Team Australia has won the Best Engineering Award at the F1 In Schools World Finals Singapore 2010, the world’s largest science, technology, engineering and maths-based competition.
The Defence Materiel Organisation is the national sponsor of the F1 In Schools program across Australia, operated by the not-for-profit Re-Engineering Australia Foundation Ltd.
To date the technology competition, which aims to inspire, equip, guide and motivate young people towards career paths in innovation, engineering and manufacturing-type roles, has attracted more than 35,000 Australian students.
Nine million students in 33 countries engaged in the F1 In Schools competition internationally.
Just 130 students from 18 nations made it to Singapore for the World Final.
The students were tasked with designing a miniature F1 car using industry-standard 3D engineering design software; conducting aerodynamics studies using Virtual Wind Tunnel software; creating G-code to program a Denford manufacturing centre to cut the shape out of block of balsa; using rapid prototyping technology and exotic materials to make wheels and wings; doing further aerodynamics testing in mini smoke and wind tunnels; and racing the car on a 20-metre twin lane race track.
Powered by a standard CO2 canister, the vehicle reaches speeds of 80 km/h and completes a lap in little more than a second.
The Best Engineering Award, presented by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, was awarded to the high-school team with the highest standard of engineering innovation and design.
The prize went to one half of Team Australia 2010, the ‘Basilisk Performance’ team of four students from Ballarat’s Sepastopol College.
Both Basilisk Performance and the other half of Team Australia – ‘Zer0.9’, three students from Pine Rivers State High School in Brisbane, who formed an international collaboration with three students from the United Arab Emirates – recorded impressive performances at the event, winning knockout rounds two and three respectively and competing in an all-Australian head-to-head in the penultimate round.
Zer0.9 went on to compete in the final round against Malaysia, losing by just 0.081 of a second and recording a personal-best time.
The F1 In Schools World Champions were judged not only on speed, but on innovation, understanding of engineering principles, marketing, collaboration with industry, public speaking, a technical folio and pit booth display.
First prize in the World Finals is $1.5 million in scholarships to study engineering at City University in London, as well as the crystal Bernie Ecclestone trophy.
The ‘Unitas Racing’ team from the US were named 2010 World Champions, with Australia’s Zer0.9 second overall and Basilisk Performance fifth.
As well as the Best Engineering Award, Basilisk Performance also received the Best Team Portfolio award, and Zer0.9 won Best Collaboration Award.
Team Australia also retained ‘The Ashes’ at this year’s competition: a small replica of its namesake containing the ashes of the fastest Australian and English cars from the 2007 World Finals, awarded to the fastest team at each World Final.
Australia won the F1 In Schools World Finals in 2006, and finished second in 2008 and 2009.
It won the Ashes in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, and has taken out the Best Engineering Award five times in six years.
REA Foundation’s Team Australia is sponsored by the Defence Materiel Organisation, Cisco Webex, Santos, Engineers Australia, Queensland Government, Victorian Government, ResMed, The Warren Centre, City of Ballarat, The San Francisco Foundation, and the Queensland Manufacturing Institute.