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Monash's future engineers win

24 August 2005

A team of Monash engineering students has won an international competition for its design of a cost effective, environmentally friendly power source for homes in developing nations.

Team co-leaders Mr John Luo and Mr Chris Beckett with a part of the winning prototype.

The final-year students arrived home this week after presenting their prototype power inverter in the finals of the 2005 International Future Energy Challenge in Denver, Colorado.

The team spent 18 months developing the device which converts energy from renewable sources such as solar panels into electricity for domestic use, and then distributes any unused energy to local or national power grids.

Associate Professor Grahame Holmes of the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering supervised the 10 students who competed against teams from the US, Germany, Brazil and South Korea.

Monash team co-leader Mr John Luo said the win provided a chance to promote Australia. "We talked about the quality of engineering in Australia and about our country's big engineering industry and its capabilities," Mr Luo said.

"I think our victory also puts Monash on the map, and we all made good contacts while we were there."

The win provided a cash prize of US$11,000 to be split between Monash University and the team.

"But the money is not the point at all," said Mr Luo. "We did it for the educational impact and the chance to make a difference." The Monash team also took the award for the most outstanding teamwork.

Vice chancellor Professor Richard Larkins congratulated the team. "Their win against some very stiff competition is testament to the hard work and cooperation of everyone involved. It is great that a Monash team has been successful in this competition that was focussed on the efficient supply of energy, a key issue for our future," he said.

More information is available at the Monash Future Energy Team website.

Monash future energy team with Associate Professor Grahame Holmes on the right in red.