About KTH Formula Student
Our mission is to become the number one team in Scandinavia!
KTH Formula Student is a nonprofit project where we design, manufacture, test and compete with a car in Formula Student. The project is all about learning to work as a team and produce a high-quality product together. The experiences gained from the yearlong project give the members a head-start in the transition between academic studies and the future workplace.
Formula Student is Europe´s most established educational motorsport competition. Backed by the F1 industry and high-profile engineers such as patron Ross Brawn. The competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering. There are competitions all over Europe with the biggest being the Formula Student Germany. Other big competitions are FS Austria, Swiss, East, France and Netherlands.
Our Values
Innovation
Sustainability
Teamwork
“We strive to develop and create a unique platform for engineering and management students to become their best and test their limits. Together as a family, we will contribute to this mission by building and developing a fully driverless and electric formula student car.”
Formula Student
5 Continents
50+ Nations
800+ Teams
Formula Student is by far the largest educational Engineering competition in the world. Backed by almost all industries, the competition aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers and encourage more young people to take up a career in engineering.
Formula Student challenges the team members to take the much-needed extra step in their education by incorporating into it intensive experience in design and manufacturing. The economic and marketing aspects of the automotive industry should be considered as well. Teams assume the role of a manufacturer developing a prototype to be evaluated for production, a widely common task for engineers.
The target audience is the non-professional Weekend-Racer, for which the race car must show very good driving dynamics. It should be offered at a very reasonable cost and be reliable and dependable. Additionally, the cars’ market value increases through other factors such as aesthetics, comfort and the use of readily available, standard purchase components.
This is an Engineering competition, the product made just happens to be a car. The key focus is not on motorsport, but instead on the innovation and problem solving required by every engineer
participating. The Formula Student organisation itself is heavily formed by the industry supporting it. The world needs skilled, innovative engineers to solve our modern problems, such as vehicle electrification and autonomous transportation. Developing an electric car with driverless capabilities is therefore a highly relevant task.
The knowledge and experience gained from this project is invaluable. That opinion is shared among Lamborghini, Airbus, Ferrari F1 Team, Red Bull Racing, Northvolt, Einride, Scania, Volvo, Koenigsegg and all other companies that hired our former team members. The only way to fully understand what Formula Student is all about is by experiencing it for yourself.
FAQ
A: There are about 20 different competitions worldwide. You can, for example, compete in Australia, Japan, UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and in Italy among other countries. Since we are a nordic team, we are mostly interested in the European competitions.
A: You need to be a degree seeking student at KTH, all programs are welcome to apply! This includes any 2,3 or 5 year programmes, as well as any exchange programmes. Sadly PHD students are not allowed per the rules.
A: There is no experience we require our members to have, however some experience can be meriting. For example if you have read courses relevant to the system you want to develop. Or if you have practical experience from other student organisations or hobby projects.
A: New team members are generally recruited during the autumn semester, with extra recruitment as needed. For our one year projects we design the car during the Autumn semester and in the Spring it is manufactured. Testing and competing is done during the summers.
A: While physically possible, we strongly advise against having commitments other than Formula Student and University studies. This includes part time jobs. As we want people to be dedicated to the project at hand.
A: That is absolutely true! Networking is a crucial part of running a Formula Student team. We usually attend over 15 unique events during a year. These events could be technical fairs, company visits, company events, KTH events, meet ups with other teams, pre-competition events and of course the competitions! Apart from the events that we are invited to, we also organise a lot of team building activities and after works!
A: We encourage our members to put in at least 15 hours of work every week, on average.
A: If you are motivated enough, everything is possible! 😉 (For competitions we hold tryouts within the team.)
A: Beeing a part of KTH Formula Student prepares you for the future and you get a lot of experience and amazing friends. However we currently do not get Credits for being part of the team, unless you do a thesis with us.