Students set to compete in Melbourne next month.  L to R: Travis Fischer, Aiden Catterall, William Bradford, Ethan Cahill.  Image Supplied 

Mackay students have won the right to compete against other students at a National competition in Melbourne next month.

Quantum Overload is a Secondary School F1 in Schools team participating in the 2019 F1 in Schools Australian National Finals. Basically it is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) based challenge.

The F1 in Schools STEM Challenge is a competition that involves millions of students worldwide, and an estimated 1,000,000 external companies and influences.

Image Supplied 

 

During the comp, teams of school children aged between 11 and 18 are asked to design and manufacture a miniature F1 car out of a Balsa Block using CAD/CAM design tools, such as Autodesk Inventor.

Here in Australia approximately 22,000 students are involved each year, with over ten times that being exposed to the program and having access to the same classroom technology used by the competing students.

Quantum was first formed in 2017 as a Development Class team. At the 2017 Regional Finals we placed 1st overall and were given the opportunity to represent Mackay at the State Finals in Brisbane according to Ethan Cahill.

Track testing. Image Supplied 

Ethan said, after competing in the State Finals in Brisbane, we were awarded State Champions and gathered the following awards: Best Engineered, Best CAD Award, Knockout Award, Grand Prix Award.

He added, that they then represented Queensland at the 2018 National Finals in Launceston, Tasmania. At the end of the competition we placed 4th overall and took out the following awards: Best Manufactured, Best Engineered, Fastest lap and the Grand Prix Award.

In 2018, Ethan said they decided to advance further and participate as the Professional Class in F1 in Schools. Competing at the Mackay Regional Finals held in August we were fortunate enough to place 1st overall and took out the following awards: Best Engineered CAD, Best Reaction Time, Best Engineered, Best Manufactured Car, Best Team Portfolio, Fastest Lap, Grand Prix, Champions and Best Graphic Design.

After that, he said they were then given the opportunity to represent their school at the State Finals held during October at the Central Queensland University, Ooralea Campus Mackay.

At the Queensland State Finals, we managed to place first overall with the following awards: Best Engineered, Outstanding Industry Collaboration, Fastest Lap, Best Manufactured Car, Grand Prix Race, Best Team Verbal Presentation, Knock-out champions, Overall Winners and Professional Class Senior Winners Ethan said.

This now means that Quantum is leading the Queensland teams at the Nationals Finals to held in Melbourne in March.