Braemar Team named winners of the BAE Systems Australia Autonomous Vehicle Challenge
The BAE Systems Autonomous Vehicle Challenge took place earlier this year, inviting primary and secondary students to build teams and come up with creative entries as solutions the assigned topics. We had a great excursion planned to attend the Grand Prix, which was sadly cancelled because of COVID. That didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of a few of our senior school students who decided to work together and enter the challenge, developing an idea and a video pitch presentation together, outside of any formal class work.
The team of Senior School boys representing the college – Thomas Shaddock, Jack Reeves, Dion Eddy, and Daniel Wilkinson – had the topic, ‘if you were a Race Engineer, what features would be added to a Formula One vehicle to make a winning autonomous race car, including design features to protect itself against collisions and damage?’. They had to create and present a ‘pitch deck’ where they presented the problem they were solving, introduced their team, and explained the science behind their design. After making it to the second round of the competition, the boys had to pitch their presentation to a panel of industry experts and respond to a Q&A.
The challenge was created as a collaboration between STEM Hub, BAE Systems Australia, and the Grand Prix, in an effort to encourage STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) out of the classroom and into the real world. They hoped to encourage students to combine creative and critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
We are so proud to share that the team were recently announced by BAE Systems Australia to be the winners of the challenge!
Well done to the four students involved, and thanks to Mr Chris Simpson for supporting them.
As the winning team, these students will have the opportunity to participate in a career development session with autonomous engineers at BAE Systems Australia.
