St. Colman’s College has signed up a team to participate in the Honda F1 in Schools Technology Challenge.

The team members are Andrew Finn, John Parsons, Brian McDermott, Alan Benson, Bryan Carey and Keith Cawley and they will be required to make an aerodynamic model F1 car, which will be raced against other participating schools in the east and west coast regional finals in February an he national final in Dublin in March.

The F1 in Schools Challenge is an international competition attracting more than 45,000 students across the world in a frenzied dash to design, build and ultimately race CO₂ powered model Formula 1 cars.  This is the second year for the competition to run in Ireland under the guidance of the Irish Computer Society (ICS) and sponsored by Honda.

The competition is open to secondary schools nationwide to design and manufacture CO₂ powered model racing cars. Each car measures about 25cm in length.

Student teams will compete against each other in a national championship to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland. The winning car will be judged on speed, design and the school team’s full project presentation.

The overall winning team at the international finals due to be held in Melbourne, Australia in March 2007, receive stunning prizes including the Bernie Ecclestone Trophy and a three-year full scholarship to study Motorsport and Automotive Engineering at City University London.

This year’s winning team from Ireland will got to the International Finals in 2008, at a location yet to be decided.

This exciting competition will expose students to 3D modelling, virtual wind tunnels, graphic design, project management, fundraising, computer-aided manufacturing, sponsorship and teamwork.

The challenge was originally developed in the UK six years ago and has spread to schools in 21 different countries including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, UAE and the US.

 John Parsons of St. Colman’s College explains why their school chose to enter the Honda F1 in Schools Challenge: “As this is our second year competing in the F1 in Schools Challenge we have the knowledge and experience from last year and are looking forward to taking on the competition.”

Each participating team will receive a kit, which includes balsa wood for making the model. Ongoing support will be offered and the school will be paired with a Formula 1 Make Centre i.e. a college or university with the necessary equipment for milling the models.

This interaction with colleges will give students an introduction to engineering, science and technology choices at third level. The colleges will offer their paired teams the opportunity to visit their facilities for design tutorials, to show models being made and cars being tested.

Participating schools also get free computer design software with which to form their creation.

Each school can enter a maximum of two teas of three to six students per team

You can visit www.f1inschools.ie for more information on the challenge.