Sheffield Motorsport Engineering Management

Has anyone applied for this course at Sheffield Uni? I applied to this and mechanical engineering there. I'm pretty much decided that I want to go to Sheffield because I live in Rotherham and would prefer to stay here.

I'm still to decide between those 2 courses though. I like the look of the things covered in the motorsport one (from looking at the prospectus type thing they sent) and think I would find it more enjoyable. I'm worried it might be a bit over specific though and make finding a job more difficult. According to the prospectus the motorsport engineering course isn't yet accredited by IMechE which is a worry, but it does say they are seeking accreditation (it's a new course for this year as far as I can tell).

I'm not sure what I'm asking here really. Has anyone got any ideas that might help me decide? Or things I could be asking when I go to an open day on Tuesday.

Thanks! Dave.

Reply 1

Trixxy

Hey, I'm sorry I don't know much about the course, however the advise I would give is to make sure it will be accredited. If you want to become chartered later its vital.

Reply 2

shyopstv

Do they allow you to transfer at any point? If so then go for either one and if Motorsport doesn't get accredited then transfer over to ordinary Mech Eng

Motorsport Engineering does sound like an amazing degree though

Reply 3

Justintabib

Well you should not risk pursuing a degree which is not accredited unless the department concerned tells you can shift from your course. I think Motorsports & Mechanical are similar in a lot of ways, so you might as well have no problem shifting,but do ask them about it.
All the courses that I've applied to (see sig) are accredited by IMechE except for City's "Automotive & Motorsports Engineering". I've decided not to go for City because of this reason & some other reasons. But for most other unis that I've applied to,say Bath,allow changing from one course to another within the same department after 2 years (the first 2 years are identical for all the courses in Mechanical Engineering department in Bath).So you should contact your uni in this regard before taking any decision.
Now about the specialisation that you are talking about, obviously Automotive/Motorsports restricts your career paths but it does not eliminate them.In fact if you have got the interest,determination & passion for your chosen subject, then you are very unlikely to face employability problems.So I'd say go for it if you are up for it.Obviously,automotive/motorsports engineering is more attractive than just mechanical engineering (& add to it you have management modules too!). But just a warning: be ready to pay the price if you are not determined enough!

Reply 4

keano

right, I think sticking with mechanical engineering would be better in my opinion, unless you go to an accredited Motorsport Eng course, I think bath is the best one. You can sort of get yourself in to motorsport by joining your Uni's Formula Student team, and you would learn quite a bit from it too. Thats what Im doing anyway. But as someone mentioned most of your core subjects will be same as the mech, aerospace, civil engineering courses.
ahh good old rotherham, worked at a forging firm in Ickles on my gap year there...

Reply 5

Justintabib

keano

I think bath is the best one. You can sort of get yourself in to motorsport by joining your Uni's Formula Student team, and you would learn quite a bit from it too.

There are in fact quite a number of ways you can get involved in motorsports by studying at Bath uni (& I say this with a big grin :biggrin:

). Here are the possible ways that I’ve come up with:
1. Studying any of the courses offered at the Mechanical Engineering department (currently the courses offered at this department are aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, innovation & engineering design, and mechanical), with automotive being the closest to motorsports!
2. Joining Bath University Motor Club (http://people.bath.ac.uk/cnb21/) & actively participating in the events arranged & endorsed by the club. You can even opt to sign up for the British University Karting Championship (BUKC).
3. Join TeamBath Racing (http://www.teambathracing.com/). This is the team that participates in the ‘Formula Student’ competition & was previously known as Bath University Racing Team (BURT). It’s pleasing to know that from this year it will be a part of TeamBath which is renowned for sports achievements. However, unlike option 2, this is not open to all. You have to earn a spot here! Also, all 12 members of this team are from the mechanical engineering department, so option 1 seems advantageous enough!

So you do not necessarily have to pursue motorsports engineering specifically. I’m sure Sheffield University has got similar or other ways of being involved in motorsports, so you might as well check their website for more information. I’d rather think more than twice before going for a degree which is not yet accredited by any professional body.

