For Jack, building an original electric racing car for the Formula Student competition was an experience that changed everything.
Formula Student is an engineering competition run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Each year in July, the competition is held at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix.
Teams of students from across the UK and Europe bring racing cars they have built, to compete against other university teams. The University of Portsmouth team included Mechanical Engineering student Jack O'Conner, who shared his experience of the event.
Joining the Formula Student team
I honestly don’t know where I would be without having taken part in Formula Student. If anyone asked me, I would recommend it one hundred percent, any day.
It’s a very exciting time of the year, seeing everyone’s cars and the projects they have brought.
I remember the first time I saw the Formula Student team. I was looking at the society list on the University of Portsmouth Students’ Union website. I fell in love instantly – the thought of designing and building our own race car was amazing to me, and I really liked the idea of having something else to do outside of my course. So, why not join?
I fell in love instantly – the thought of designing and building our own race car was amazing to me.
The joys of being judged
The racing car we build at Portsmouth is a fully electric vehicle. We build around ninety per cent of it ourselves, from scratch. The other ten per cent is off-the-shelf parts.
I’ve competed in two events within Formula Student: the Design event and the Cost & Manufacturing event.
In the Design event, we’re with a small number of judges, and we explain our design decisions that went into the car. It’s always important here to say why you did what you did. The judges are interested in the justification. It is a lot of fun. Everyone I was with said how quickly it went – it really flies by!
For the Cost & Manufacturing event, we have to explain to a different panel of judges how everything is made on the car, as well as the costs. This one is interesting, as there are so many things on the car that we make, it can be hard to keep track of everything!
Since joining Formula Student, I’ve developed so many skills that will come in handy for my future.
The importance of being uncomfortable
The Formula Student experience has helped with my course massively. I have learned so many key engineering skills – and it’s great to have people around me, either in my year or the years above, so I can get help with my work if I need it.
I did a gearbox design project in the second year of my MEng Mechanical Engineering course. I was the head of Drivetrain at that point and I felt so experienced. We had to create a dossier for all the calculations that went into the gearbox – almost replicating what I did on the Formula Student team.
Since joining Formula Student, I’ve developed so many skills that will come in handy for my future. Some I’ve found the most useful are the ability to work with people and to be really taken out of your comfort zone.
I believe that to grow and develop, the best thing to do is take yourself out of your comfort zone. Being on this team has given me so many opportunities to do that, whether it’s speaking in front of a lot of people, speaking to companies, or being given the opportunities to lead – both in design and to lead the team itself. It has been amazing.