On Wednesday 6th February, the IET SSE section visited Edinburgh University Formula Students (EUFS). The team started by giving us a quick overview of their history and how they had evolved since their inception in 2014 with now over 300 students having been involved to date. Each year they take part in the annual Formula Students competition in which over 40,000 students participate annually in various geographic competitions across 5 continents.
The students were able to highlight the difference that the competition has made to their own learning including testimonials from their alumni who all felt that the skills they had learned at EUFS played a direct role in the careers they have today. In particular the competition gives them a chance to experience the full design-built-test lifecycle of the car at a scale which is beyond what most students will ever get to experience at University. Each year the team has achieved more success as they build on their growing experience and last year they even won the best autonomous software. Building on this success they are now developing two cars including developing their first autonomous car for the 2020 competition.
The team gave us an excellent visual insight into how the autonomous software works and the challenges of combining the two main sensor technologies (LIDAR and Stereo camera). The visit then took us into the workshops themselves where we saw how the students create their car from initial chassis welding through drive train and electronics. Perhaps the most impressive aspect was how the team do almost everything in house including, some complex machining learning excellent hands on skills .
We would like to thank all of the EUFS students for the time and welcome with particular thanks to Gregor, Tomasso and particularly Ignat for hosting and organising the visit. The visit was both informative and enjoyable and it was particularly pleasing to see the combination of practical skills and learning that all are gaining which will only benefit everyone in their future careers. We wish them the best of luck in this year’s competition at Silverstone.
For more information about EUFS, please visit their website (https://eufs.eusa.ed.ac.uk/) or LinkedIn page.