Racing Into the Future - Highlighting student societies' achievements across the UK & Ireland

Last week, we had the pleasure of visiting Dublin to attend the first “Racing Into the Future” event, held at Dublin City University. The aim of the event was to bring together leading student societies from across the UK and Ireland to share their achievements, pushbacks and what ultimately drives them to keep pushing the boundaries of student projects. 

At our stand, unfortunately, without the X-Plorer 1, we really enjoyed talking to a lot of attendees and fellow members of other participating societies about our completed and existing project, as well as why a fireless engine model gives rise to multiple learning opportunities on both technical and non-technical levels. The busy schedule of this one-day event also included a number of presentations from students, academics and the Formula Student UK Head Design Judge, Neill Anderson.

Our team was also represented at the student panel discussion by VP for Engineering, Hamzah Mushtaq. Hosted by James Carron, co-organiser and Team Captain of the UCD Formula Student team, Hamzah was also joined by Erik Mårtensson of the Edinburgh University Formula Student team and by Bart Baran, co-founder of Éirloop. 

​The hour-long panel presented a range of thought-provoking questions, aiming to explore the motivations of the individuals and what drives those in positions of responsibility to keep pushing forward. By questioning the very reason we all joined our respective organisations in the first place, and how our roles have changed massively over the years, we were able to provide a comprehensive list of benefits of being part of such societies. However, it was important to also address the inherent drawbacks of investing so much additional time and resources into such projects, and the panel handled this aspect very well. 

JetX was in the position to contribute a unique dimension to the discussion, being one of the few organisations not working towards a specific competition. Listening to the other members' talks was also a good chance to get an insight into the support and resources other university organisations have access to. We would like to thank the organisers for the invitation and everyone who came along. Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Dublin and we are looking forward to attending next year's event!