Supporting the next generation of engineers, data specialists and decision makers is important to us. That is why we are proud to partner with Sterna Racing, a team of five students from James Gillespie’s High School in Scotland, who are competing in STEM Racing, formerly known as F1 in Schools.
STEM Racing is recognised as one of the world’s largest STEM competitions. Teams of students design, build and race miniature F1 cars on a 20 metre track at speeds of up to 75 mph. They are judged not just on how fast the car travels, but also on their engineering, their portfolio, their pit display and how they present their work.
For the students, it is a chance to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to a real engineering and data problem. For us, it is a chance to support local young people as they develop exactly the kind of skills that matter in modern infrastructure planning and asset management.
Who Are Sterna Racing?
Sterna Racing have moved quickly through the ranks of the competition. In the Development Class regional finals they finished third and won Best Pit Display across all classes. At the UK National Finals they went one better, securing second place in the Development Class, along with Best Pit Display in their category and the Lightning Reaction Times award across all classes.
This season they have stepped up into the Professional Class. At the Professional Class regional finals they have already added another accolade, taking the Portfolio Award across all classes. That reflects not only the quality of their car, but the way they document their design decisions, manage their project and tell their story.
Behind those results sits a huge amount of work. The team use computer aided design tools to refine the shape of their car, analyse how small changes affect performance and balance different design choices against strict competition rules. They have to source sponsorship, manage budgets and present their work clearly to judges.
Those are exactly the habits that translate into careers in rail, asset management and data driven planning: thinking in systems, understanding constraints, testing options and communicating the impact of different choices.
Why This Partnership Matters
We spend our working days helping rail operators and infrastructure managers make sense of complex data and plan the right work on the live rail network. That kind of decision making depends on the same blend of curiosity, rigour and teamwork that STEM Racing encourages.
By sponsoring Sterna Racing, we are helping a local team experience that process in a hands on, high energy environment, while also opening a window onto the kind of engineering, technology and data roles that underpin modern rail projects. For us, this partnership is about more than a logo on a car. It is about investing in the skills pipeline for our industry and giving young people a practical route into STEM.
It is also about being an active part of our community. Supporting a local school team who are already competing – and succeeding – on a national stage is something we are genuinely proud of.
Looking Ahead
We are looking forward to cheering Sterna Racing on at their upcoming events and seeing where their STEM Racing journey takes them next. If their track record so far is anything to go by, there is a lot more to come.
In the meantime, we will keep doing what we do best: helping people use data to make better decisions, while backing the students who might one day be leading the next wave of innovation in rail and infrastructure.
Using business intelligence tools such as our rail planning software platform helps decision makers across the rail industry turn complex asset and project data into clear, practical plans. If you would like to see how we could support your planning teams, and learn more about how we approach data driven decisions in rail, contact one of our team today for a demo of our rail planning platform.