Will the sun shine on Victoria's future engineers?

14 October 2004

Tomorrow's engineers will face their first challenge in developing a more sustainable and energy efficient Victoria in the 15th Monash Engineering Model Solar Vehicle Challenge this weekend at Scienceworks.

The event challenges high school students to design and build solar powered model cars the size of a sheet of A3 paper and to race each other around a 100-metre track. In a separate challenge primary and junior secondary students will race more than 100 boats in the Model Solar Boat Challenge. Several thousand students from around Victoria have entered the challenges.

Event organiser and mechanical engineering lecturer at Monash, Mr Paul Wellington said if the sun shines, the cars should reach speeds of more than 20 kilometres per hour while the boats should cover the 10-metre pool in less than 10 seconds. "But some schools have developed levels of sophistication which allow their cars to perform well even in cloud," Mr Wellington said.

Monash University Dean of Engineering, Professor Tam Sridhar said the challenge gave students a hands-on introduction to design and was a valuable prelude to a career in engineering.

Teams will come from all over Victoria, as far afield as Goongerah P-8 School in East Gippsland, Benalla and Swan Hill Primary School in the north and Port Fairy Consolidated in the west. A number of schools including Braemar, Geelong, Trinity and Mentone Girls Colleges, will be competing for the 12th or 13th time.

Engineering used to be seen as a career for boys, but all-girls teams have entered from Box Hill High School, as well as Genazzano FCJ College, Mentone Girls Grammar and Tintern, all of which have represented Victoria in the national finals in the past five years.

The top teams from both car and boat competitions will be invited to compete in the national finals in Perth on December 1.

The challenge receives on-going support from the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, the State Government of Victoria through a Public Awareness Grant from the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Scienceworks, Holden and Engineers Australia.

For further information, contact Ms Diane Squires in the media communications office on 9905 5828 or 0417 603 400 or Mr Paul Wellington on 9903 2156.