Autodesk supports academic excellence at Formula Student

The largest student motorsport event in Europe, this year's race featured some of the best engineering students across the world competing in a single- seater car designed and built from scratch. At this year's event, Autodesk presented three awards: Autodesk 'Most effective/Innovative design in engineering', which was won by the Imperial College London; Autodesk 'Class 1 design', which went to the TU Delft, Netherlands, team; and Autodesk 'Class 1 (200)' (for further development of Class 1 cars, which was won by the TU Munich. During the event, Mike Jelinek, one of Autodesk's Alias designers, offered to use the solution to redesign the body shells of participants' Formula Student Cars. Alias provides for visualisation and analysis of the entire shape-definition process from concept sketching and modelling to Class-A surfacing. Paolo Zambon, Autodesk EMEA education marketing manager, says: "Autodesk is proud to support young engineering talent both through its sponsorship of Formula Student and its provision of free software, support services and specialised training resources to participants. "Formula Student is a fantastic career opportunity that allows students to combine first-class hands-on practical experience with academic study and equips them with a range of skills they can use to drive innovation throughout their future careers," he adds. Formula Student was established in 1998 and is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Student engineers get a crash course in design, manufacture and business – learning about team working, under pressure and to tight timescales. Ross Brawn, principal of Formula One team, Brawn GP and Formula Student patron, explains: "Participation requires students to develop a rounded set of skills which will help them overcome the challenges they will meet when they leave university. "They have to start with a concept, put a team together, work as a group and follow the project through to the point of actually using their final design and product."