News

Six QUT automotive engineering students and their mentor Professor Doug Hargreaves have just returned from a trip of a lifetime visiting major international automotive manufacturers.

The students were chosen for the university-funded trip to Europe as an opportunity for them to broaden their awareness and knowledge of the automotive engineering industry in Germany and Italy and to open future opportunities beyond our shores.

The 13 day trip included behind the scenes tours of major car manufacturers BMW, Porsche, Daimler, Mercedes Benz, General Motors and Maserati and visits to QUT partner universities Stuttgart, Pforzheim and Politecnico di Torino.

Professor Hargreaves said that none of the students had travelled to Europe before and the trip was an opportunity for these students to experience different cultures.

"It also provided the students with contacts in Europe for exchange program opportunities in their field, future employment at industries visited and ideas for design and operation of the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition." The competition challenges university students from teams in Australia and around the world to design, build and race a single-seat formula-style car each year.

Kelsie Hughes, who took part in the trip, says two weeks overseas in any country would be a learning experience for anyone.

"Touring through Europe opened our eyes to various cultural aspects that we could have never seen without leaving Australia" she says.

Chris McInerney, who also travelled with the group, says "The experience has totally reshaped how I view the world."

Overall, the trip was a learning and development experience for the entire group. Kelsie says the experience provided many networking contacts in the regions of automotive engineering and exchange universities.

"Communicating with the engineers at BMW FIZ (Headquarters of BMW project design), and BMW Motorsport directly was a great aspect of the trip" she said.

The trip was not just about seeing world-class manufacturing sites, visiting partner universities and making contacts. For all six students, the experience also confirmed their decision and passion to become automotive engineers.

"With still a long road to travel in my engineering studies it was extremely motivating seeing paths taken into the motorsport and automotive industries, and seeing fabulous examples of how exciting that journey can be" Kelsie said.

Two of the students, Hugh Millear and Nicholas Lim, already keen for further international experience are planning to undertake student exchange 2013 - 2014, thereby not only for credit towards their QUT engineering degree, but also gaining valuable international experience.

Further information:
Professor Doug Hargreaves 07 3138 2419 or d.hargreaves@qut.edu.au