Newswise — Singapore, 18 May 2015 – A team of 14 Engineering students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) stood out from 120 teams from around the world to achieve a remarkable overall ranking of 7th in the world at the Formula SAE® competition held recently in Brooklyn, Michigan, in the United States. The NUS race car is also the only car from Southeast Asia and Singapore's only team to take part in the prestigious competition.

This is the best performance by the NUS team since they had first participated in the competition in 2004. Last year, the team achieved an overall placing of 25th, and the best placing achieved by the NUS FSAE team previously was 19th position in 2009 and 2012. In addition to an impressive overall ranking, the NUS team also bagged several other accolades at this year’s competition:• World champion for Cummins Inc. Applied Technology Award for the innovative wireless telemetry system developed by NUS Engineering final-year student Shia Junjie• 1st in the world for Business presentation event• 2nd in the world for Acceleration drag race• 3rd in the world for FEV Powertrain Development Award, which recognises teams for overall performance for acceleration, fuel economy, cost and the 22km endurance race• 4th in the world for Bosch Engineering Design Drawing Award

Formula SAE® is an annual student design competition organised by SAE International (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers). Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules designed to promote problem solving. This year's competition was held from 13 to 16 May 2015 at the Michigan International Speedway in the United States.

Professor Seah Kar Heng, NUS FSAE Advisor, said, "We are very proud of the achievements of the NUS FSAE team. This is a project like no other. It pushes the students to work hard and work smart to design and build an efficient and safe machine to race on the speedway. This is why many universities use this project to benchmark their student quality. The students are thrown into the international arena, so they are no longer competing with their classmates at school. Our students put up a very tough fight against formidable teams from Europe and the US and we managed to complete all the races reasonably well. It was indeed a great learning experience for all of them." Race car with "wings" Design and construction of NUS-R15, the race car for this year's competition, commenced as early as May 2014. The NUS FSAE team took about eight months to design, fabricate and assemble the race car. From January 2015 onwards, the team focused on test-driving the car as well as driver's training. NUS-R15 is the first NUS race car equipped with an aerodynamics package, which provides increased downforce, and hence improves tyre traction and performance especially when negotiating corners. For the first time, the car is also equipped with a wireless telemetry system, which enables the team to monitor the performance of the car and the driver in real-time, while the car is running on the track. The telemetry system is also used to monitor important parameters such as oil and water temperatures.

Pakata Goh Liang Hui, Leader of the NUS FSAE 2015 team and fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student, said, “The NUS FSAE team is extremely proud to have achieved such outstanding results at this year's competition. This would not have been possible without the dedication and hard work by every member of our team. The journey, from the time we started to design the car to the end of the competition, has been challenging and insightful. A race car like this embodies many engineering principles that can be applied to any engineering project, and our team is grateful to have an opportunity to design, build and race our own car. We would like to thank NUS and our sponsors for their support over the years. The NUS FSAE team will continue to strive for greater heights and make NUS as well as Singapore proud."

The FSAE project is part of the Design-Centric Curriculum, a unique learning pathway offered by NUS Engineering, where students from different engineering disciplines work together on multi-year projects to develop innovative technologies and solve problems affecting the community.

About National University of Singapore (NUS)

A leading global university centred in Asia, the National University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapore’s flagship university, which offers a global approach to education and research, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise. NUS has 16 faculties and schools across three campuses. Its transformative education includes a broad-based curriculum underscored by multi-disciplinary courses and cross-faculty enrichment. Over 37,000 students from 100 countries enrich the community with their diverse social and cultural perspectives. NUS has three Research Centres of Excellence (RCE) and 26 university-level research institutes and centres. It is also a partner in Singapore’s fifth RCE. NUS shares a close affiliation with 16 national-level research institutes and centres. Research activities are strategic and robust, and NUS is well-known for its research strengths in engineering, life sciences and biomedicine, social sciences and natural sciences. It also strives to create a supportive and innovative environment to promote creative enterprise within its community. This year, NUS celebrates its 110th year of founding together with Singapore’s 50th year of independence. As the island’s first higher education institution established by the local community, NUS prides itself in nurturing generations of leaders and luminaries in Singapore and Asia. For more information on NUS, please visit www.nus.edu.sg. Details on NUS’ 110th Anniversary celebrations are available at nus110.sg.

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