20 Oct 2023
Team Enginuity have returned triumphant from the school’s first run in the F1 in Schools State Titles this week.
The competition, held fittingly at the Eastern Creek Speedway, sees schools across the state pit their CO2 racers against one another in a variety of competitions.
The vehicles are judged for their abilities both on and off the track. The racers had to compete in automatic racing competitions (where the vehicles are triggered automatically), reaction races (where the vehicles are triggered by a pilot in response to a signal) and in a good old-fashioned knockout.
Each team also had to present their vehicles to the public with an engineering portfolio, a verbal presentation, a trade display and an engineering and manufacturing interview with the judges.
Team Enginuity, consisting of Jonathan Davies (Head of Manufacturing), Luca Brighenti (Chief Engineer), Carl Zirilli (Project Manager) and Isabella McCloksey (Head of Enterprise) have been preparing for this competition for almost an entire year. Each individual had well defined roles, with team members overseeing the car’s design in CAD, the milling of the fuselage in a CNC mill, producing fittings in a 3D printer and the marketing the car.
Although the team were penalised for failure to meet the competition’s stringent manufacturing standards, their car performed extremely well. The times before the penalties were applied were competing comfortably against some of the most seasoned schools in the comp.
It was the team’s promotion of their vehicle, however, that saw them bring home the Outstanding Industry Collaboration Award. In the lead up to the competition the Enginuity crew worked hard spruiking F1 in Schools through interschool competitions, industry nights and school open days.
The team also received some generous sponsorship from local business. Dobija Design and Publishing provided discount printing to the team, Statewide Bearings provided parts for the cars and I2R donated some much-appreciated funds to the crew.
“This was the school’s first time competing and they came away with an award which is fantastic,” exclaims team coach Chris Parkin, “It was phenomenal first run.”
“We will be running F1 in schools as a STEM elective,” adds Chris, “So our Year 8s will be picking up the baton and developing on the great work our Year 11s have done.”
We can no doubt expect to see Year 7 students Benji Savage and Parker Lee in future F1 in Schools competitions. The two students tagged along with Team Enginuity and volunteered to help reset tracks between races.
Well done to Mr Parkin and Team Enginuity for competing in this state level competition! And special thanks to our generous sponsors and to MASE for making the trip possible.