Tomorrow’s Engineers Test Racing Cars with support from Bosch

Stuttgart, Germany – The self-constructed race car of Heilbronn University's Formula Student Team accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.3 seconds. Before the single-seater goes on the test track, some last-minute settings are adjusted. Feeling both excited and proud, the students of the HHN Racing Team watch their driver steer the car around the track. "The two days here in Boxberg are enormously important to us. After months of work, we can finally test the vehicle properly and talk to the Bosch engineers", explains team leader Viktor Renz from the HHN Racing Team. On the 6th and 7th of July, Bosch invited around 270 students from Formula Student Germany (FSG) to its own test track in Boxberg. At the two-day application and driving event, students from Germany, Switzerland, France and Australia prepared their race cars for the grand finale in Hockenheim. Around 40 specialists from the Bosch Group supported the students with specialist knowledge while they tested their vehicles. This year Boxberg hosted 27 teams with their vehicles in the three categories "Driverless", "Combustion" and "Electric".

Pit stop in Boxberg

The two-day testing workshop in Boxberg was the dress rehearsal for the student teams and their race cars. On the Bosch test track, they were able to test and optimize their vehicles under real racing conditions. The two days were organized by Bosch Engineering GmbH, a wholly owned Bosch subsidiary. Bernhard Bihr, the Chairman of the Board and also a motorsport enthusiast himself, knows how important the preparations for the design competition in Hockenheim are. "On our test track, the teams can tune the race cars with our experts and train their drivers. I see it as a core task to inspire engineering at the student level and to support highly motivated and interested junior engineers." Over 40 experienced specialists from Bosch and the subsidiaries Bosch Engineering, ETAS and ITK Engineering from the fields of vehicle development and system design were on hand to advise them. During their student days, many of them were themselves active members of the Formula Student team, so they know the challenges facing these young women and men.

The still relatively new Bosch subsidiary ITK Engineering was there for the second time. The development partner has been supporting Formula Student teams from various universities and colleges since the 2016/2017 semester. "For students, the Formula Student offers an ideal entry-level opportunity into the motorsport sector. It's a tremendous achievement for a student team to independently develop and manufacture a complete race car. It all depends on clever ideas, dedication and teamwork - skills that you also need later as an engineer. For our teams, the two days of testing in Boxberg are also a huge opportunity to optimally prepare themselves and their vehicles for the design competition in Hockenheim", says Dominic Barth, Team Leader Motorsport at ITK Engineering. Some of his teammates have already found their way into ITK Engineering through Formula Student.

Networked race cars - IT expertise in the automotive industry

Automation, networking and digitization are playing an increasingly important role in the automotive industry. Already today, technologies from IT are increasingly finding their way into the vehicle so that it can communicate with its environment. This can be seen, for example, in the increasing number of sensors. In addition, new fields are opening up, such as cyber security and big data.

Software plays a central role in autonomous race cars, as well as in modern driver assistance systems. In the future, the requirements for the next generation of engineers and developers will also change. The expertise of the vehicle engineer is increasingly focused on IT knowledge, without neglecting the system knowledge of the entire vehicle characteristics.

"As a driver in this field, we as a company need highly qualified employees with expertise in various areas in order to successfully pave the way for highly automated driving", emphasizes Friedhelm Pickhard, Chairman of the Management Board of ETAS GmbH. "Formula Student is the ideal platform for me to acquire such a broad knowledge and successfully put it into practice."

Talent promotion - from the test track to the job

The Bosch Group has been the main sponsor of Formula Student Germany since 2007 and annually sponsors several hundred students from various international Formula Student teams - above all with motorsport components, software and measuring technology, as well as specialist know-how. The up-and-coming talents benefit from the expertise of the group's own engineers in numerous workshops and events on technical topics. At FSG the students compete in the three categories "combustion", "electric" and "driverless". Each team is required to prepare and present a business plan, a cost estimate and a manufacturing description to the jury. In addition, the development and design concept will also be presented and evaluated.

Further Information:

Career at Bosch: www.bosch.de/karriere

Career at Bosch Engineering: https://bit.ly/2lHhYbJ

Career at ITK Engineering: www.itk-karriere.de

Formula Student Germany: www.formulastudent.de