Kingston student wins national competition and could be heading to even bigger things.
Jamie Elliott
A Kingston engineering student has sparked the interest of several big names in the car industry after winning a national competition for students.
Roberto Pace won the Autocar-Courland Next Generation award, a competition designed to offer students a unique chance to kick-start automotive industry careers, after developing a new braking system that could revolutionise the conventional systems currently in place.
He said: “It would take about a year to develop my cylindrical brake into something that could be used by industry.
“However, given that the manufacturing costs should be similar to existing systems, I really hope one of the big car companies might take it up.”
Praise to Pace
Top names in the industry were also keen to lavish praise on the young visionary for his efforts.
McLaren’s chief engineer Neil Patterson said: “In-wheel braking hasn’t seen significant evolution for decades. For me the most impressive thing is his courage to challenge the status quo by taking it on in the first place.”
The 25-year-old innovator explained that his new system would be an easy switch for many of the big car companies.
Same shape
As the new system has the same layout as conventional braking design it would not be a difficult undertaking for companies to swap from the current disc brake to the new cylindrical one and it would not cause excessive costs for the company.
“I had a hunch that using a different shape would create a more even heat flow, producing better performance,” said Mr Pace.
Mr Pace also received £7,500 prize money on top of his award.