Student-led Projects
Student-led Projects
From Formula Student and locomotive engineering through to advanced robotics and electric superbike development.
We support a variety of undergraduate student-led projects with direct connections to industry partners, demonstrating the breadth and depth of our students' skills both individually and collaboratively as part of teams. Each project is supported by PhD students, academics, engineers, technicians, and industry sponsors.
From Formula Student and locomotive engineering through to advanced robotics and electric superbike development, the projects develop students by teaching time management, risk management, group working, and primarily giving practical hands-on experience.
The High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) is the main sponsor for student-led projects at WMG, University of Warwick and is a world-leader in research, development, and innovation.
Professor David Greenwood, CEO of the WMG centre High Value Manufacturing Catapult is the Principal Investigator for the student-led projects, providing valuable advice, guidance and strategic planning for the programme.
We provide some seed funding for the projects but, as part of the learning process, the individual teams are responsible for securing industry sponsorship. Feedback from employers suggests that these projects produce some of the most employable graduates in the market and some automotive SMEs specifically seek out the Formula Student graduates to fill relevant vacancies due to their renowned skills and experience of working in the Warwick Racing team.
Warwick Racing
Warwick Racing is the University of Warwick’s Formula Student team. A cross-disciplinary team, Warwick Racing includes devoted engineers with a goal of designing, developing and building a high-performance, single-seat electric racing car within seven to eight months worthy of the Silverstone Circuit, and other iconic circuits worldwide.
The students enter three Formula Student events – Concept Class, Formula Student Electric Car Race and Formula Student AI. Each year, a group of engineering students will design a new manufacturing idea to enter into the Concept Class and, if this passes scrutineering and is accepted by Formula Student, the design will be included in the next year’s car racing competition.
The Formula Student AI strand is in its infancy, with our talented Computer Science engineers doing the groundwork to investigate the various options for developing an AI electric race car. Watch this space for further developments.
Project management and business activities are delivered by the team members alongside their degrees. The academic supervisory team is responsible for designing future projects as an integral part of Master’s level accreditation.
Warwick Rail
Warwick Rail Challenge is a fourth-year project to create a fifth scale locomotive to compete in the IMechE Railway Challenge.
The team designs and manufactures a miniature railway locomotive in accordance with a set of strict rules and a detailed technical specification.
Every year, the new student cohort will develop a new innovative technical idea to enhance their design and manufacturing skills and hopefully achieve a successful result at the competition.
Warwick Mobile Robotics
Warwick Mobile Robotics (WMR) is an on-going group research project carried out by a team of Master’s level engineering students at the University of Warwick. This project is jointly run by the School of Engineering and WMG at the University of Warwick.
Since 2008, WMR research teams have been helping to make advances in robotic systems in the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) field. USAR robots are designed to locate survivors in hazardous environments, such as earthquake disaster zones, thus removing emergency service personnel from danger.
The team are now investigating innovative applications for the Boston Dynamics Spot Dog robot as a new concept for the Warwick Mobile Robotics project.
Warwick Moto
Warwick Moto is a student-led electric vehicle development racing team that has developed the University’s first fully electric race-spec superbike. The team has outperformed its goals by developing, building, and testing an electric racing motorcycle named 'Frontier' on track in just seven months, using a high-performance Norton chassis.
The team is at the forefront of sustainable electric racing, developing cutting-edge electric motorcycle platforms, enabling the development of many “firsts” in the electric automotive market. For instance, in producing an immersion-cooled battery pack – the first of its kind for application on an electric motorcycle.
Familiarise yourself with some of the activities from our Warwick Moto and Warwick Racing projects.
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