Bangkok students win top prize in an Australian engineering contest
Students from Traill International School, Bangkok, recently won the top prize in an Australian engineering contest. The Amazing Spaghetti Machine contest was part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of The University of Melbourne’s School of Engineering. Select schools in Thailand, Japan and Vietnam were invited to put forward teams of students to create a ‘spaghetti machine’ – an overly complex machine used to perform a relatively simple task. Students had to use their knowledge and skills in maths, science, engineering and project management.
Traill International School’s machine won the team of four a trip to Australia to attend a two week residential Young Leaders Program at The University of Melbourne. The judges praised the winning machine for its creative use of materials, electrical circuitry and fluids. It reflected a collaborative effort in every way. Due to flooding, their machine had to be moved several times from house to house with the help of their parents and a hired van.
The University of Melbourne organiser of the competition, Mrs Yin Ingamells, said that despite school closures and evacuations caused by the widespread flooding in Bangkok, many teams were enthusiastic about the competition and determined to make their submission to the competition.
The judges congratulated all the students and teachers who participated in the competition for their creativity and commitment given to the contest. All participants received a signed copy of The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize by Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty, a researcher at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Science at the University of Melbourne.
The winning team of 4 from Traill International School - Shane Leong, Taisei Tatsumi, Dhruv Koskote and James Landolt and their Science teacher, Ms Gail Elliot, were presented with their prize at the Sukhumvit Grande Hotel by Mr Simon Farbenbloom, Deputy Head of Mission from the Australian embassy, and Dr Allison Kealy, Assistant Dean (Academic) from the Melbourne School of Engineering.
Video entries can be viewed at www.eng.unimelb.edu.au/spaghetti-international/winners/
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