Engineering students have designs on national competition

It was ‘may the best machine win’ when teams of second-year mechanical and mechatronics engineering students put their robot designs to the test at Deakin University’s Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus recently.

The competition is part of the students’ Machine Design unit and is also a stepping stone for selection to represent Deakin in the national Warman Design and Build Competition.

Now in its 30^th year, the Warman Design and Build Competition is a student design and build competition run by Engineers Australia. The competition receives entries from universities in the Asia-Pacific region, with most entries coming from Australia and New Zealand.

Teams design a mechanical-based machine to transport a payload from one point to another through a set of obstacles on a defined course, competing to become the annual design and build champions.

Last year, Deakin’s team finished seventh out of 17 entries – a result praised by unit chair Dr Michael Pereira from Deakin’s School of Engineering.

‘It was an excellent result considering that it was just our third entry to the Warman Competition and the first time that it had been implemented into our curriculum,’ Dr Pereira explains.

‘The Deakin team of Josh Tuohey, Joseph Ford, Johannes Long and Corey Hird developed an outstanding robot which was well designed and well executed.

‘The design judges commented publicly that it was a “beautifully resolved design”.  We are now recognised as consistently producing very well fabricated robots, due to the advanced manufacturing and prototyping facilities available at Deakin and our hands-on, design-based teaching philosophy.’

Dr Pereira says the result was a ‘demonstration of the professionalism and commitment of all the team members’. And they will be sharing their experience by providing some mentoring to this year’s team.

Once selected, the new Deakin team will develop their final robot before heading to Sydney in October for the 2017 Warman Design and Build Competition national final. We look forward to reporting on their progress!

Find out more about studying engineering at Deakin.