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F1 in Schools is a global contest in which students deploy CAD/CAM software to design, analyze, manufacture, test and race miniature gas-powered balsawood Formula One (F1) cars.
In Manitoba's engineering design program, students use CATIA for F1 car design, creating realistic presentation drawings and generating files for the 3D router that cuts the cars. Students also use the CFD (computational fluid design) flow simulation features of SolidWorks for virtual wind tunnel testing.
"When they have tools like CATIA and SolidWorks at their disposal, I don't need to entice them in any way into the world of engineering or design," said Miro Gawinski, engineering design instructor at Crocus Plains. "They see the merits of it right away."
Crocus Plains' six-student Golden Geckos team began preparing for the Second Annual Province of Manitoba F1 in Schools Technology Challenge in 2009, working closely with the engineering faculty and students at the University of Manitoba to make their F1 project a success.
"The students – high school and university – speak the common language of CATIA," Gawinski said. "Seeing them work together is amazing. They're able to show images, exchange ideas and tweak things on the fly. It definitely shows that what we're doing at the high school level dovetails nicely with what's happening at the university and beyond."
At the regional competition in Winnipeg, the team won the Judges' Choice Award, Best Engineered Car award and the First Overall award to become one of ten teams vying for the national title. Then, at the Canadian national competition, the Golden Geckos finished first overall, qualifying them to represent Canada internationally at the 2011 F1 in Schools World Championships later this year.
With the headquarters of Boeing's largest composite manufacturing facility and the Royal Canadian Mint both located in Manitoba, growing and keeping engineering talent in the province is important. So is ensuring that students are prepared for the highly technical careers of tomorrow. The provincial government therefore teamed with DS and Engineering.com to bring CATIA to Manitoba's schools – including high schools, community colleges and universities – as part of the province-wide Technical Vocational Initiative (TVI).
"The sophistication of CATIA is absolutely critical because students are able to tackle problems at a level that previously we couldn't teach in a high school classroom," Gawinski said. "And it's the preferred tool of the industry, so everything they learn in the classroom is directly transferable to their post-secondary education or to the workplace." Experience with CATIA helps students get better summer job experience and, ultimately, better opportunities at university and in the workplace.
