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).
Event Host: Imeche
Develop & build a single seated, formula-style race car for Formula Student UK class 1 (2020) hosted by Institution of Mechanical Engineering (ImechE).
We have ranked the 3rd overall team in the Formula Student UK class 2 events during the summer of 2019, we will aim to build a running full-scale prototype and participate in Formula Student UK class 1 events in 2020 and onward.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Worried about not having the required skills? Intimidated by the complexity of the project? Don’t be! Our existing members will try their best to help you get familiar with the skills and knowledge you need. Moreover, you will be given plenty of time to gear up yourself to one day take up a leading role in the team.
The team has achieved second place in the Class two Design Competition. After the Formula Student Electric Vehicles Class 2 Division competition, the team will build a real full-scale vehicle and take part in the class one competition in 2020/21.
2019 March we invited the team principal of DS Techeetah Formula E team to visit us. We learnt a lot from Mr Mark Preston.
As the first team from Hong Kong to participate Formula Student UK, we were kindly invited to chat with the event host. It is our pleasure to be invited !
Dr. Chi-Kwan LEE
(Project supervisor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
I would also like to thank the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering for their funding support.
I wish to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to our external advisor Ir Alexander T S Wong providing us with his expert advice. I would like to thank Dr C K Chan, Dr Match W L Ko and Dr C K Chui for their assistance in this project.
I congratulate all the students on their remarkable personal growth and outstanding achievements in this competition. They have worked hard for months. The Award fully demonstrates their talent and strong passion in pursuit of scientific knowledge. Students are now entering the preparation stage of Class 1 competition. I have no doubt that everyone in the team will continue to work hard and excel themselves to reach new heights of success in Formula Student UK 2020.
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the support we received from our donors, which include:
