Please introduce your university and team!
We are ASU Racing Team from Ain Shams University in Egypt. We design and build Formula Student cars and we have been participating in FSUK competitions since 2012. Aside from FSUK, we have teams that also participate in the Shell Eco Marathon competition, for which we also design and build an urban electric car, and a fuel-efficient prototype vehicle.
We compete in both Class 1 and Class 2 competitions, with an ICE car in Class 1 and an electric car for Class 2. We do that to gain the knowledge required to build an electric formula student car, which is one of the team’s long-term plans, while also competing in our area of expertise.
Our team is relatively large in comparison to other FS teams, we aim to educate young students and elevate their engineering sense and hands-on experience, and we have successfully achieved that since we started. We can have up to 50-70 of interdisciplinary undergraduate team members in a Class 1 team, each of them is responsible for a specific area in producing the vehicle.
We also have an array of graduate alumni guiding the team from their experience and transferring their knowledge to the younger team members, and many 4th year students tend to do their graduation project as part of the research & development department in the team, tackling new & promising systems or improvements that may boost our car’s performance in the coming years.
What are your objectives for FS2018?
The main objective of the team isn’t to build the highest ranking car or anything like that, we’re more focused on achieving steady, sustainable improvements year after year. As a team, our standards for success have gotten higher each year, and we plan to keep that going.
We have been the leading FS team in Egypt and the MENA region for some good time now, and we’re ready to step up our game a little bit and rise to the competition. We have gotten the 28th position last year, surging from the 63rd position in 2016, so we will be targeting a rank among the top 20 this year.
Achieving that is only possible by increasing the car’s performance relative to last year’s car, or when we work on our weaknesses and turn them into strengths. For example, we’ve had a major brakes problem in 2016 which prevented us from passing the brakes test. We have then set our goal to have a fully functioning, high performance braking system, that allowed us to pass the brakes test from the first attempt in 2017. This year, we are doing exactly the same with the bottlenecks of 2017, and we have had great results so far.
How close are you to finishing your car?
We are currently on track, according to plan. However, due to the financial situation, shipment delays, and the scarcity of manufacturing resources here in Egypt -which are all accounted for in our plan-, we usually take a little longer to finalize the car than other teams in a better-situated environment. Our team is well trained and knows exactly how to deal with pressure on a tight schedule, and we have a many contingency plans in case any surprises come up along the way. We have had some ups downs, but we have managed to keep things under control.
How does your team organise your workload?
Our timeline is well planned ahead of time. We begin the season with a learning phase to carry on the knowledge transfer to the new members and provide them with the basics needed for the design phase. Then we transition to the design phase where every member is responsible for a system/subsystem in the vehicle, allocating time for vehicle integration during design. After that, we restructure the whole team in order to focus more on manufacturing and the content for the static events. We outline what’s needed for each phase, and how many members are needed to carry out the workload, and we make sure we are following on all the tasks in order to stay up to speed.
What is new and exciting for your team in 2018?
We have a lot of new team members this year, like I said we aim to educate students, so we always have new team members every year. We are having some major changes in our car this year, so it’s exciting to explore new horizons and develop experience in different areas.
What have been your biggest challenges this year and how have you overcome these?
We have experienced a large turnover this year. Having had many team members in their final college year in the 2017 season, it’s very challenging to find young new members with a Formula Student team mindset. It’s been challenging to transfer all the knowledge we have attained in the past years to the new members; but both the old members and alumni successfully delivered a well-structured learning phase aiming to set a solid basis for the new members to start from.
One of biggest challenges is to keep a team this large motivated to do their work. People are here because they want to learn and achieve, and we try to pave the way for them to know what they are capable of achieving. We have very bright minds over here, and we make sure we take full advantage of that.
For me, the biggest challenge is to establish a comfortable environment for the team. We are more of a family than a team here at Ain Shams, and this is the most important things we try to focus on. Although we pride ourselves with our final product, yet, it does not represent our greatest challenge. We still believe that the team's main output is the highly-skilled, extensively-trained members who develop both their technical and interpersonal skills during their participation, and continue to carry those values and work ethic throughout their career long after they graduate. The real challenge we face in our team is transforming their mindsets and building their characters.
What’s your proudest moment at Formula Student?
Having spent four years in the team, I have witnessed many moments of pride in the team. From creating a legacy through our business & cost team achievements to entering the dynamic events for the first time last year.
I have watched people grow into better engineers and more importantly, better people. I have watched people spend days and nights with no sleep to see the product of their work before their eyes. I have watched teams passing by during competition having no clue who we are, and in the next year coming in awe of our achievements and asking for advice. I have seen teams look up to us, reaching out to express their content with what we have achieved.
But the proudest moment, would be seeing the new team members rising up to our expectations. They are really invested in the car, they are eager to learn and they are setting the bar higher for our team in the coming years. I’m also pretty sure my proudest moment would be at the end of competition this year!
What do ASU Racing Team as an Egyptian team bring to the competition?
Due to the lack of resources in Egypt, it is known that Egyptian engineers always try to devise new, creative ways to solve problems. We have to be resourceful and economical, use all our resources efficiently and economically.
It is also a great opportunity to exchange not only our ideas but also our culture, and expose a side of Egypt that Silverstone doesn't usually see.
What advice would you give for fellow teams?
Take it easy, give yourself some time to plan everything, and focus on what you can control. If you plan everything ahead, and anticipate the highs & lows you might experience, the probability of success increases drastically. Setting milestones and organizing the work are vital elements in planning the season ahead, and if things don’t go according to plan, calm down and look for simple solutions.
I would also advise other teams to put more attention into improving their performance in the static events, like the Cost & Business events. Focusing on these events can help your team score some good points, which will in turn improve your overall ranking.
We look forward to welcoming ASU Racing Team back to Silverstone this year and wish them the best for their entry! In the meantime, catch up with all their news and updates on their team website, as well as their many social media channels.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/asuracingteam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASU.Racing.Team/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asu.rt/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asu-racing-team/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/asuracingteam/