Magesh’s Story
Corex Honeycomb has been a frequent sponsor of the Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) team and supported their work for Formula Student. Now, Magesh Muthu, an OBR alumnus, is a Design Engineer at Encocam. The connection? Corex Honeycomb is a business unit within Encocam Ltd, a leading engineering and manufacturing business. We interviewed Magesh about his journey into engineering, his time in the OBR team and his innovative work with Encocam Ltd.
The journey into engineering
As a child, Magesh always loved cars. Specifically, fast cars. By age 10, he was an avid Formula 1 fan and by the age of 15, he was already independently taking cars apart before rebuilding them. Like many engineers, he was fascinated by the idea of exploring how everything worked.
Fast forward to 2018, Magesh had completed his bachelor’s degree in Automotive Engineering and was pursuing further education with a master’s degree in Motorsport at Oxford Brookes University. During his 2-year course, Magesh was an active part of OBR, working on many aspects of car design including the front wing, rear wing and the chassis.
OBR is one of the most successful UK Formula Student teams, consistently demonstrating excellence in innovative engineering and racing performance. They have been the top scoring UK team 7 times, have 11 total wins at Formula Student UK and this year they reached the 500 members milestone (with 23% of members from disciplines outside of Motorsports).
OBR continue to be an inspiring example for anyone interested in motorsports, and they are scheduled to showcase their latest innovation (their 2024 all-electric vehicle, ‘Wheatlie’) at the 2025 Learn to Win event. Corex Honeycomb began sponsoring the OBR team in 2018 when students identified our aluminium honeycomb core as having the best material characteristics for their racing car chassis. Prior to this, the Corex team had sponsored teams from competing universities, but were swayed by the professionalism and level of commitment presented by OBR. This was a natural fit with Corex Honeycomb’s central values, and so the new partnership was established.
OBR’s use of Corex aluminium honeycomb has consistently achieved an optimised balance between strength and weight, which allows for a rigid structure that can withstand the stresses of racing whilst also minimising the overall weight. The honeycomb core can also be incorporated to absorb energy through permanent deformation of the honeycomb cells (often referred to as crushing). By incorporating industry-leading materials into their design, the OBR team continue to redefine innovation in Formula Student racing.
Magesh focused his dissertation on the design of OBR’s 2020 electric car chassis because he believed that electric cars were the future of Formula Student. Formula Student is an educational engineering competition run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers which aims to develop enterprising and innovative young engineers. Student teams from over 600 universities across 20 countries, are challenged to design, build and race small-scale formula style racing cars.
“Formula Student is an excellent opportunity for students to gain experience in optimising and improving designs… the experience gained by the students puts them in good stead for an engineering position in their professional future.”
– Matthew Dyer, Business Unit Manager for Corex Honeycomb and Cellbond
It was early days for electric competitions in 2020 and Magesh’s project was not without its challenges. Problem solving skills were key for Magesh throughout his degrees and time with OBR and the tight regulations and timelines for Formula Student were excellent preparation for the world of work.
“I have a goal for today and I’m going to finish it today.”
– Magesh Muthu, Design Engineer, Encocam
Magesh’s determination saw significant improvements made to the electric car chassis’ design: bringing the chassis weight down from around 30kgs to 21.8kgs and an improved front robustness. Magesh feels that he owes a lot to his time at Formula Student with OBR, stating that without the experience he gained there, he wouldn’t have the knowledge that he does now and wouldn’t be where he is now at Encocam Ltd.
“That is my fuel, [Formula Student] that is my place where everything started.”
– Magesh Muthu, , Design Engineer, Encocam
Magesh’s career at Encocam
After Magesh completed his master’s degree, he pursued contract work with several manufacturing companies. One of these was Cellbond, a leading supplier of vehicle crash safety test equipment including: crash test barriers, trolleys and anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) also known as crash test dummies. Whilst researching the company for his interview, he recognised a familiar name from his time with OBR: Corex Honeycomb (the team’s sponsor and provider of aluminium honeycomb).
Founded in 1988, Encocam encompasses six business units, two of which are Corex Honeycomb and Cellbond ATD. Magesh transitioned from contract work to full time employment and now works with Encocam Ltd.
“All my previous experience was designing but I wanted to explore more. The company is so wide; you can learn so much.”
– Magesh Muthu, , Design Engineer, Encocam
Magesh recalls the best experience of his career as an engineer so far is working on Cellbond ATD’s Large Omnidirectional Child Dummy (LODC) project. This biofidelic dummy represents a 10-year-old child and is used for evaluating large belt-positioning booster seats. It involved working on the whole dummy and exposed Magesh to all elements of the project: design, testing, snags, production, sales, project management and more. During this project, Magesh found a passion for testing and feels as though every day is a learning opportunity. To him, moving to a permanent role with Encocam is the best decision he’s made, and it allows him to explore all aspects of the business.
In 2023, when Encocam celebrated its 35th anniversary, Magesh’s experience with OBR and Formula Student truly came together with his work at Encocam. OBR’s 2022 electric vehicle, ‘Nessie,’ was displayed at the event, featuring the chassis from Magesh’s original design with slight adjustments to meet recent regulation changes from Formula Student. Having missed out on seeing his designs being manufactured in 2020, due to COVID disruptions, the opportunity to see his work fully realised was an incredible feeling for Magesh.
Advice for aspiring engineers
For anyone considering a career in engineering, Magesh’s advice is simple:
“Dream. Working hard is a thing you have to do but follow your dream. I’ve met people, sometimes the most genius people in the room but they always question themselves. If you’re scared to make a move, you can’t move forward at all… You have to take a jump.”
– Magesh Muthu
Magesh now works as a Design Engineer for Encocam, supporting the business with production and development testing as well as strategy analysis.
Find out more about how we can support your automotive project here or contact our Corex Honeycomb sales team directly for a free consultation. Our latest career opportunities, including apprenticeships, can be found here.
