Go Kart or Go Home - Engineering Students Design, Build and Test their own Race Cars

Thursday the 20th of April was an exciting day for the 160 first year Common Entry Engineering Students tasked with designing and building their own race car and competing against each other, at the ULCarRace, an annual event hosted by the School of Engineering.

The engineering students, divided into 31 teams, were challenged with designing their car to carry a 400ml payload up a 10 meter hill, with a slope of 5 degrees in the shortest time possible. There were prizes for the first three teams whose cars crossed the finish line in the fastest time. Congratulations to Honeysuckle, Bucky Wagon and Motor Maestros!

Overseeing the competition on the day was David Tanner, Associate Professor of Manufacturing Process Technology in the School of Engineering, who said: "This Design, Build, Compete project is a great way to introduce first year students to an authentic engineering challenge.  They learn design concepts and manufacturing techniques not to mention the challenges and benefits of teamwork. They also get the opportunity to implement their prerequisite knowledge of computing, engineering communication, mechanics, physics and materials which they have learned from other first year modules. Most importantly, they get to have some fun with their classmates!"

The School of Engineering and Faculty of Science and Engineering would like to thank Modular Automation in Shannon for their continued sponsorship of this event.

Find out more about our Common Entry Engineering Programme