UniPD Race Up enhances Formula SAE simulations

Aruba private cloud for distributed design, high performance and maximum flexibility.

The customer

Race Up is the University of Padua's Formula Student team: a team that competes in Formula SAE, also known as Formula Student, the motorsport competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) reserved for universities from around the world, in which participants must conceive, design and build a race car.

Established in 1981, the competition is now held on every continent, taking place at circuits of the caliber of Hockenheimring, Silverstone and Montmeló, and is sponsored by leading automotive companies.

More specifically, the project involves the collaboration of various players, from engineers and professors of the University's various engineering departments (DII, DEI, DTG) to more than 160 sponsor companies, which — through their involvement in projects of this kind — effectively gain a preferential channel for recruiting talent with "hard" skills in the automotive world.

The need

The Race Up team needed powerful hardware, accessible from anywhere, to share simulations in real time.

The solution

Dedicated Virtual Data Centers on Private Cloud for aerodynamic and structural simulations and live telemetry data.

The benefits

High-availability architecture on Italian data centers, in full compliance with European privacy regulations.

The need

Shared simulations for Formula Student

Race Up competes in Formula SAE with two single-seaters, one electric and one internal combustion. Each race car entered in the competition is evaluated both on technical-economic grounds and on performance, so it is essential to work in a highly innovative and flexible environment.

Specifically, it is essential to have simulation results shared among all team members in real time; powerful, reliable, high-performance hardware available everywhere; software server licenses included in the Private Cloud; greater efficiency thanks to the ability to run simulations on servers while designing on each team member's computer; and access to telemetry data at any time and from anywhere.

Only through a highly flexible solution is it possible to give engineers and professionals all the resources they need to easily access, from any geographic location, the data and information useful for the various simulations and project phases.

The solution

Enterprise Private Cloud for remote design

The Private Cloud solution provided offers an enterprise-level service in full compliance with industry standards, capable of designing complex architectures and exclusive-use resources that would not be possible in public environments.

On the cloud platform it is possible to carry out various simulations, from those relating to the vehicle's aerodynamic components to those concerning the car's structural components. In addition, it is possible to collect telemetry data — which is essential for carrying out specific research — and view that data live.

The benefits

Flexible resources and always-protected data

Having a platform with exclusive use of resources, which all the parties involved can access from anywhere in the world to make their contribution, is one of the key factors that bring benefits and value to the project itself.

The solution makes it possible to create Virtual Data Centers — with virtual servers, firewalls and networks — with the option to expand or reduce resources: this makes it possible to use the cloud according to the project's actual needs, for example depending on each aerodynamic simulation, with total flexibility.

Another advantageous factor concerns data security: the reliability of the service itself, which consists of a High Availability (HA) infrastructure architecture, follows data protection and confidentiality principles to keep it safe.

Being able to operate in private cloud environments provided by certified data centers that are part of an Italian network offers guarantees both in terms of security and data localization, which are fundamental for compliance with European regulations.

“Formula Student encourages very diverse innovation. In many ways Formula Student has the potential to be more innovative than FORMULA 1”.

Ross BrawnFormula Student Patron