WATERLOO - The University of Waterloo has temporarily shut down a team of students who are building a racing car, after one of the women on the team was photographed posing beside the car, in a bikini and high heels.

The decision means that students on the Formula SAE team will not be able to enter the car, which they designed and built themselves, in an international contest being held in Michigan in May.

The suspension is until June 1 and "results from misuse of the student design centre space for an unauthorized photo shoot involving the Formula SAE vehicle," said the dean of engineering, Adel Sedra, in a memo that was sent to all engineering students.

He went on to praise the "remarkable work" of student teams, and to assure students that they would still get credit for their work during the term.

Sedra wasn't available for comment on Tuesday.

Most of the students involved on the team were in the engineering faculty, and their work on the car was often part of a design requirement for their courses.

The students are "obviously very disappointed," said the group's faculty adviser, Steve Lambert.

"It was shock and devastation" for the members of the team, 25 to 30 of whom were set to travel to Michigan for the contest.

"One of the bitter ironies of the present situation is that the photo-shoot was intended to promote women," he said in a statement on the group's website.

The young woman was a key member of the car-building team, Lambert said. She was entering a contest to be in a calendar, which would be helping to raise money for charity, and she needed the photos as part of her application, he said.

"I knew that particular student, and she had been thinking about whether she could be feminine and an engineer at the same time," said Lambert.

He said the issue for the university was that the engineering faculty's student design centre was used for the photo shoot without permission.

The photographer, also an engineering student though not on the race car team, had posted the photos online, but they have since been removed.

Originally, the photos were to have been taken in front of another car, belonging to a friend. But then someone got the idea to have the photos taken in front of the student-built car instead.

A handful of students who were on the team were there when the photos were taken.

The student who was photographed has "apologized and accepted responsibility" for her actions, Lambert said.

"There hasn't been any strong backlash against her," despite their disappointment, he said.

He said he's very proud of the team, which has "admitted the mistake, they've accepted responsibility," and has contacted sponsors to let them know the car won't be in the contest this year.

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"They have accepted the suspension and they want to move on."