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Genesys is a proud supporter of multiple teams in the F1 in Schools™ Technology Challenge - the world’s largest secondary school technology program.
It involves over nine million students from 17,000 schools in 44 nations. Students design, create and race miniature F1 cars down a track. The cars are capable of accelerating from zero to 80km/hour in under a second.
To access the performance of variations of design, an accelerometer is required to log data during a run. After winning the 2014 Victorian championships, one of the teams, Hyperdrive Performance from Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne, asked Genesys for help in taking their game to the next level.
Genesys created a tiny custom-built printed circuit board (PCB) hosting a 9-axis accelerometer was able to acquire data points at 500fps, measuring the G-Forces and roll around the x, y and z-axis. Powered by a small rechargeable battery, the PCB has a small USB-micro connector that, when connected to a PC, recharges the battery and appears as a USB drive to retrieve the recorded data.
custom-built
Hyperdrive Performance used the device to track test their balanced cars. By attaching the accelerometer onto the car within the diffuser, they could analyse the stability characteristics of their car, which provided vital insight for improvement.
The results were impressive, the team continually improved their designs over the next few years, culminating in the team becoming 2017 World Champions, beating off the competition of over 50 teams from 27 countries in Kuala Lumpur.
Genesys designed the device for free and it was manufacture by Circuitwise Electronics Manufacturing, similarly free of charge to support STEM education in Australia. As a result of this success, teams from other schools have approached Genesys, which now supplies the accelerometer every year to teams enterprising enough to analyse their data.