Oct. 28 – When studying meets passion, and when passion meets sport, the results are surprising. Engineering students of Modena and Reggio Emilia launched a project for the creation of a single-seater that next year will participate in a technical-sports competition in the UK, at Silverstone. For the tenth year in a row, the students of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia designed and brought to the race an open-wheel single-seater, in accordance with the rules of the “Formula Student.” The event is sponsored by the most prestigious international automotive engineering associations and offers students from universities around the world the possibility to design and build in less than a calendar year an open-wheel single-seat car with which to compete in an annual competition in the UK. The first two matches already played in 2013 at Hockenheim (Germany) and Varano de Melegari (Parma) served essentially to complete the car’s development, and great hopes are now pinned for next year’s competitions, to which the Italian team will participate with a car that has already competed and that has been ameliorated in time. This year’s results have seen an improvement compared to previous years, with a good placement at the Varano de ‘ Melegari event by FSAE Italy, where the team ranked 23rd out of 64, standing out as first among the Italian teams in the acceleration test and the autocross test, clocking the best result since 2008. Next year, the team’s adventure will continue with official competitions at Silverstone and Red Bull Ring (Austria). “For our students an appointment with ‘Formula Student’ has become an integral part of their program of studies – says the University Dean, prof. Aldo Tomasi – and it is today fully recognized in the curricula.” “I am convinced – added prof. Angelo O. Andrisano, set to become the new Dean – that this initiative should be encouraged and that we absolutely need to step up our efforts and commitments to become more competitive. The value of this experience is twofold. On the one hand, it teaches our students to work in teams, on the other hand it offers them the opportunity to learn how to develop a project.” The MMR team, born in 2004, has seen new groups of engineering students design every time a completely renovated vehicle, assisted in this by their professors in the Department of Engineering “Enzo Ferrari” and the Department of Engineering Sciences and Methods of Reggio Emilia. The University has always encouraged and supported the “Formula Student” project, as it considered an exceptional educational opportunity for students who are called to grapple with skills that can be acquired only by engaging in real life with the tracks and vehicles. The team consists of about 30 students specialized in multiple areas of engineering: Mechanical Engineering, Vehicle Engineering, Electronic Engineering and in Management. The team includes both male and female students between 19 and 26, all of them sharing in the same passion for Formula1. All together they run and manage the best design and production of the car and are divided into different groups: passenger space, electronics, wheels, engine, frames, transmission, aerodynamics, business & presentation.
