Tertiary EV race charges on

11 May 2019

Straits Times, 11 May 2019, Tertiary EV race charges on 

Participants in the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s EV Design Challenge.
 
In line with the growing global interest in electric cars, this year's Singapore University of Technology and Design's (SUTD) EV Design Challenge drew 16 entries - double the previous year's figure.
 
This year's participants were mostly students from polytechnics and junior colleges.
 
Each team had to build an electric go-kart from a kit, which includes lead-acid batteries and a motor, supplied by SUTD. No printed instructions are given and the challengers have to put the cars together in 2 1/2 months.
 
The kits were fabricated by an external vendor based on technical drawings prepared by students in the SUTD EV Club.
 
These students have also been conducting technical clinics for participating teams to assist and guide them with their assembly.
 
They will then drive their completed karts around a circuit and the one which clocks the fastest lap wins. That takes place today and tomorrow in the basement carpark of lifestyle hub Heartbeat@Bedok.
 
The EV Design Challenge is the brainchild of Professor Lim Seh Chun, SUTD's associate provost, Student Affairs.
 
He says his aim has always been to give students a hands-on feel of engineering and to make them realise that engineering can be "fun and exciting too".
 
He headed similar endeavours when he was at the National University of Singapore's engineering faculty. Under him, faculty students had built a number of electric cars and taken part in Shell Eco-Marathons.
 
One of his last projects was the FT12, a full-size steel-carbon fibre two-seater electric car developed from the ground up.