew Allen, Gavin White, Adam Little, Ryan Hanlon, Shaun O'Boyle, Andrew Hawthorne, Thomas McMullan, Josh Cameron and Ryan Newell.    Dr Geoff Cunningham was Team Principal.  Troy Patterson and Brian McLaughlin provided Technical Support.

Despite some ‘dramas’ and last minute ‘fixes’ before travelling to the competition, the team performed well across all of the assessed technical elements. They finished 7^th overall and received two performance based awards, one for the Best Acceleration Event and another for the Most Efficient Internal Combustion Engine!  This is a fantastic outcome for the team after months of hard graft and effort and is the best result achieved by any of the SMAE teams in the years that we have been competing in the competition.  Congratulations to all involved and well done to Cardiff as the first UK University to win the overall prize.