Business Events Adelaide has announced that after almost 26 years in Victoria, Formula SAE-A will showcase its engineering talent in South Australia for the next five years.
From December 2026, Australia’s premier racetrack, The Bend in Tailem Bend, will host over 1,200 students annually. Some of the brightest engineering scholars from Australasia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan and the Middle East will compete in the event, the culmination of a 12-month university programme. It will be the largest regional event that attracts interstate and international visitors to South Australia.
Formula SAE-A students design, engineer and validate a Formula style race car from the ground up and over four days, putting their engineering skills to the test. Students that participate in Formula SAE-A come from various engineering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, robotics, computer technology and AI.
Formula SAE-A team’s mimic contemporary business practices, and many industry sectors support this initiative, as graduates emerge ‘work ready’.
“It’s just not about engineering, it’s about leadership, project management, teamwork, innovation, cost, reliability of supply and safety,” said president of SAEA, Martha Oplopiadis.
“Formula SAE-A is the most effective applied engineering education programmein Australasia. Students experience engineering not as an abstract discipline, but as a real-world profession.
“For many students, Formula SAE-A represents the first time their work is assessed by practicing engineers rather than academics alone. This intense engineering competition requires each team to continually improve, to analyse, to develop, and try again. This produces graduates who do not see engineering as a finished process, but as a continual one.”
The event includes a large employment exhibition involving leading businesses pitching employment opportunities to the participating University students. Exhibitors include businesses of the calibre of Caterpillar, Ford Australia, Toyota, Walkinshaw, ADF Careers, Tesla Energy, Supacat, Hisense and Red Bull, as well as leading universities.
Formula SAE-A is forecast to deliver AUS$22.6m to the state economy over five years, with regional South Australia being a major beneficiary.
South Australia’s minister for state development Chris Picton hailed Formula SAEA as a further demonstration of South Australia’s increasing appeal. “Securing Formula SAE-A is a big win for our state and a strong vote of confidence in South Australia’s growing opportunities in the engineering sector. After its long history in Victoria this event will now be held at one of the best racetracks in the country at The Bend.”
Business Events Adelaide CEO Damien Kitto said: “We are delighted that Formula SAE-A has chosen South Australia to be its home for the next five years. It offers a clear demonstration of the many long-term benefits of attracting business events – talent attraction, investment opportunities and exposure of our newly merged University among them – as well as the quality of our regional infrastructure. An event like Formula SAE-A is perfect for The Bend, and it shows once again that South Australia offers a solution for a wide range of business events, even beyond Adelaide.”
