The first participation of 'The Student Formula SAE Competition of Japan' from 9th to 12th
The only Korean team among 80 participating teams from 8 countries
[2009-9-3]
The self made automobile club of Yeungnam University's School of Mechanical Engineering called ’YUSAE' (team manager Han, Jung-Hoon, professor Hwang, Pyeong) will be roaming around the Japanese islands with a car that they have made by themselves. They will be participating as the only Korea team in 'The Student Formula SAE Competition of Japan' held in ECOPA of Shizuoka, Japan from 9th to 12th.
'The Student Formula SAE Competition of Japan' is the self made formula competition of largest scale in Asia that had been supervised by JSAE since 2003 according to the regulations of SAE. This contest which is becoming a place to demonstrate the passion, technological ability, originality and practical ability of automotive engineering students is also a place for industrial-educational cooperation sponsored by global corporations such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Shell as well as the Japanese government.
The vehicles that are simply participating must satisfy strict manufacturing regulations such as attaching an engine of 610cc or less, the wheel 8mm or bigger, inner diameter of induction pipe 20mm or less, distance between axle 1,525mm or les and attaching working brakes on all four wheels, etc.
In the competition of this year, 80 teams from a total of 8 countries including Korea, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran and Germany, etc will be participating. Among them 'YUSAE' of Yeungnam University is the only Korean team. So the students have a whole new determination. Although they have experience of participating several times in the United States and England already, it is their first time in Japan and because of the ambition to firm up the position of 'Korea', the powerful automotive country representing Asia, on the Japanese land.
To make this possible, 16 YUSAE team members had to stay up nights for last one year in order to make the automobile with best performance. After benchmarking the vehicles of foreign teams met during the world contests until now and the their participation experience, they can make a maximum speed of 190km/h and especially improved durability by matching up each component well. They also devoted a special care on vehicle's design to create a vehicle with strong impression having 'great white shark' design as concept by the hands of YUSAE team members 100%.
Now these people will leave for Shizuoka, Japan departing from Incheon Airport on the 8th. The participating vehicle with a plate 'no. 30' was already shipped to Japan on 2nd. The YUSAE who will be arriving at the Shizuoka Airport, Japan on the 8th will be inspecting the vehicle for the last time and consolidate their determination of having a decisive battle after moving to the race course immediately after taking over the vehicle.
The official competition is held for 4 days with design report presentation, static inspection (inspection of structural stability of vehicle) and dynamic inspection (acceleration power, rotation power, braking power, short distance race, durability race and fuel economy), etc until 9th to 12th to test the ability of world's automotive engineering students in general.
The YUSAE team manager Han, Jung-Hoon (23, grade 3 of School of Mechanical Engineering) who says "the last 1 year devoted in preparing for the competition was the time to test our ability, the passion/endurance toward automobiles and the teamwork by ourselves" said that "Especially under the situation which is same as actual match for last one month, we have performed preliminary testing to finally reinspect the performance of vehicle and continued to task of making improvements on discovered problems. Although we had a lot of hard time physically during the process, we endured by thinking about the people who believed in us and helped us. Most of all, as much as we are participating in the Japanese competition for the first time, we'll run harder on our country's honor."
Professor Hwang, Pyeong (54, School of Mechanical Engineering) who is guiding the 'YUSAE' team for 10th year said that "participating in world competition is the opportunity to apply engineering theory learned in the classroom in the actual scene. Especially, we are gaining the effect of killing three or four birds with one stone such as raising the business mind that the engineering students are lacking in and as raising international sense by preparing design report and presentations in English while looking for sponsors."
On the other hand, YUSAE has acquired certification from SAE for the first time in our country in 1997, attempted manufacture of vehicle for formula competition in 2004 to place 41st in overall score among 80 participating teams in the England competition participated for the first time and showing off the skills of Korean university students on the international stage such as placing in top 40 in overall ranking among about 110 participating teams also in the English competition of 2007 and 2008.
