Students Display Formula 1 Designs

One of college athletics’ biggest rivalries—Buckeyes vs. Wolverines—is on full display this year in the West Building, booth 432217. The sport isn’t football, but racing, with teams of engineering students from the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan showing off their own designs for Formula 1-type race cars.

The result of months of engineering and hands-on learning, the fabricated assemblies share one aspect in common: the manufacturing process employed cutting tools from Kyocera SGS Precision Tools (KSPT). Attendees to KSPT’s booth are invited to see the projects and meet the student teams in addition to browsing the company’s wide selection of tools, which it donates to various schools’ mechanical engineering programs for assorted projects.

The Ohio State University’s Formula Buckeyes motorsport program challenges students of all majors, backgrounds, skill levels and degrees of experience to compete in one of six student teams. Students apply research and classroom concepts as well as learn hands-on skills for designing, fabricating, racing, managing and marketing competition vehicles. This experience includes machining, engine testing, battery testing, computer-aided design and many other engineering tools.

The University of Michigan’s M racing Formula SAE Collegiate motorsport racing series challenges students’ technical innovation and advanced engineering analysis abilities to build formula-style race cars. Fifteen global competitions test each team’s dynamic design theory, budgeting and marketing. The program provides students with a competitive career advantage in the industry and exposes them to different cultures and approaches to engineering. There are over 500+ teams ranked on their performance in six competitions via a point system striving for #1 ranking in the world.