STEM Racing — engineering under a competition deadline
One month designing, testing, and racing a miniature car in the F1-endorsed STEM Racing competition run in 60+ countries — the course that puts E4 students against a global standard.
What this month covers
STEM Racing is a team-based applied course. Students form small teams and take a car through the full competition cycle: aerodynamic CAD, CFD, manufacture to tolerance, a test programme, a project budget and pitch, and a timed race.
By the end of the month, a student can…
- CLO1Model a car body to a published technical regulation, and defend each dimension against the rules and the physics.
- CLO2Run and interpret a CFD study to compare drag between design iterations, and pick the faster shape with evidence.
- CLO3Manufacture a part to tolerance using CNC routing / machining and hand finishing, and measure what was actually made.
- CLO4Plan and run a test programme — track timing, and telemetry where fitted — and turn the numbers into design changes.
- CLO5Manage a real project: a Gantt schedule, a budget, defined roles, and a sponsorship approach.
- CLO6Present and defend the project to judges under time pressure, as a team.
How this module advances the whole pathway
A graduate of E4’s three-month engineering pathway can do all six of the outcomes below. This one-month module carries the highlighted ones.
Where this course sits in the bigger picture
Excel is the value on the line here. E4's position is that a programme in a remote valley should be judged against the same bar as one in a capital city — STEM Racing supplies that bar externally, through international judges and a published rubric.
It also compresses the whole engineering pathway into one deadline-driven month: design, analysis, manufacture, test, and communication at once, as a team. It rehearses everything the mechatronic capstone will demand.
Competing internationally from Hunza is itself the point — it makes the ambition of the programme concrete for the next cohort, and for the region.
Each course is one month. A student’s journey with E4 is 3 months — three one-month modules that hand off to each other and finish on the mechatronic capstone.
What the student will learn to use
Autodesk Fusion (or SolidWorks)
CFD tools (Fusion Simulation / SimScale)
CNC router / machining + finishing tools
Timing gear + optional ESP32 telemetry
Gantt schedule, budget sheet, pitch deck
One student, one month
Planning estimate in USD for Cohort 1 in Hunza, covering this one-month module for a single student on the free track.
| Instructor + team-mentor time (per-student share) | $30 |
| STEM Racing registration & regional-heat costs (per-student share) | $22 |
| Model materials, cartridges & manufacturing iterations | $20 |
| CAD / CFD software (education) | $8 |
| Laptop & tooling depreciation | $10 |
| Space, power, internet | $18 |
| Assessment & regional showcase | $9 |
| Total — per student, 1 month | $117 |
About $117 of a roughly $350 blended three-month cost per student. Travel to the regional heat is funded separately from cohort sponsorship.
Fund a student through the STEM Racing month.
Sponsoring this module covers instructor time, materials, software and equipment for one student — about $117 for the month.