AUC Racing Team Reach Out to Non-Engineering Students

By: Nourane Selim

AUC’s Racing Team, which aims to compete in motor sports in Egypt and around the world, is calling out to non-engineering students to join after struggling with low participation, as well as financial constraints on their operations.

The club was founded by a group of mechanical engineering students as a result of their love for motor sports, but acknowledge that the club’s name has often discouraged non-engineering students from joining.

“You don’t really need to have the engineering skills to work in the club, and if you’re not an engineering student but are still interested in designing cars you can easily join the technical committee,” Racing Team’s Multimedia Head Sohila Abutaleb told The Caravan.

The main reason behind the club’s poor reception among the AUC community is poor marketing, she added.

However, they are currently tackling this issue through their recruitment phase.  

The Public Relations (PR) Committee wants is trying to reach the heads of different associations in order to form a diverse team.

“We need the help of associations. For example, the Business Association can help us with a business plan and the Architecture Association can help us in designing cars,” said PR Head Saher Barsoum.

The team is not autonomous and functions under the supervision of the Mechanical Engineering Association (MEA), which, according to MEA’s Faculty Advisor Rana El Harty, is a result of a cap on the number of student organizations.

Barsoum believes the lack of the Team’s independence has taken a toll on their financial needs.

“We have almost no source of funding. We rely on our own money.”

However, MEA President Omar El-Naggar told The Caravan that the association collects money through fundraisers and has recently given the Racing Team three thousand dollars.

“The racing team asks for money that exceeds our budget. For example, they ask for 200,000 EGP and our budget is only 30,000 EGP.”

The team was accepted to participate in the Formula Student 2014 Competition in the United Kingdom, which requires students to design and manufacture a prototype race car as if they are presenting it to an automotive manufacturing company.

However, according to Barsoum, they could not make it to the competition because of some regulations and financial issues.

In 2015, the Team participated in Egypt’s the Hybrid Race Competition and won third place in the Hybrid Electric Race.

“It was completely disappointing. Our team had only six members while other teams had 15 with their faculty advisors participating,” said Barsoum.

“We need AUCians to come and be part of us, part of this, this is something that represents AUC,” said Non-technical Director Abdelrahman Youssef.

This year the Team hopes to take the car they create abroad to join Italy Formula Student Competition.