The Transport for NSW Centre for Road Safety recently donated a driving simulator for University of Wollongong’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences.
This will, therefore, provide the University’s Motorsport team an edge in time for this year’s Formula-SAE Australasian Championships in December.
Driving Simulator for University of Wollongong
- According to a recent press release, UOW Motorsport will use the simulator to train its drivers, enabling them to become familiar with the courses and driving challenges they will need to complete the Championships.
- The University’s SMART Infrastructure Building will house the simulator.
- The Centre for Road Safety had used the simulator as a driver-training tool for a ‘connected-vehicle’ research project involving drivers of heavy vehicles.
- The heavy vehicles were fitted with devices that allowed the vehicles to communicate with each other and with roadside infrastructure such as traffic signals.
- The simulator allowed the trial participants to become familiar with the device’s alerts before the devices were fitted to their vehicles.
Repurposed for Further Research
- However, with the Centre now using virtual reality technology for participant training, the simulator had become surplus to its needs.
- There was interest from other universities and research institutes but the Agency preferred to keep it local. Plus, the University worked with them in the early days of the connected vehicle trial.
- It is good to know the simulator will be repurposed and used for further research by UOW.
- The Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Executive Dean thanked the Transport for NSW for the simulator, which would be a valuable resource for the Faculty.
- The students will get a lot of benefit from this equipment.
- For the students from UOW Motorsport, the simulator will be a fantastic resource, enabling drivers to train and to be tested under different conditions and while performing different tasks as they prepare for competition.
About Formula-SAE Australasian Championships Event
- The competition in December is an international event where students are required to design and build an open-wheel, formula-style racing car.
- UOW Motorsport will compete against other Australian and international teams in a series of static and dynamic events, including design, cost, acceleration, one lap sprints and endurance events.
- The event gives students from engineering and other disciplines the opportunity to develop their skills in design, management, manufacturing, communication, research and business operations.
- This also teaches them to develop their teamwork and leadership skills.
- The competition is a great way for students to put skills learnt in their studies to a practical use.
- Students learn a lot of things in engineering but do not typically get to apply it until they are thrown out into the real world.
- The event is very well recognised worldwide, with more than 600 teams taking part globally. A lot of companies and industry leaders, they all know the project and they typically recruit straight from there.