USQ's future engineers catapult to new heights

Should Springfield ever come under attack from a medieval kingdom, it is comforting to know University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Springfield campus Engineering students are well practiced in the art of ancient warfare.

The students, as part of their end of semester assessment competed in teams to build custom catapults designed to achieve maximum range shots, launching a projectile - bearing a strong resemblance to a tennis ball metres into the air.

While competition was strong the Green Machine team of Hanim Hussein-McLeod and Philip Western took out the close competition by recording a 24.5 metre projection of their tennis ball.

USQ Coordinator of Engineering Programs (Springfield) Dr David Thorpe said the students were given a medieval battle scenario to make the assessment fun.

'The students were tasked with designing and constructing the catapults for a fictional Knight, Sir Cecil – a keen engineer himself,' Dr Thorpe said.

'The students became the Knights of the Phoenix and had to draw on all of their creativity and flair to improve on Sir Cecil's catapult design.'

Dr Thorpe said safety of the device was of paramount importance.

'Gone are the days on the battlefield where casualties are par for the course. Our students needed to ensure their catapults adhered to modern health and safety guidelines.

'The catapults had to be triggered remotely with no one standing closer than one metre from the device.

'The projectiles had to reach between 500 and 700 millimetres in height, clear a 1.2 metre wall and attempt to hit a ground target which was progressively moved further from the catapults.

'I was very impressed with the student's efforts, there were some very innovative designs presented and it was easy to feel empathy for the plight of the tennis ball as it was fired over and over.'

USQ Springfield offers an Associate Degree in Engineering and a Bachelor of Engineering Technology.

For more information about studying engineering at USQ call 1800 640 678.

Media Contact:  Jo-Ann Sparrow, USQ Media, +61 7 3470 4119 or 0438 309 096