Marietta teen the only American in F1 racing STEM program
A Marietta teen is the only American selected to join an international team that practices STEM skills by making miniature Formula One race cars.
Ajinkya Sawant, a 17-year-old student at Wheeler High School's Center for Advanced Studies, was one of the nine students from five countries asked to join the Randstad Williams Engineering Academy.
He was chosen for the team after completing a written application and successfully competing in October at the "F1 in Schools World Finals" in Austin.
F1 in Schools is a non-profit STEM competition that has students design, build and race mini race cars.
The program is put on by Randstad, a human resources consulting company, and Williams, an F1 race car company.
The competitive program is the first of its kind dedicated to identifying and supporting the next generation of Formula One engineering stars, company officials said in a statement. Each cohort of students is gradually whittled down in numbers based on performance criteria.
"The goal is for successful graduates of the Academy to join Williams upon completion of their university studies," officials said.
But this isn't the Cobb student's first honor.
Sawant was named one of the county's 75 winners of the 2017 National Merit Scholarship.
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Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
