As November rolled in, the team was pushing forward with full energy. The first quarterly meeting where the whole team comes together is approaching, and with Christmas, exam season, and the race quizzes coming up, it’s a busy time for everyone. Now more than ever, we’re bringing together all our strengths and focus to keep the momentum going.
Looking ahead to the new season, we have also decided to merge the electrics and the driverless departments to combine their strengths, streamline workflows, and drive innovation even further. By collaborating closely from the earliest concept stages, the team can now bring electrics, control systems, and autonomous functionalities together – with one ambitious goal: building a fully driverless race car.
The mechanics team is working hard to finalize the designs so everything can soon be sent to production. Once that’s done, lamination season begins! Our aerodynamics team has already hosted a workshop for team members interested in helping out, ensuring that everyone is prepared for the hands-on work ahead.
Meanwhile, our Electrics Team is finalizing the schematics for the new car. After a major rule-check day, they are now ready to begin laying out the components. The Electrics Team is preparing to rebuild both ZUR04 and ZUR05. Due to ongoing inverter issues with ZUR05, we decided to try something new: We will transfer the functional inverter from ZUR04 into ZUR05 in hopes of restoring all-wheel drive. The working parts from ZUR05’s inverter will then be mounted into ZUR04, ensuring we still have a platform car available for driverless development.
This month, we once again have had the opportunity to take part in numerous amazing events! A first highlight were the Start Up Nights in Winterthur, Switzerland’s leading event for entrepreneurial minds. We showcased our team’s work and made valuable new connections, opening the door to potential partnerships and collaborations. Our association president Fritz Amport had the honour to present ZUR on day two of the event, noting afterward that «we had the opportunity to introduce ourselves to founders and present both our past experience in research and development and management as well as our opportunities for cooperation with industry partners. As Zurich UAS Racing, we were able to showcase the advantages and practical relevance of Formula Student and the ZHAW, which met with great interest among the founders.»
We also took part in the Bachelor Info Days at the School of Engineering, introducing our work to prospective students and getting them interested in becoming potential future members.
To kick off the festive season, we hosted the first of our two mulled wine booths at the School of Management and Law, together with Conecto ZHAW and Alias ZHAW. It was an afternoon filled with great conversations, cheerful faces, and warm drinks. As Aimee, one of our event managers, put it: «The first Mulled Wine Booth of the season was a full success! On the day of the first event we made a lot of people happy – we couldn’t be more thrilled.»
Furthermore, we had the opportunity to be part of the ZHAW booth at the Open-I Conference, an innovation event held in Zurich, where we got to experience firsthand how industry and science come together to drive innovation. It was amazing to see how many people were interested in ZUR05 and lined up to drive our simulator.
On the technical side, two of our mechanical leaders, had the opportunity to give a talk at the AM Forum hosted by URMA, a Swiss company specializing in the development and manufacturing of precision tools. They presented insights into how we incorporate 3D printing technologies into our design and production workflows. It was an excellent chance to connect with industry experts, exchange ideas, and gain inspiration from the latest developments in additive manufacturing.
Part of our Mechanical Team also had the opportunity to participate in a lamination workshop hosted by Suter Kunststoffe AG. During the visit, we received an in-depth tour of their facilities and a step-by-step introduction to the entire lamination process – from understanding material properties to preparing molds and applying the first layers. The morning was dedicated to form preparation, while the afternoon focused on placing the fabric and learning best practices directly from the experts. Their team took the time to explain each step in detail, helping us deepen our knowledge for the upcoming manufacturing phase of our car.
