On Saturday May 17, 2014, 12 teams from local high schools participating in Top Gear Festival’s Legacy Project – the F1 In Schools Challenge – will go head-to-head on the racetrack where only one (team) will emerge as the ultimate winner.
The final competition will be held at Suncoast’s SUNzone from 10h00 to 14h00. The public is welcome to attend and watch the races and presentations.
The 12 participating teams are being mentored by DUT lecturers and a few students from the University’s Industrial Engineering Department; familiarising them with CAD and CAM, the design and manufacturing computer software being used to create miniature versions of the F1 car of the future.
The teams are tasked with designing, analysing and manufacturing an F1 car of the future using the software. The miniature creations would be made out of balsa wood and powered by CO2 gas canisters.
Saturday March 15, 2014, saw the F1 in Schools Challenge mock race take place at DUT. The teams came armed with their prototypes which were raced down the 20-metre track in the hope of being crowned as the mock-race winner.
The F1 in Schools Challenge was launched last year (2013). In this year’s competition (2014), over 80 Grade 9 and Grade 10 students as well as 20 teachers were welcomed into the University’s Industrial Engineering Department to begin training on this multi-disciplinary challenge. The commercial and marketing managers of Top Gear Festival were first to offer their expertise and lead informative workshops around building a brand and team culture, choosing a team name and colours, as well as how to launch a social media campaign. The teams then did exercises on how to do research, compile budgets and how best to approach investors and sponsors to assist in covering costs such as team uniforms, posters and flyers.
Each school has been sponsored 3D CAD software by Autodesk. The Industrial Engineering Department, along with Modena Design Centre Durban, mentored and assisted each team with the technical and IT aspects of designing the F1 cars. The Department of Transport has also supported the initiative by sponsoring each team with a race kit that includes four black fusion wheels and axels, sandpaper, screw eyes and the vital block of balsa wood. This support will continue on a one to one basis with each of the teams until the build-up to race day.
Top Gear Festival Legacy Initiative Project Manager, Anna Sacks, said, “We would like to congratulate each team for their progress in the competition so far. The standard of the cars is excellent and you can see the amount of work that has gone into the designs”.
The teams will be judged on a number of criteria and there will be awards for; Best Engineered Car, Best Verbal Presentation, Best Portfolio and Pit Design, Best Team Marketing and Sponsorship, Fastest Car and Overall Winner of the Challenge. All teams will exhibit at the Top Gear Festival on set to take place on June 21 and 22, 2014. Here, festival-goers will be able to see the miniature cars race as well as the teams’ pit displays and portfolios.
– Sinegugu Ndlovu
Pictured: Ranil Singh, Senior Lecturer, and Professor Andrew Naicker from the Department of Industrial Engineering at DUT enjoy giving their time and expertise to the participants in the F1 In Schools Challenge. Also pictured are miniature race cars which participated in last year’s competition.
