UOW races away with Engineering award

Oct 06, 2005

The University of Wollongong's highly successful racing car team has carried off another trophy - but this one is off the track for a change.

UOW Racing returned victorious from the 2005 Engineering Excellence Awards, held at Sydney's Westin Hotel on 30 September. The team won the Welfare, Health, Safety, Education and Training category in the NSW awards, and will now contest the national awards which will be presented at Parliament House in Canberra on 30 November.

UOW's Faculty of Engineering first entered a team in Formula SAE - a competition for teams of Engineering students from different universities who must design, build and prove on the track a single-seater race car - in 2001.

Since then UOW Racing has competed in four Australasian campaigns, winning three. The team has also competed in the United States three times, taking out the 2003 world championship in Detroit, the first non-American team to do so.

The Faculty of Engineering entered UOW Racing in the Engineering Excellence Awards based on the team's four-year program, and the Awards judges noted the team's “phenomenal success” over that time. The judges also awarded the team a Highly Commended in the Small Business Ventures/Projects and Reports category.

Faculty of Engineering Honorary Principal Fellow Dr Bob Wheway, who has been involved with UOW Racing from the beginning, described the award as a fitting tribute to the students and staff who had contributed to the race team over the last four years.

“Winning this award is great recognition for the team. It proves that what they're doing is accepted nationally as engineering excellence,” Dr Wheway said.

“The project has so many positives for the students. Formula SAE competition is a real project producing a real product within a very tight timeline and budget.

“It requires demanding teamwork in all phases from the initial concept, design, development, refinement and testing through to the competition. Our students have also been very good at generating sponsorship and maintaining interaction. This, and maintaining effective communication with all stakeholders in the project, is an important aspect of the teamwork.”

For more information contact Bob Wheway on 42213052.