Presentation of the New Moto­MaqLab­Uc3m Team

The  Moto­MaqLab­Uc3m  at  Universidad  Carlos  III  de  Madrid  (UC3M)  has  presented  the  new  team  that  will represent the University at the Motostudent 2016 competition; thirty­four universities from around the world will be participating in the contest. During the event, which took place on Friday, October 30th on the Leganés campus and which was attended by the president of UC3M, Juan Romo, the prototype of the racing motorcycle designed by the Moto­MaqLab­Uc3m team for last year’s Motostudent competition was on display.

The racing motorcycle is designed and built entirely by university students under the supervision of professors from the department of Mechanical Engineering. The new generation of students who make up the 2015/2016 division are currently working on the new project that will represent UC3M in October of 2016, and which they hope to unveil early next year.

The Moto­MaqLab­UC3M team is constituted as a non­profit association of students and is registered with the proper  authorities.  Its  goals  are  educational  and  it  is  dedicated  to  design,  simulation,  construction  and competition in the world of motorcycling. It began in 2009 in UC3M’s Escuela Politécnica Superior (EPS – School of Engineering) and is made up of students who are in the final years of their engineering degrees or working on master’s or postgraduate degrees. 

“We are grateful for the institutional support we receive and also for the support of our sponsors, which allow us to  convert our projects into a reality”,  says the team’s technical director, Raúl Key Sánchez, a member of the MAQLAB research group (Síntesis, Análisis, Modelado y Simulación de Máquinas y Mecanismos en Ingeniería Mecánica  –  Synthesis,  Analysis,  Modeling  and  Simulation  of  Machines  and  Mechanisms  in  Mechanical Engineering). “Currently the new team for 2015/16 is working hard to try to set the bar high, and we hope we can surprise everyone,” he states.

“This biennial competition is celebrating its fourth season and has been consolidated as an important mechanical engineering project,” comments tenured Juan Carlos García Prada, head of the MAQLAB together with UC3M professor Cristina Castejón. “Facing the challenge of designing a racing motorcycle every two years, following required specifications, prepares the student and the team to deal with the challenges presented by the industrial world they are going to moving in, which leads to the adaptation of theory to practice”. In addition, professors Higinio Rubio and Jesús Meneses are the cornerstones to successfully carrying out the students’ proposals for models and mechanical design using the latest 3D modeling and  simulation technology, as well as  creating a rapid prototype by means of 3D printers.

Motostudent is a competition that is promoted by the Moto Engineering Foundation and TechnoPark MotorLand. It  presents  the  participants  with  the  challenge  of  designing,  building  and  competing  with  a  prototype  racing motorcycle.  The  final  test  will  take  place  at  the  Circuito  de  Aragón  Motorland  (Aragón  Motorland  Racetrack) during the first week of October in 2016, in two categories: gasoline (with a 250 cc four­stroke engine), and fully electric.

The students who participate in this competition must demonstrate their capacity to create and design a racing motorcycle over a period of three semesters. To do so, they must apply in a real project the knowledge they have acquired during their training as engineers, while competing with other university teams from around the world.

Further information:  http://motomaqlabuc3m.com/