LiU Formula Student Team – Navigating challenges

The 2022/23 season was a challenging yet rewarding chapter for LiU Formula Student. Our primary goal was to construct our car to complete all the dynamic events in the competitions, something we had not been able to achieve before. We initiated the season by continuing the work on the electrical system that had been ongoing since ER22. However, due to testing constraints, we chose to enhance and build upon the existing systems as much as possible. Our journey was marked by a series of hurdles. One significant setback occurred on June 6th when our inverter malfunctioned. Given its high cost and the absence of a spare unit, we faced the possibility of project termination with only one month remaining until the first competition. Fortunately, we managed to get it repaired, but it resulted in a three-week setback.

Considering this was only our second year as a competing electric team, and many of the teams we were up against had substantially more knowledge and experience, we still managed to participate in the competitions and ended up at 19th out of 33 in FSN and 36th out of 63 in FSUK.

The two subteams working on creating electrical systems and PCBs worked tirelessly this year. They gained a deep understanding and firsthand knowledge of the critical nuances essential for crafting dependable PCBs in environments characterized by excessive heat, electromagnetic interference, vibrations, confined spaces, high voltages, and substantial currents. As anticipated, the majority of the PCBs required multiple iterations to attain flawless functionality. However, thanks to our partnership with Eurocircuits and their rapid, dependable manufacturing, this posed no hindrance to our progress.

One of the biggest challenges this year, as in every year, was the complexity of the systems and the focus on safety and compliance with rules. The need for extensive interaction among team members was also a challenge. This prompted our team members to acquire softer skills such as how to design electronics to work as components of larger systems, collaborate effectively in teams, and work iteratively—skills they had not necessarily acquired during their school studies or while working on private projects.

Despite these challenges, the overall morale within the team remained remarkably high, reflecting our satisfaction with our performance this year. We are fully aware that our journey toward improvement continues, and we aspire to achieve even more remarkable results in the years ahead, especially the goal of completing all dynamic events. Our organization recognizes the growing demand for electronics and PCBs, and we firmly believe that our ongoing partnership with Eurocircuits will serve as an excellent means to ensure our sustained success in the future.