HKU Racing
- the University of Hong Kong’s very first motorsports team -
Supervisor: Dr C.K. LEE (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
Advisors: Dr C.K. CHAN and Dr Match W.L. KO (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
Supporting Fund: Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, H.K.U.E.A.A. Experiential Learning Fund
INTRODUCTION
HKU racing is the University of Hong Kong’s very first motorsports team. Founded in late July of 2018. The team starts with 2 friends having a vision to one day participate in formula student. With the support of the university, we quickly gain momentum and have since grown to a team of 40 plus students, all passionate about motorsports.
Formula Student is a renowned educational
engineering competition, combining practical
engineering with soft skills including business
planning and project management. It is a
proving ground for students who want to create and change the world. Electrification of the transportation system is here, the combination of the electric powertrain and the traditional mechanical system has made this competition attractive to lots of industries leading to companies’ attention and support. This competition jump-starts our students’ knowledge and skills set for their future career. HKU Racing is the first team from Hong Kong to compete in Formula Student (European series).
The objective of HKU racing is to develop & build a single seated, formula-style race car for Formula Student UK class 1 (2020) hosted by Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
Third place in the Formula Student Competition in UK
PROJECT DETAILS
WHAT WILL TEAM MEMBERS DO IN THE PROJECT?
Team members will design and build a racing car from the ground up. The car is required to perform in numerous dynamic events that will prove the car’s capabilities in terms of speed and reliability. Those events are AutoX, acceleration, skid-pad, endurance. HKU Racing will be up against more than 100 teams from all over the world.
HOW WILL TEAM MEMBERS BENEFIT FROM THE PROJECT
Team members will learn about vehicle dynamics, generative design, additive manufacturing, topology optimization, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), aerodynamic design optimization, power electronics, battery management, mathematical model development of mechanical systems and many more. On top of all the technical skills, they will also learn about being a team player, which is a paramount skill in any engineering project they might face in the future.
WHY IS THIS PROJECT IMPORTANT TO US?
The project provides us the opportunity to put our knowledge in practice for a competitive nature. The correlation between building a vehicle and designing a vehicle also makes this experience unparalleled in terms of real world application. On top of designing a vehicle that performs well, production cost has to be kept at minimum and a business plan is required. This project provides our team members comprehensive first hand experience on all aspects of engineering.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN THIS PROJECT?
An extremely steep learning curve coupled with countless optimization cycles is the biggest challenge. With little prior experience and knowledge in designing the vehicle and manufacturing planning are heavily relied on self learning. Limited testing opportunities also means the team needs to extensively make use of computational simulation to validate the design and better understand the vehicle. These simulation results are then used to further refine the design.
The car
FORMULA STUDENT
