Joining the AI team for Formula Student 2022
Having enjoyed my judging role at last year's online-only Formula Student event, I was thrilled to return to the competition again this year — this time, in person.
As many of you know, I love saying yes to a new challenge and for this year's Formula Student business presentations, I was invited to join the judging panel for the AI entries. The AI competition runs alongside the traditional motorsport side of the event, but with its own classifications and rules for autonomous vehicle systems.
Beyond my Racing Mentor role, I work in the automotive industry, specifically emobility meaning this was right up my street — perhaps even more so than the motorsport side of the competition. I was able to lean on my knowledge of smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and e-mobility as a whole.
One of the best parts of Formula Student is meeting fellow judges and getting to know the students. Alongside my fellow judges Hakeem Bowale Dairo, a renewable energies product manager, Robert Marwood, a chartered engineer from Atkins, and Sean Worrell from the GKN Automotive Innovation Centre, we met student teams from the UK, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ireland, Pakistan, Spain, and beyond.
For this year’s FS-AI business plan presentation, teams were tasked to develop and sell an AI system for a new city-based SAE level 4 Autonomous Driving System Vehicle. Teams were asked to bring together their ideas and innovations into a 10-minute business plan presentation that would reflect the typical tender systems used globally today.
We were lucky enough to see some very impressive business presentations, diving deep into the potential benefits to a city of autonomous vehicle adoption. The quality was really high in the ones that I saw, making judging and scoring tough, though that is part of the fun for me!
It wouldn’t be a proper Silverstone visit without race cars though. I met up with judges and teams from the motorsport competition class too, learned more about the vehicles on the track, and watched some of the static and dynamic testing. It never gets old seeing cars on track.
All in all, it was a fantastic two days. The people I met during the event were amazing, from the student engineering talent to the automotive industry’s leading engineers and technical developers.
A huge thanks has to go to IMechE (Institute of mechanical engineers), Formula Student, and all of the event organisers. As my first experience of getting to judge the business presentation entries in person, I must say it has certainly surpassed my expectations. I'll definitely be returning next year as a judge.
Learn more about Formula Student and IMechE here.