Pupils from a North East school have visited Northumbria University to quiz aerodynamic experts ahead of a worldwide engineering competition.
The youngsters, from Garden Valley Middle School in Whitley Bay, are taking part in this year’s F1 in Schools challenge, which sees schoolchildren from all over the world making and racing their own miniature F1 cars in a bid to create the fastest design.
As part of the design process, the pupils were invited to Northumbria to meet Senior Lecturer in Aerodynamics Dr Nick Martin, who worked for the Williams Formula One team before joining the University.
They were also given the opportunity to make use of Northumbria’s state-of-the-art wind tunnel facility, using the equipment to test how aerodynamic their cars were so they could make changes to improve their designs.
The pupils hope their visit will give them the competitive edge when they take part in the F1 in Schools North East regional final tomorrow, held at the Nissan car manufacturing plant in Sunderland.
During the regional final tomorrow, the pupils taking part will race their cars down a 20-metre track, using a CO2 canister to power their vehicles. Garden Valley Middle School has two teams competing – Optimum and Spiro. In addition to the car design element of the competition, the teams have also had to consider business aspects, such as marketing, finance and graphic design, just like a real Formula One team.
Northumbria University has made significant investment in its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) facilities in recent years, with new equipment including an engine test cell, scanning electron microscope, Mazak CNC machine, scanning ion mass spectrometer and the wind tunnel.
The University has close links with North East schools through its NUSTEM project. Set up in 2014, NUSTEM aims to inspire future generations of scientists and engineers and redress the balance of female students and under-represented groups studying STEM subjects in universities. Over the last three years, NUSTEM has worked with more than 37,000 children, parents and teachers, working in collaboration with regional and national partners and with support from a £1.2 million grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
For more information about NUSTEM visit https://nustem.uk/
For more information about the F1 in Schools competition please visit http://www.f1inschools.co.uk/
Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. To find out more about our courses go to www.northumbria.ac.uk
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