Dubai students bag award at ‘F1 in Schools’ finals
abu dhabi — A team of students from Dubai picked up a coveted award in the finals of the international design competition, ‘F1 in Schools, The Formula One STEM Challenge’.
Created to instil excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the annual competition challenges students from all over the world to create their own Formula 1 team, which then designs, constructs and races scale model cars.
The ‘Knighthawks’ team from the Indian High School in Dubai won the ‘Best Engineered Car Award’, sponsored by Williams Racing.
The victory took place in Austin, Texas, after three days of intense competition. A total of 23 awards were presented at the celebration gala dinner attended by a starstudded audience of Formula 1 team representatives, drivers and paddock personalities.
The Best Engineered Car Award covers all aspects of engineering design, manufacture, quality and specification compliance, and is usually won by the world championship-winning team.
The ‘Knighthawks’ team also won the research and development award, sponsored by McLaren-Honda, for outstanding research that translated into design improvement and technical development of the car.
Narrowly missing on a podium place by only 20 points, the historic performance of the Knighthawks meant that they finished sixth overall out of 39 teams from 23 countries — an unprecedented result for a UAE school at the annual event.
Also flying the flag for the UAE were Repton School’s ‘Team Impulse’, the youngest ever team to appear at the world finals. The team managed to score equal first place on points in car scrutineering, being one of only two teams achieving a specification score. However, they lost out to ‘Fast Tech Crew’ from Germany in the tie-break.
Team Impulse placed 24th out of 39 overall, a superb result considering their ages, managing to beat many older and more experienced students.
Paul Bray, F1 in Schools Manager at Yas Marina Circuit, said: “This is a fantastic win for the Knighthawks and a great performance from Team Impulse. They should both be very proud of their achievement. To walk off with the most technically demanding award at this global event means that the UAE’s schools are becoming a force to be reckoned with in this competition. I look forward to an even more impressive showing in 2017.” — Wam