Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational intelligence, is thrilled to announce Luca Sutton, a member of the TUfast Eco Team, as the grand prize winner of the 2023-2024 Altair Global Student Contest. Sutton earned the contest’s $7,500 grand prize by using Altair® Inspire™ to slash his team’s Shell Eco-marathon vehicle suspension weight by 41%. 

In his winning entry, Sutton used Inspire to develop accurate road loads to optimize five total parts. The optimization nearly halved the TUfast Eco Team’s vehicle suspension weight and maintained a 1.3x factor of safety, ensuring its suspension will meet performance and durability targets when used in the field. Though Sutton won the competition for his individual entry, he will donate the grand prize earnings back to the TUfast Eco Team. 

“This year’s edition of the Altair Global Student Contest was outstanding – countless participants worldwide went above and beyond to demonstrate how they can use Altair’s world-class solutions to enable next-generation innovation and sustainability,” said Jim Ryan, vice president of academic programs, Altair. “Moreover, the contest helped every student build their portfolio and demonstrate to potential employers worldwide that they’re real-world ready like never before. These students and their work prove that the future of engineering and sustainability is in good hands.”

To celebrate the achievement, Sutton and the TUfast Eco Team were honored at a July 24 event at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Munich, Germany. The event also showcased how Altair technology contributed to the winning entry and how users of all kinds – including students and industry professionals alike – can benefit from the power, flexibility, and ease of use of Altair’s portfolio. Special attention was paid to TUM’s use of a special campuswide Altair license through the Altair Global Academic Program since 2022.

As a student-focused equivalent of the professional-grade Altair Enlighten Award, the Altair Global Student Contest challenges students, as individuals or teams, to lightweight anything while meeting or exceeding structural integrity, performance, and sustainability targets. In a global marketplace where sustainability and efficiency are key, the Altair Global Student Contest gives young engineers and designers the chance to showcase their optimization and lightweighting challenges on a global scale, compete for cash prizes, and build an outstanding portfolio in preparation to enter the workforce. 36 participants from 18 different countries took home prizes in this year’s edition of Altair Global Student Contest. 

The TUfast Eco Team is a TUM-based student team that competes in international motorsport competitions. The team designs and manufactures urban concept vehicles engineered for extreme electrical and aerodynamic efficiency to fulfill their vision of a mobility industry built on efficiency, sustainable electrification, and autonomous driving.

“I am honored to accept this award, and would like to thank Altair and the competition’s judges for selecting myself and the TUfast Eco Team as this year’s winners. Inspire is a remarkable, easy-to-use software that has all the professional features needed to model any real-world problems,” said Luca Sutton, head of running gear and suspension team lead, TUfast Eco Team. “At TUfast Eco, we continue to introduce finite element analysis (FEA), topology optimization, and multibody simulation to new members of the team with Inspire, which offers a very clean and user-friendly interface that eases the learning process and dramatically reduces the steep learning curve of simulating physical problems.”

To learn more about the Altair Academic Program, visit https://altair.com/academic-program. To learn more about Altair’s lightweighting solutions, visit https://altair.com/lightweighting. To learn more about how Altair enables sustainability, visit https://altair.com/sustainability. 

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About Altair

Altair is a global leader in computational intelligence that provides software and cloud solutions in simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data analytics, and AI. Altair enables organizations across all industries to compete more effectively and drive smarter decisions in an increasingly connected world – all while creating a greener, more sustainable future. To learn more, please visit www.altair.com.