The green hornet

Jan Wiesner

Design artistry, construction talent, business acumen and sales marketing - all of these are required in the Formula Student competition and the T.U.C Racing Team brings them all to the table. The first-time qualification of the student initiative in such a renowned and international design competition is unique, as CEO Jan Wiesner emphasises. From Bachelor's and Master's students to doctoral candidates - a broad-based team is taking a message from Chemnitz to the world this week at Formula Student Germany at the Hockenheimring: greenHORNet. Jan Wiesner explains what greenHORNet (green hornet) is all about and what else the organisation wants to tackle in the future in the Maker of the Week interview.

How did the idea for the T.U.C. Racing team come about?
Jan Wiesner: The idea came to some students at the end of 2015, who felt that not enough was being done at Chemnitz University of Technology to achieve the status of a renowned university. Especially in the engineering sciences, we were always under the bushel of other universities. In general, Chemnitz has a poor public image. It was the same for me. I'm originally from Leipzig and always heard that it was grey and not nice here. I came here to study because, apart from Munich, only Chemnitz offered electromobility. But you quickly realise that it's a top city. This also prompted me to think about doing something in this city - and that's how T.U.C. Racing e. V. was born.

How did you go from tinkering together to applying for the Formula Student competition?
Formula Student is a racing series that was created to get on the international stage and show what young men and women from a wide range of disciplines can achieve with passion. Economists and engineers should work hand in hand to create something. We found that fascinating at the time and thought we would do the same. It took a long time, the third generation is now involved and we have reached our goal of designing, building and finally producing our first own racing car in order to create added value for the region together with sponsors. Students also have fun and learn something at the same time. The training that you go through here cannot be provided by a university alone - the interplay between practice, business and design is truly unique.

And why racing cars of all things?
The founders of Formula Student thought about exactly that at the time. They could have put many things out to tender as the theme of the design competition, from a concrete mixer to a sewing machine - many things would have been possible, but that's not particularly sexy. Racing, on the other hand, is and you can inspire a lot of people with it. We're not all necessarily huge racing fans, but it's a good reason to work together for a common cause.

How did you get involved in the project?
I attended an information evening as a young student and thought it was great. That was probably the case for many of us, that you get to the point where you say, my studies are nice, but you can bring in a bit more practice - I'd like to get something going with people. Leisure time and studies merge at some point in the project. Taking part in the Formula Student events is of course a highlight.

The selection process began in February. All teams worldwide, around 300 of them, had to pass an online test with economic, engineering and control technology questions. Through hard work and long training sessions, the T.U.C Racing team managed to qualify for the race in Germany - at the Hockenheimring - as the only team from Saxony apart from Dresden. Several million hours of work and hundreds of thousands of euros in production and materials went into the Chemnitz racing car, all provided exclusively by donations and sponsors. This is also how the name "greenHORNet" came about - the name was auctioned off to raise further funds. The highest bidder was the Horn company from Düsseldorf. Green is the colour of Chemnitz University of Technology. "We are proud to have qualified for this as a Chemnitz-based company," enthuses Jan Wiesner about his team.

You presented your new vehicle in May. What is special about the vehicle?
Of course we aspire to be good, but we are primarily proud to be taking part in the race. So many things can go wrong the first time, so we didn't want to install a lot of complicated extras, we just wanted our vehicle to be reliable: Reliability is our top engineering design goal. The selected components are more or less a normal electric car. Everything around it is focussed on safety and reliability. We simply want to be there in the first year of participation and show that we are makers.

Speaking of electric motors. How do you see the future development of e-mobility?
E-mobility is the future. There are also people in the team who are more sceptical about it. There is still some scepticism because electromobility still has major challenges ahead of it. I'm studying electromobility and drive an electric car privately. I would say I'm a big fan. The appeal of electromobility lies in the fact that you are still learning something. If the mechanical engineer enjoyed working on mopeds back then, he now enjoys working on a battery. That's the future!
Of course, public opinion is still very divided. We all used to drive on petrol, it smelled, it sounded - an electric car loses that. But anyone who has ever sat in one of these cars quickly forgets these prejudices and thinks, wow, that could be something.

What still needs to change to make e-mobility more suitable for everyday use?
The fear of contact must be reduced and the price must be lower. If someone says that the batteries don't last long or the range is too short, then that's simply not true. The technology is ready and it's just a question of price. I'll bet you three beer crates that in ten years' time, people will think very hard about whether they really still want a combustion engine when buying a new car, because it will simply be worse in many respects than its electric counterpart.

How do you manage with an electric car in Chemnitz?
Super. I never have any problems. Of course, you have to plan for long journeys. Today I found out that you can park anywhere in Chemnitz for free with an electric licence plate. So you can already take advantage of this in Chemnitz. For example, I had an appointment at the Technical City Hall, where I could simply park my electric car.

On 6 August, we set off for the Formular Student at the Hockheimring. What can you expect there?
The Hockenheimring is hired by major car manufacturers. Several thousand people, from the press and students to sponsors and companies, are on site. There are then various disciplines: first the vehicle is inspected by the judges and the technical inspection takes place. Small defects can be rectified on site, but unfortunately many teams fail this stage. Then the actual disciplines start: Acceleration races, endurance races, driving on a wet track, brake tests, presentation to investors or the design report. The great thing about the event is the international flair, with teams from all over the world proudly presenting their vehicles and a festival atmosphere on the campsite. A lot of work and a lot of fun!

You work together with Baselabs. What future projects are you planning?
We have the great opportunity here in Chemnitz to have a large cluster of companies with whom we can exchange technologies and ideas. We are in contact with Baselabs with a view to combining the company's technologies and those of our team in a Chemnitz vehicle at some point in the future, thereby creating added value for the city. In the future, it will be about the supreme discipline, Formula Student Driverless, i.e. autonomous driving.

Chemnitz is applying to be European Capital of Culture 2025, how can you link your initiative to this?
We definitely want to make a contribution. We want to show what possibilities there are for the future, for example through autonomous driving. But also in the area of student education and interdisciplinary working methods, that's culture, that's even a kind of culture of life. We bring all of that with us. I think the more broadly the city positions itself for the application, the better its chances of winning the title. Art is not only based on painting, an engineer is also artistically active.