A team of students from the Institute of Engineering and Technology, the School of Economics and Management, the Institute of Media, Social Sciences, and Humanities, and the Institute of Linguistics and International Communications started their work on a joint project to create an electric race car. The preliminary results of the new team will be presented at an international competition, Formula Student (SAE) in Moscow in September of 2021.
Formula Student, or as the students call it—Formula SAE, is an international educational project formed by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Today, Formula Student involves a large number of academic institutions around the world. More than 900 teams from 60 countries around the world are registered, including 15 from Russia. The Formula Student SUSU team is part of the Youth Design Bureau headed by Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor Rafael Ilimbetov. The team captain is a 4th year student Denis Khabibulin.
The team includes students from various SUSU schools and institutes. Each has their own curator:
Institute of Engineering and Technology:
- Head of the Department of Automobile Transport, Professor Y.V. Rozhdestvensky
- Head of the Department of Automated Electric Drives, Professor M.A. Grigoriev
- Honoured Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Sciences (Engineering), Professor A.G. Vozmilov
Institute of Media, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Head of the Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Public Relations, Professor L.P. Shesterkina
- Lecturer, Department of Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations, Head of the SUSU 360-Degree Multimedia Newsroom, A.R. Marfitsyna
Institute of Linguistics and International Communication:
- Head of the Department of Linguistics and Translation, associate professor, O.I. Babina
- Associate Professor of the Department of Linguistics and Translation, S.G. Petrov
School of Economics and Management:
- Head of the Department of Economics of Industry and Project Management, Associate Professor N.S. Dzenzelyuk
- Senior lecturer of the Department of Economics of Industry and Project Management, V.M. Novosad
In April 2021, the team's mentors won the Graduate Faculty Grant Competition for their project titled "Unmanned Land Vehicle" in a grant program of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation. The prize money will be used to develop the Formula Student SUSU team.
"Our application was supported by our partner enterprises OOO ChTZ-Uraltrak, OOO Uralkam, OOO NPP Rezonans, and support was also provided by the university administration, specifically by Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Andrey Radionov,” said Rafael Ilimbetov, Head of the Youth Design Bureau. “In our grant application we focused on the development of Master's degree programme at SUSU as a form of project-based learning with the international educational product Formula Student—Electrical to develop a set of teaching materials used for the development of the Formula Student SUSU team. Training highly qualified specialists in the field of development, design, and operation of electric transport is a priority task for us, because the leading Russian car manufacturers PAO KAMAZ, AO AVTOVAZ, Automobile Plant URAL JSC, OOO CHTZ-URALTRAK, and others have started to develop and produce prototypes of electric transport, and there is already a shortage of specialists in this field."
The Formula Student SUSU team is preparing to participate in the international competition Formula Student Russia 2021, which will be held in Moscow from September 2nd through 5th. To participate in the competition, the students must submit all the necessary documentation to the organizing committee. The technical documentation includes electrical schematics with their chosen main equipment—traction motors, inverters, energy accumulators and control system, as well as data on the frame with regard to safety requirements. The economic part of the project consists of the development and presentation of a business plan and cost report.
"This is the first competition for our team. There is great responsibility placed on our shoulders, because the success of the team in the future depends on our performance in Moscow. The team is continuing to be formed, we are waiting for students of different specialties to work together in the project," shared Denis Khabibullin, student of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, captain of FS SUSU.
In addition to participating in an international competition to build an electric race car, the Formula Student SUSU team members are actively engaged in research and development work.
"The team members have published 5 scientific articles indexed in the Scopus scientific database and 16 articles in scientific journals recommended by the State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles," said Aleksandr Vozmilov, Distinguished Worker of Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Sciences (Education), Professor of the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology. "The participants of this project regularly give reports at conferences of the Russian and regional levels. The last was held on July 9, 2021, where 11 reports were presented on the topic of electric cars."
For the entire period of its work the team has been constantly supported by the Rector of our university Aleksandr Shestakov and Professor Yuri Rozhdestvensky, as well as the Director of Educational Equipment and Technology Research and Production Institute Georgy Kalyagin, for which we express our great gratitude.