Picture Of An Engineering Student In Bikini Gets College Race-Car Team Suspended From Competition

Oh, the crazy stuff that goes on at the University of Waterloo's Student Design Center. As part of its preparations for an international competition in Michigan, the Canadian school's Formula SAE race-car-building team decided to conduct a photo shoot.

At least one of the photos featured a team member posing with the 2010 competition car. She was in a bikini and high heels. The dean of engineering deemed this an unsanctioned and unauthorized use of "student design centre space." So, the team won't be going to Michigan after all. This is sad on multiple levels. Like, how the picture is tamer than the standard Oui or Swank garage calendars. Or how the photo-shoot was "intended to promote women." And how proceeds would have gone to charity.

Per faculty adviser Steve Lambert, "I knew that particular student, and she had been thinking about whether she could be feminine and an engineer at the same time." Now, one of life's eternal mysteries will remain unanswered.

Here's some of what the team wrote on its website about their predicament:

We will instead use this time as an opportunity to develop ourselves as engineers, individuals, teammates and leaders with the express goal of emerging from this stronger and wiser than before.

This stumbling block has not weakened our resolve. We have not forgotten what our goal is. We have not lost as we have not competed. We have not failed as we still remain a team, strong and in one piece. We share in the victories as well as the defeats. We will emerge from this with even more passion, more drive and more focus than we had before. We intend to win.

UW shuts down student car team over racy photograph [Waterloo Region Record]

A Message from our Team Management [University of Waterloo Formula SAE team]