LiU Formula Student: Summary of 2021-2022

From an Electronics Point of View

The 2021/22 season has been an amazing one for LiU Formula Student! We built our first running electric car and brought it to the Formula Student East competition in Hungary, where we achieved a 24^th place out of 33 competitors! We were not fighting for the top positions, but we are extremely proud with our achievement anyways. Considering many of the teams we were up against have 20+ competitions under their belts (compared to this being our first with an electric car). Our team has grown a lot this year, both in terms of members and in terms of experience, especially in the fields of electronics and electric powertrain. We now have a really solid foundation to build and improve upon for the following year. With a finished powertrain and 15 unique PCB designs all working as intended, next year’s project can start off right where this year’s ended, and continue to improve on them to make the car even faster!

LiU FS has had two dedicated subteams working tirelessly with creating electrical systems and PCBs, with one focused on low voltage systems and the other on high voltage systems. They have learnt and experienced the importance of all the small tricks necessary to create reliable PCBs in environments with excessive heat, EMI, vibrations, tight spaces, high voltages, and high currents. As expected, most of the PCBs required multiple versions to work perfectly, and thanks to the quick and reliable manufacturing from our partner Eurocircuits this was not an issue for us.

One of the largest challenges this year was that so many new electrical systems had to be created, often fully from scratch, while also interacting heavily with each other. This had the members learning other softer experiences such as how to design electronics to work as parts of larger systems, collaborate in teams, and working iteratively; things they had not necessarily experienced in school or while working on private projects.

The overall satisfaction in the team and with our performance this year is very high, and we know that we will continue to improve to achieve even greater results in the years to come. Our organisation see a growing need for and importance of electronics and PCBs, and we see a continued partnership with Eurocircuits as a great way to ensure our success moving forward!