Turtle takes engineering team to nationals

Two University of Southern Queensland (USQ) engineering students will compete against some of the best young engineering minds from Australia and New Zealand at the national finals of the Warman Design and Build Competition in Sydney.

Second-year mechanical engineering students Scott Corsan from Toowoomba and Geordie Milne from Dalby will travel with ‘Turtle' the mechatronic device to the national finals after the trio won the campus finals of the competition on Wednesday, 13 June 2007.

Teams of 2-4 students designed and built a battery-powered search and rescue device that could travel more than four meters, move over a 6.5cm wall, collect golf balls and deposit other balls in the correct holes in under 15 seconds.
 
Scott said that they made changes to their design along the way as their knowledge developed over the semester.

'We had a series of concepts in our head of what we had to do and from there we figured out what we could do,' he said.

'We made simple models and from there it was a process of trialing them.'

Fellow team member Geordie said there would be a few more touch-ups before the nationals.

'We've got to make it look pretty. It used to have a big turtle on the top. That will be making a comeback,' he said.

Part of the assessment for the second-year mechanical engineering course Mechanical Practice 2 the competition fosters creativity and design innovation amongst junior engineering students, lecturer and campus competition organiser Chris Snook said.

'The National competition has been running for 20 years, and USQ has been in it for 10,' Mr Snook said.

'It's hard yakka, but its fun. They've all got different ideas. Some have experience from work, others have still got their Meccano sets from when they were kids and some have no prior practical experience at all.

'It's really comparing the bookworms to those with a trade background. They learn a lot from each other.'

Students source materials for the designs themselves. The machines have to fit in a specific set of dimensions and are allowed electric power – for this particular competition it was four AA batteries.

The task varies from year to year, this year passing over the wall proved particularly challenging for some machines.

'Teams have discovered by experience that you need certain things like mathematics, trigonometry, geometry and an understanding of materials. This experience helps the students to place their academic learning in a real context.

'They are competing against 1400 engineering students across Australia and New Zealand.

'The top three teams at the national final win cash prizes, and there is also an award for innovation and encouragement, which USQ has won on a record five occasions.'

The national final will be held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney on from 21-23 September 2007. The winner of the national competition is also awarded work experience with Weir Warman Ltd.

Media Contact: Jane Urquhart USQ Media +61 7 4631 2559