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Applications are open for Electric Superbike Twente 7.0!

Do you want to work on the next generation of racing?

A well functioning student team requires people of all disciplines. For optimal efficiency, everyone has a role within the team. These roles are divided into the subteams described below. Electric Superbike Twente 7.0 is looking for people who want to join the next team of 2023-2024! Below, you can find information about the different roles in our team. Do you want to sign up, or do you just want to express your interest in joining the team? Fill in the completely non-commital application form below and we will get back to you soon!

Upcoming interest events

25th of April – 15:30
LAST INTEREST DRINK at the Future Factory

Application deadline is on the 1st of May!

Management

The management facilitates the work of the other subteams. This involves subjects such as team spirit, communication, planning and contact with external parties. The key tasks are to steer the team away from any potential pitfalls and to ensure that the year planning is complied with. The management has the biggest variety in tasks and also carries the responsibility for the end results of the team. A management position is fulltime only.

Team manager

The Team Manager is the all-rounder of the team. The key objective is to have an oversight of the entire team and its progress. You balance the interests of team members, partners and other parties. Together with the other managers, you make the planning for the year and steer the team in the right direction. You are also the team’s contact for the outside world, which means that you will come in contact with the press and partners. As a team manager, you keep looking ahead and always keep the bigger picture for the team’s goals in mind.

Technical manager

As a technical manager it is your task to combine the various disciplines within the technical team and facilitate everything that is necessary to ensure that the team reaches its goals throughout the year. You will be responsible for the technical development of the superbike. For this, you have to create a comfortable and safe environment in which the engineers of both the Chassis and Powertrain sub-team can communicate well and where the engineers can work together in the best way possible.

Communication manager

As communications manager you are responsible for the acquisition, finance, marketing and events. In short, all the contact to the external world. To do this, you have the help of your colleagues in the Communication team: ‘External Relations’ and ‘Marketing & Events’. Your task is to manage this team and to help them when needed. This makes your function very varied. One day you are calling potential partners, the other day you are organizing a big event. The most important thing in your function is to oversee what needs to be done to arrange the communication to the outside world in a smooth, attractive and professional way. Therefore, planning and creativity is key.

Race Manager

The Race Manager will be a new function in the seventh iteration of Electric Superbike Twente. This manager is responsible for the planning, briefing and evaluation of test days and races. What do you want to test on the new superbike and why? You will communicate this information to the rest of the team and assign specific roles to them when the day of the test/race comes. You are the contact person for race organisations and communicate with other race teams. The safety protocols needed for races/tests are your responsibility, as well as the strategy during a race. Next to the logistical planning around tests/races, there is room for creative race ideas: What would be a great promotional stunt to show the world our new superbike?

Finance

A small business like a student team needs a good administration, so the finance has to be in order. You manage the budgets and oversee the major cash flow in the team.

Communication

While the technical teams are working hard on the superbike, there is another part of the team that mostly focuses on the contact to the outside world. This is the communication team. This subteam tells our story to companies and other interested parties.

Event Coordinator

Are you a creative thinker and like to organize events? Then the function of Event Coördinator might be a good fit for you. We have many events throughout the year such as, the superbike reveal, partner events and of course the official races. Those will be your main responsible! Of course, you are encouraged to come up with new exciting events during the year!

Marketing Coordinator

Your goal is to share our mission with the world! As a part of the marketing team, you manage the image of our team on- and offline. Think about designing promotional material such as flyers, posters, banners and merchandise. But also keeping up with our socials and website!

External Coordinator

As a team, we strive to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of electric motorcycles, and we recognize that we cannot do it alone. Our success depends on the support of a broad and diverse network of partners who can provide us with the resources, expertise, and opportunities we need to succeed. As an External Relations you have the essential role to build connections with partners and maintain them. Visiting partners and searching for new collaborations is a crucial part of the External Relations function at Electric Superbike Twente.

Powertrain

The powertrain sub-team is responsible for the delivery of a lot of brute power to the superbike’s rear wheel. Many of the electronic systems on our bikes have been developed by our own engineers to fit our requirements and are unique to our superbike. As a powertrain member, your days will be filled with a large variety of tasks, and you will specialize and be responsible for specific aspects of the superbike. You can read about the different functions in the team in the following sections.

Powertrain members of the previous year’s originate from various studies; Electrical Engineering, Technical Computer Science, Creative Technology, Advanced Technology, Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering. What is most important when applying for the powertrain sub-team, is that you have an affinity with electronics, and can add to the team in one of the bike’s powertrain aspects.

Chief powertrain

As the chief of the Powertrain subteam, you oversee all the different tasks that the powertrain engineers are working on. This means making sure that the right people are working on the right task and that there is good overall progress on the projects. This means you will be involved in crucial decision making and are in constant communication with the other subteams. Apart from this, you will also be tackling challenging practical aspects of the bike. As you will be keeping oversight on all the different tasks, basic knowledge in electrical engineering, programming and control is recommended to optimally communicate with the other Powertrain engineers.

Powertrain engineer

As a Powertrain engineer of Electric Superbike Twente, you are responsible for making the bike and all its systems come to life, by making it able to drive! In order to achieve this, you will be concerned with the design and programming of various systems and making sure these can optimally communicate and work together. As you will be working with high-voltage and powerful components, you are also responsible for keeping everything on the bike safe. Therefore, knowledge and experience in the field of electrical engineering, control systems, programming (C/C++ in specific) or data analysis is a must. Powertrain engineer can be a very versatile position and to give you a better idea, some of the main aspects are listed below.

