The UCL Racing Clubs are an opportunity for students to learn new technical skills. Mechanical engineering students, as well as students from other departments, are welcome to join. These clubs have been setup by me and my fellow mechanical engineering colleagues Carla Herrero Cornejo and Ioanna Pierou. Special Thanks goes to professor Tim Baker, Ismail Ahmad and Sharon Keya.
The Racing Clubs were initially designed as a pathway for the Racing Teams (such as Formula Student, Shell Eco Marathon, UAS etc.) which participate in university competitions (such as FSUK). The goal was to give the students the necessary CAD / CFD / FEA skills prior to their arrival into a Racing Team and hence facilitate their integration. This will make the Teams more competitive in the long-run as the Team members will be ready to start working on the vehicles from day 0.
However, students that are not interested in joining a Racing Team are still welcome to join the Clubs as they offer a variety of smaller projects that are closely linked to the industry, where the students could use their designing skills to develop a product.
For now, two Racing Clubs exist, each consisting of around 30 members:
- Design Racing Club
- Simulation Racing Club
The Designing Club is focused on the design development of the product and getting pro-efficient with CAD tools. Students will have the opportunity to learn to use more complex functions, such as surfacing, to increase the efficiency of their design.
The Simulation Club focuses on tools such as CFD, FEA, Optimum Lap, Simulink, to evaluate the behavior of complex systems and increase the efficiency.
To start off, both clubs (Design & Simulation) work together on an introductory activity of developing an F1 in Schools car.
