Automotive Engineering

I hope that after their education, students will be excited to improve the world and contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.

Rick

Teacher

I teach mathematics in the Automotive Engineering programme. This surprises some people, because they think they spend all their time working on cars. But as an Automotive Engineer, you have to be able to solve much bigger problems. I use stories, real-life case studies, and a healthy dose of humour to explain the puzzles we spend our time working on during the classes. And, of course, the car often takes center stage during the lessons.

Students who enter the Automotive Engineering programme want to work with cars. Most of them do not exactly look forward to their mathematics lessons. Still, it’s a very important aspect of the programme. It’s my job to show them why they need it. In doing so, I also want to prove that math can be fun.What do I hope students take away from my lessons? That they start to see math as the foundation for various applications. They learn the theory through the lessons and fun stories, and then they think to themselves, 'Hey, maybe I can apply this to other things as well.' If students realize that, my job is done!

After they earn their diploma, I hope students leave here with a solid and broad knowledge of math, and that they can apply it in a variety of situations. I also hope that they are excited to improve the world and contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.

There are many fields in Engineering I would like to explore, especially in the role of project manager. I would love to work in the Automotive industry and work on design and leading these types of projects.

Nuria

Student

When I was looking for a place to study in the Netherlands, I especially looked at the differences between studying at a research university and a university of applied sciences. I decided to go to Fontys, a university of applied sciences, because of the practical side of the programme. I like the fact that you get physics and maths, but that you also get to work on the cars in the workshop. It is very important to have the basic theories, but I feel like it's also important to see how the theory works in real life.

I am currently in my second year and working on the Ecomarathon project. A very exciting project, because you get to work on a vehicle in two stages. First you have to design the vehicle, make a simulation of the whole chassis and see how the various forces play a part in it. At the end of the first half, we have to write a report and really show why we made certain choices. In the next part, we had to build the vehicle and see our simulations come to life. This is tricky, because some things might not work in real life the way you imagined on the computer. We get to make all kinds of changes to our initial design, but it is very important we explain why we made certain changes in another report.

I am currently finishing up my second year and would really like to do the minor ‘Be Creative’ in the next semester. This is a minor where you get to work on very creative projects with different kinds of engineers. I am very interested in AI and machine learning, and its role in society. Automotive Engineering is not just about working on the car, but it is also about the design and the effect technology has on people. There's more to the studies than mechanics and Formula 1.

There are many fields in Engineering I would like to explore, especially in the role of project manager. I would love to work in the Automotive industry and work on design and leading these types of projects.

I very much enjoy how all the pieces of the programme nicely come together. Especially during the second-year Ecomarathon project. We had to make a vehicle from scratch: design, build, and eventually race against other vehicles on a real racetrack.

Sacha

student

I am a third-year student of the programme Automotive Engineering, and I love my studies! I initially started my programme because I was interested in the technical side of Automotive Engineering, but I can't say I had a passion for Automotive at the time. This has completely changed. During my studies at Fontys I really developed a passion for it. I very much enjoy how all the pieces of the programme nicely come together. Especially during the second-year Ecomarathon project. We had to make a vehicle from scratch: we got to design it, had to build it, and eventually got to race against other vehicles on a real racetrack.

I was very surprised at how much of the theory we learned would actually be put into practice. I knew I was going to study at a university of applied sciences, but I did not expect we would actually get to build our own little car. The fact that the theory is put directly into practice makes the classes easier, not just because the content is easier to understand, but also because it makes classes more fun. I really do think you learn better when you apply your knowledge to real life.

In my second year, I also had to do an internship. I did my internship at a company called Xycarb Schunk Technology. My job was to develop a dashboard for their data analysis for the quality department. I really wanted to learn data analysis and decided to do this during my internship. Another example of how you can learn things and put them immediately into practice.