Accu Celebrates World Engineering Day With Oxford Brookes Racing

What Is World Engineering Day?

From clean fusion energy to aerospace exploration, engineers create innovative and life changing advancements everyday.

World Engineering Day aims to recognise this tremendous impact by celebrating engineering across the globe.

Established by UNESCO in 2019, World Engineering Day was first celebrated on the 4th of March, 2020, honouring the founding day of the WFEO, World Federation of Engineering Organisations.

Now held annually on this day, World Engineering Day is a great opportunity to highlight achievements in engineering and to increase public awareness about how engineering is central to sustainable development.

In celebration, there will be a range of events across the world to get involved with. You can find out more by heading to the World Engineering Day website, here.  

Accu is proud to support thousands of engineers building a better future, and what better way to celebrate this year's World Engineering Day than to shout about the fantastic young engineers from Oxford Brookes Racing.

Who Are Oxford Brookes Racing?

OBR is Oxford Brookes University’s student racing team. With more than 400 students, OBR design and build a racing car to compete in the annual Formula Student competition. 

Attracting brilliant young engineering students from around the world, Formula Student is Europe's largest educational motorsport event. Organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, the competition inspires young people to come together through engineering and create something great. 

Accu has been a sponsor of OBR since 2021, providing the components that they need to manufacture the car amongst other services to help them on their way. 

OBR has also partnered with Accu for our #AccuDreamJob competition which offers 3 people the chance to win an experience day with the student formula team, learning all about how they design and build their car. 

Find out more about #AccuDreamJob by heading to our article, ‘Win A Dream Job Experience With Accu & Oxford Brookes Racing Team’.

In the run up to Formula Student 2023, taking place from the 19th to the 23rd of July, there is a lot to be prepared.

Let’s hear from the team and see what they’ve been up to.

A Racing Start To 2023

The team have certainly hit the ground running in 2023, spending most of their time outside of study working on the car to prepare for a career in this exhilarating and fast-paced industry. 

“So far this year, we have been rigorously track-testing our 2022 vehicle to identify electrical faults and improve the reliability of our systems while simultaneously working on designing and manufacturing our 2023 competitor.” - Alice Mazurek | Social Media Lead

“With no university in January, the team pushed really hard to make as much progress as possible and it went really well! Completing two full test days with OBR22, we have gained a lot of knowledge about the characteristics of our and ways in which we need to improve. 

We continue to push to manufacture our new chassis and suspension components, and we have finalised the design of our new accumulator which is now about to start its first segment dry build!” - Tor Nielsen | Chief Electrical Engineer

What’s Your Favourite Engineering Achievement?

To celebrate World Engineering Day, we asked some of the students from OBR to share their favourite historic engineering achievement. Here’s what they said.

“My favourite engineering achievement in history is Brawn’s double diffuser. I think it’s an amazing piece of engineering because it managed to find a breach in the rules and for such a small team to go ahead and win both championships, I think it’s something very impressive and won’t be repeated ever again.” - Mauro | Suspension, Accumulator and Electrical Integration Team Member

“My favourite engineering achievement in history is Apollo 13 because they fixed the impossible.” - Ana | Powertrain, Electrical Integration, Vehicle Controls & Accumulator Team Member

“My favourite engineering achievement in history is the Hubble space telescope because it’s given us a beautiful view of the galaxies.” - Khanh | Head of Operations

“My favourite engineering achievement in history is George Stephenson with the rocket steam engine because it revolutionised transportation.” - Sam | Suspension Lead 

“My favourite engineering achievement was putting a man on the moon. To consider only 66 years before the Wright brothers achieved flight to then send someone into space is an incredible accomplishment.” - Alex | Operations & Statistics Team Member

How Accu Supports Young Engineers Building Tomorrow

Through the years, the young innovators from OBR have achieved great success, collecting 7 UK Top Team Awards since the team was founded in 1999.

From chassis to aerodynamics, the talented students use leading technology and high quality components to design and build almost every aspect of their car. 

Despite the challenges faced throughout 2020, that same year the team made the impressive shift from combustion to electric, making exceptional progress for the future of motorsport.

Adopting this change has placed the team at the forefront of change in the industry; it has allowed them to innovate their design and explore the performance potential of EV racing all whilst developing new and valuable skills for the future. 

This year's team are just as keen to keep the OBR legacy going strong and Accu is honoured to have the opportunity to support these exceptional young engineers throughout their journey.

Speaking to the members of team OBR, we are delighted to hear how they have been using Accu so far in the 2022 - 2023 academic year.

“Though it’s certainly very exciting, it’s not all about what happens on the track. Accu provides Oxford Brookes Racing with solutions throughout the complete engineering process everywhere from CAD on the computer screen to the assembly on our electric vehicle.

The downloadable 3D models on Accu.co.uk enables us to check for interferences and the Wera tools lineup making the build process seamless.” - Alice Mazurek | Social Media Lead

“Ever since Oxford Brookes Racing made the switch to an electric powertrain in 2020, Accu has supplied us with fasteners to assemble our high-voltage battery.

From aerotight locking nuts to low-profile cap screws, Accu has multiple solutions that meet our high-temperature requirements and allows us to optimise packaging.” - Matt Roche | Accumulator Lead 

“For our 4WD electric powertrain, Accu stocks two critical components: O-rings and retaining rings. O-rings are necessary to keep water in our cooling jackets and retaining rings secure our gearbox sealing plates to prevent oil from seeping out.

Accu’s quick turnaround time helps us assemble parts quickly, avoid unnecessary delays, and meet our build timeline.” - Parth Shetty | Powertrain Lead 

“Building on the successes of 2022 where Oxford Brookes Racing won the Design Finals and IPG Laptime Sim events at Formula Student UK, we are excited to continue our partnership with Accu and see what the future holds for our 2023 contender!” - Alice Mazurek | Social Media Lead

We can already see how much work has gone into building OBR’s 2023 competitor and we’re excited to see what fantastic accomplishments lay ahead for the team this year.

Happy World Engineering Day!

Want to learn more about the team? Check out their website, here.