Crowds lined the sides of the path on 4th June as students raced their scooters, all self-designed, to see which would be the fastest.

It was the culmination of the year for Mechanical Engineering second years who, after the end of their exams, were undergoing the last part of their controlled assessment – and having a lot of fun – at Prince’s Gardens, around the corner from Imperial College.  One of them explained “Our group project for this year was to design the transmission for a scooter – the way to get the power out of the motor to the wheel. We had to make the journey from uni to South Kensington tube quicker – that was our brief”. 

They designed their scooters in groups over five weeks during the autumn term, then went into manufacturing workshops to make them for an additional five weeks.  Now, at the end of the year, races would take place with prizes awarded for the fastest scooter, the most efficient, and the scooter with the highest manufacturing quality. For all students, it would count towards their grades. 

Dr Marc Masen, who ran the project, said “For many years we had been making pumps or winches in the second year, and we decided it would be nice to have a project in which the students had more fun, and they all seem to love the scooter project…It really gets their imagination and they see why they are designing, and how difficult it is to make a good design. They appreciate it”.