Software

Many components on the superbike need programming in order to function as designed, and communicate with each other. Examples are: the Battery Management System, custom ECU, and the CAN nodes. Engineering the software requires you to have a broad overview of all the electrical systems on the superbike to allow it to deliver maximum power. Another topic of interest is wireless communication, using telemetry, sending data to the pitbox. The programming is mainly done in C/C++ through embedded systems, and overall programming skills are recommended as powertrain engineer.

Motor controller

The electromotors, however, are fully custom and manufactured together with one of our partners. This means that depending on the type of motor and control approach, the tuning processes are very different. Therefore, a suitable motor controller must be selected based on the motor characteristics, together with the specifications of the battery pack. It takes a lot of testing on the dynamometer in order to get most power out of the motor controller in combination with the motor and the battery pack, without losing sight of efficiency. Another challenge is integrating the design of the inverter with the complete superbike, which saves a lot of space and weight. This will require a lot of cooperation with the other engineers.

Data acquisition

Working on a high-performance electric motorcycle means data from each dyno, practice, qualification, and race is an important aspect of improvement in chassis and electrical system of the superbike. Building a robust system between telemetry module, database, and data visualisation is a fundamental part on making sure the data from superbike could be retrieved safely and rapidly. Additionally, if you’re up for the challenge of working with advanced software packages widely used in the motorsport industry, then this assignment is meant for you!

Battery pack

The battery pack is one of the most essential parts of the bike, as it stores the energy required for the bike to drive. Therefore, designing it to the required specifications while also making sure it is a safe system, is a challenging task. During the design process, deciding on the cell-type, module configuration, connectors, cables and interconnection methods come into play. In order to make sure the battery pack performs optimally and safely, the behaviour, state and temperature of the battery cells needs to be monitored. Therefore, both hardware and software play an important part in this function.

PCB Design

Our electric superbikes have a rich history of self-made electrical systems that excels in performance. We have developed a range of PCBs, including an ECU, Battery Management System, Power Distribution Unit, and Communication Nodes. Our team has worked closely with PCB development companies during the development, inspection, and production process of our PCBs. If you have an interest in developing PCBs and filtering EMI for high-performance electric racing motorcycle, this is a suitable task for you!

Chassis

The chassis subteam is responsible for all the mechanical components in the superbikes, both static and dynamic. This includes structural parts like the frame, subframe and swingarm, but also moving components e.g. the electric motor, transmission and wheels. These components come together to form the backbone of a motorcycle, housing all the powertrain components and allowing the immense forces produced by the motor to be safely transferred to the track’s surface, resulting in the high-speed action Electric Superbike Twente is known for.

Chief chassis

As the Chief of this subteam you are responsible for the short- and midterm planning and ensuring that tasks are done on time. You are the person that has the overview of the all projects undertaken within Chassis. You can help the engineers with their problems or connect them with others within the team to solve the issue and take up some projects yourself. Some knowledge on systems engineering and mechanical engineering are welcome to keep the projects running smooth. Also, the chief is the spokesperson for the subteam. They communicate and discuss with the Powertrain Chief and the Technical Manager to ensure good collaboration within the entire team.

Chassis engineer

As a chassis Engineer of Electric Superbike Twente, you are responsible for designing parts of the superbike that require decisions regarding strength, space and weight but also less abstract aspects such as cost, material properties and part availabilities. within your own subteam and with other subteams. For this position, knowledge and experience with CAD within your own subteam and with other subteams software like SolidWorks, numerical computation software like MATLAB and practical mechanical experience are recommended. Strong communication within your own subteam and with other subteams, is a must to design and build a cutting-edge electric superbike in the most efficient way possible. As several mechanical disciplines are implemented in a superbike, not everyone can work on the same components within your own subteam and with other subteams. Therefore, you can find below, some of the main topics that play a crucial role in our superbike. Next to designing the components, you will get the opportunity to test individual systems and of course the entire bike as a whole!

Structural engineering

Structural engineering creates the foundation of the superbike, the parts where all the other components are connected to. This includes the main frame, subframe and swingarm of the bike, but also how some of the other components like cooling, electronics and other components are mounted. Designing structural parts requires strong communication with all other members of the technical team, since all components have to fit together to create a unified superbike. Next to that it is important that the bike has the optimal settings for the driver.

Electromechanical engineering

Electromechanical engineering forms the main overlap between the powertrain and chassis subteam. Components such as the electric motor and battery require knowledge and experience from both electric and mechanical topics and need to be tuned accordingly. You work closely together with the powertrain subteam.

Cooling and Aerodynamics

As our superbikes possess a lot of power, a lot of heat is generated. The cooling system must be designed in such a way that the electromotor and inverter are kept in an optimal thermal window, ensuring maximum performance. An important part of this is the aerodynamic behaviour of the bike. By designing the bodywork with aerodynamics in mind, it is guaranteed that we can optimally direct the airflow towards the radiators. By also designing the bodywork with the best possible aerodynamic efficiency, maximum performance can be extracted.

Drivetrain engineering

Drivetrain engineering is all about the feel of the bike on track, ensuring the rider is able to go as quickly as possible. The projects of a drivetrain engineer vary from designing a transmission and finding the optimal gear ratios for maximum efficiency and acceleration, but also dynamic components such as shock absorbers and anti-squat in order to keep the bike controllable even at extremely high speed.

Application form

Note: We can only accept students from the University of Twente or Saxion Hogeschool Enschede!

Deadline is on the 1st of May!