About 200 engineering students expected in Guimarães
The School of Engineering of the University of Minho hosted on May 27 the “Race Party®”, considered the largest European academic festival of custom minicar races. The 11th edition of the initiative had about 200 engineering students in design, speed and distance tests, as well as surprise challenges and to the champions and several prizes. The event took place between 12:00 pm and 4:30 pm, in the main nave of the Azurém campus, with free admission. The organization was the responsibility of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Research Center in Electromechanical Microsystems (CMEMS) of the School of Engineering of UMinho.
The minicars were built this academic semester and follow the principles of engineering, looking for optimal performance (no fuel or battery is used), creative solutions, innovative design and environmental concern, in addition to fostering team spirit. “There are events of this kind in the United Kingdom, Germany or France, but more localized and without our dimension, organization and experience”, explains the coordinating professor, Paulo Flores. This pedagogical project was recently awarded the European “Arqus Teaching Excellence Award“, with the jury highlighting the “exciting and student-centered nature”.
Surprise test requires adjusting the car
The program highlighted the speed test, in which each dragster minicar, created by the students and activated only by a spring, travels five meters as fast as possible. The distance race took place at 15:00 pm, winning the vehicle that reaches the farthest in a single launch. The surprise test followed, with 15 minutes for each group to adjust the efficiency and performance of their car for a certain goal. The challenge of the champions allowed, at 16:00, a last attempt for competitors who wanted to surpass the performance of the winning minicars.
“This initiative created in 2015 is already comparable to similar events in the USA and allows Portuguese engineering students to develop physical and virtual prototypes with various solutions, adapting the complexity to their degree of scientific-technological knowledge and their connection to a future profession”, highlights Paulo Flores. The event is part of the teaching activities of the General Mechanics curricular unit and has captured the interest of the market, with the support of entities such as Porsche. The organization also involves Inês Gomes, Teresa Campos, Vasco Teixeira, Glauco Nóbrega, João Peixoto, Mariana Ferreira and Maria Pereira.
SOURCE: UMinho
