EPRo8 Team Joint Winners of Grand Final

A team of Year 10 boys put on their problem-solving hats this term to win a local, then Auckland round of competition, to secure a place in the Upper North Island EPRo8 Challenge Grand Final – which they won jointly with a team from St Peter’s! 

EPRo8 pits teams of students against each other to complete a variety of tasks in a set amount of time. Over the course of three hours, each team is located at a workstation that contains an impressive assortment of equipment, including gears, wheels, pulleys, weights, tools, aluminium framing, motors and electronics. Working quickly and collaboratively, the teams are required to plan/design and build a range of solutions to novel problems, all within certain specifications and under time pressure. 

After initial success in a local round of this practical engineering competition, Luka Borland-Lye, Akshay Vegesna, Angus Thompson and Alex Facer qualified for the Auckland semi-final at St Peter’s College. Working as a team to pool their ideas and make the best use of the resources available, the boys were in second place until the dying seconds when they managed to get their electronic drum kit completed and ticked off at the buzzer, overtaking St Peter’s College at the final hurdle to finish in first place! 

The boys went on to compete in the EPRo8 Grand Final against the finalists from other challenges around the Upper North Island – and won the title having completed a range of tasks which included: Creating a bowling alley whereby different lights are activated depending on how many pins are knocked over. Creating a snail race circuit that keeps a wheeled item in front of the snail, using a range of gears and pulleys in the correct ratios. