MotoStudent is a 1.5-year-long competition, encompassing different phases, from the conceptual design, through manufacturing and documentation, climaxing into the final race event on an official MotoGP race track, Motorland Aragón, in Spain. Each team develops a completely new electric or internal combustion engine powered motorcycle in every season of the competition, and then competes in static and dynamic events. Besides technical plans, they have to execute an innovation, and a business plan, and present them in front of a professional jury.

In our first season, my main contribution towards the team was our innovation project. Firstly in motorcycle racing, we used aluminum foam-carbon fibre composite structure for the frame and swingarm of our motorbike. This unique material selection required advanced adhesive bonding to ensure structural robustness, ditching the conventional welded or bolted joints, which also took a big part in the project. My role was to carry out the material technology, through research, conceptualization, design, and manufacturing, in close cooperation with the structural designers, in order to ensure the motorbike's dynamic performance.

Freshly founded, without any prior experience or know-how, we had to obtain human, financial and material resources, then design and engineer a racing motorcycle to compete against universities from all over the world, whose roots are deep in the motorcycle racing culture, but our innovations resulted in a 3rd place in the MotoStudent’s Innovation category, and a 1st place in the Henkel Adhesive Technology Innovation competition.

We had to find out the barriers and constraints of our material selection. Through our research, we experimented with different foam densities, we executed tensile and bending tests, and investigated various bonding surface forms for the adhesives.

In the concept and mechanical designs, we mapped the motorcycle's different subsystems, then identified correlations between them, and the key performance indicators we want to reach, with respect of the technical regulations. We had to define the basic geometry of the frame and swingarm, then optimize the number of carbon fibre layers, the fibre orientation of the layers, in order to maximize the dynamic performance. These optimizations were crucial, because of the varying dynamic loading conditions, and the desired torsional flexibility to reach.

Based on our designs, we could go into the manufacturing phase. The aluminum foam blocks had been cut with water jet, then bonded with adhesives. Having the structure ready, we could laminate the carbon fibre sheets. There is something magical, when your design comes to life, especially when it is by your own hands.  

At the final phase of the competition, the vehicle had to go under a deep technical scrutiny by the organizers, to ensure the safety of all the riders. After the official approvals, our bike was ready to race.

Actively working through our first season, I could start the second as one of the 3 main leaders, and as the leader of the "Composites Group". I deeply appreciated this possibility, since I was able to experience a lot in human thinking, by coordinating teammates, and by managing competencies. In a coordinative role, I participated in the design process of the next motorcycle's fairing, which can be seen on the render below (made by Dóra Halkó). This design was also brought to life, sometime after I left the team due to my graduation.

At Bosch we were advancing vehicle autonomy with the aim of reaching zero traffic accidents.
I worked towards this future in two positions.

Additionally, I provided Product Management Services for our central organization, which included two main topics. First, the content management and webpage design of an internal portal intended for our sales organization. Secondly, the organization and moderation of a monthly, global TeleConference, which was an informative meeting series, providing the latest status of the ongoing innovation and development activities of our (future) products.
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On top of these, I participated in a working group, Culture and Leadership Workshop, where we defined the future targets for organizational culture, and for the desired leadership qualities.

Pursuing a dual Bachelor's degree in Vehicle Engineering, in cooperation with Mercedes-Benz was my first exposure to professional engineering. My university was a pioneer in establishing the first dual educational model in Hungary, based on Germany’s 50 years of experience, designed to give students a healthy balance of excellent theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. Through the program, I was able to explore the following:

Training Center. In order to appreciate the value of manual work, we started with metal machining, electronic fabrication, and assembly of the car systems, like complete powertrains and supply systems. We also attended trainings in Robot Programming, Pneumatics, Communication-, and Presentation skills.

Paint Shop. Participated in a production line optimization project.
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Quality Assurance. Ensured production fluidity of the Assembly Hall with methodic checks and failure analysis (8D). Filmed and edited a training video about the mandatory precautionary measures in the hall.
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Material Testing Lab. Carried out my Bachelor Thesis. Created a new, interactive user interface for the evaluation sheets of destructive tests. Filmed and edited an introductory short movie.

Foreign Assignments. I had 2 assignments in plant of Rastatt, Germany. Assisted the reverse engineering and 3D modeling of an automated part transportation system.

My bachelor thesis discussed the quality investigations of a defected car part. I analyzed the circumstances of the mounting process, made various, destructive and non-destructive material tests. Carried out injection molding and structural FEM simulations. Optimized the injection gates to reach better material fibre orientation. Defined short- and long term measures to correct the problem and prevent future occurence.

I represented the company and the dual university model 4 times at Educatio, the biggest expo for higher education in Hungary. It was a great chance to meet prospective students, and help them to choose which degree to pursue, or even inspire them.

Joining S&T Consulting after my graduation was a little detour from the 'first hand' automotive industry. As a Simulation Engineer, I was focusing on conceptual design and different optimizations. Working with Altair software, I was able to hone my skills, while utilizing the "simulation-driven design" mindset. I feel myself close to activities that have a real world impact, so it was a unique experience when I could lattice optimize a human shoulder implant for metal 3D-printing. My tasks also involved pre-sales activities, technical support, and hosting trainings for our customers.