13 Juni 2011 Von: f1inschools.com

It will be a day to remember for C-Force, a team of students from Craig Royston Community School, Edinburgh who celebrated being crowned Scottish National Champions at the Scottish National Finals of the Formula 1 in Schools Technology Challenge 2011 held last week at Adam Smith College in Fife.

The team’s success has won them an invitation to compete at the 2011 F1 in Schools World Finals to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the week leading up to the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. Their strong performance in this unique educational initiative resulted in them taking first place in the F1 Class of the competition and winning the Fastest F1 Car and Best Engineered Car Awards.

The team of 14-year-old boys from Craig Royston Community School was led by Team Manager and CAD Engineer, Tommy Page, with team members Stephen Ramsey, Graphics, Branding and Business Manager, and Connor McCormack, Manufacturing Engineer.

Four other student teams took home trophies at the Awards ceremony, with ‘The Upgrades’ from Kilmarnock Academy topping the list winning three trophies, by taking first place in the Bloodhound Car Class, the award for the Fastest Bloodhound Car and Best Team Identity Award. ’ XL’ from Knox Academy, Haddington, East Lothian took first place in the Rookie Class and the Best Sponsorship and Marketing Award, while Speed Penguin from St. Mungos Academy, Glasgow were presented with the Perseverance in the face of Adversity Award. Force Kule, a sister team of the winning C-Force, also from Craig Royston Community School won the Innovative Thinking Award.

Bill Hutchison from Adam Smith College presented the trophies, and said of the F1 in Schools Scottish National Finals, “"This event was a resounding success attracting a great deal of interest from College staff and students all of whom were very impressed by the competence, professionalism and success of the competing teams of school pupils from all over the country. 

“This event, and prior preparation activity by the competing teams, is a benchmark example of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Enrichment Programme which is based upon contextualise learning and integration of subject and core skills knowledge.  This is especially important as we re-balance the National Economy as that will bring the need for a new generation of able, creative engineers and technologists.  Today demonstrates that we are still a nation of the right stuff!"

Andrew Denford, Chairman and Founder of F1 in Schools said of this year’s entrants at the Scottish National Finals, “We’ve seen the cream of young engineering talent at this year’s finals and I’m sure that many of them will consider a career in industry, which makes me very proud. We are already seeing F1 in Schools ‘graduates’ taking roles in the automotive and Formula One sectors, as well as using the initiative to stand out from the crowd in their efforts to win university places and, ultimately, positions within industry..”

F1 in Schools aims to help change perceptions of engineering, science and technology by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Technology. Students are given a brief to design a model compressed powered F1 Car of the future using CAD/CAM. Cars are then manufactured on a CNC machine. Each team of between three and six students, brings together their work to present to a judging panel with a verbal and written presentation to support their model car, which is raced on a specially designed test track. At the National Finals each team brought along a pit display, their cars and portfolio, as well as having prepared a presentation for the judges.

The cars race on a 20 metre track, with the F1 Class cars covering the distance in just over one second, a speed barrier which is yet to be broken by any student team since it was set by Team FUGA from Northern Ireland at the 2007 World Championships.Younger students design, build and race a Bloodhound car, linking with the upcoming British attempt on the World Land speed record, with the Bloodhound SSC project. The current record is held by Speeding Snails from Wilmington Grammar School, with a time of 0.620 seconds.

The F1 in Schools National Finals take place with the assistance of a host of sponsors and supporters.  F1 in Schools thanks Tata, Tata Steel, Denford Limited, The Transformation Trust, Jaguar, Adam Smith College, Institution of Engineering and Technology, Bloodhound SSC, Dassault Systèmes Solidworks, City University London, Tomorrow’s Engineers, the Design and Technology Association and Autosport International.