Reply 6

keano

Nah dont listen to Justintabib.. come and join us at the Uni of Manchester Racing Team :p:

Reply 7

davedave

Thanks for the replies! You are right that most of the modules are the same in the 2 degrees at least for the first 2 years. There are a couple of modules that are in the first year of the mechanical engineering degree but not in the first year of the motorsport one though. I'll definately ask about if you can change from the motorsport degree to mechanical after the start. If not then it looks like I've got one of those "life changing decision" things to make :eek:

I see there's plenty of motorsport related things to do in Bath! I did apply to Bath but as it's so far away it was only really a backup for incase I didn't get offers from Sheffield. I'm not sure if Sheffield has a formula student team. There is a link to their team website on the mechanical engineering department page but it is "Under construction" and there's nothing there. I know Sheffield Hallam have one but I'd guess they don't let you in from other universities.

Reply 8

master-chafe

I'm a 1st year mechanical engineer at Sheffield at the moment. First semester the two subjects are identical with the addition of race marshalling (sp?) for the motorsports guys (one module has a different name but is exactly the same thing and all the motorsports is taught alongside the straight mechanical engineering). Second semester they have to do a motorsports module instead of a thermofluids module which they say has been a bit of a doss so far whereas thermofluids is certainly not.

From second year you get a bit more choice but motorsports will be encouraged to do all the motor vehicle-specific bits. One difference is that the motorsports guys are automatically the Sheffield uni motorsports team (or something like that) so they do all the formula student stuff along with other racing-based projects (they have a rally car in the making and another small race car, bigger than the formula student car). Straight mechanical engineers can choose to do projects on bits of the formula student car, say, improving the gearbox or engine or something like that but it is the motorsports engineers that do the racing and make up the team (as far as I am aware).

I would (or rather did) personally go with the safe option and do straight mechanical engineering unless you really want to do the whole racing thing. The mechanical engineering course is more flexible and more rounded imo.

This year there are about a hundred people in 1st year mechanical engineering, of which i think 80 are doing straight mechanical engineering and about 10 people are doing motorsports.

Sheffield is a great place. Whichever you do you won't regret it. Or go to Bath but be warned that they all seem to speak funny down there.

The course is accreditted by the IMechE by the way

http://www.shef.ac.uk/p/prospectus/2006//coursedetail.php?courseid=402

This four-year course is fully accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineering (IMechE) and meets the latest requirements for entry to the profession as a Chartered Engineer. Full Chartered Engineer (CEng) status will require appropriate experience working as a graduate engineer.

Reply 9

davedave

Thanks for that post master-chafe. I'm pretty sure now I'm going to accept my offer for the motorsports engineering course after I went to an open day on Tuesday. They said that it's not that big of a problem to change course once I'm there. They confirmed about the accreditation aswell. It seems it was just the printed prospectus that they sent out that was out of date.

They took us round the department to have a look at the labs and things and most of it looked very interesting!

Just looking into accommodation now. I went and ticked the thing to say I would be staying at home when I filled in the UCAS form but I'm starting to change my mind now. The person who did my "interview" wrote something on my form about changing it so hopefully that will be sorted out and I'll still be able to get accommodation (I guess so as most people won't have applied for it yet?).

Reply 10

Justintabib

keano

Nah dont listen to Justintabib.. come and join us at the Uni of Manchester Racing Team :p:

Haha couldn’t disagree more! :p:

Not only that Bath substantially outperforms Manchester academically, it has sent a team at the formula student competition for years & won numerous prizes in different categories & has been the most impressive of all the UK universities in the Class 3 category (having winning Class 3 for 5 out of the last 6 years!!!). :cool:

On the contrary, I haven’t been able to find anything about Manchester uni’s racing team. Perhaps there isn’t much (or anything!) about it anyway. :rolleyes:

Manchester only started competing in the formula student competition from 2005 & finished 35th out of 57!I'd say let the team keep on participating for several more years until it gathers significant experience about how to build a champ car & maybe then we can consider it! :smile: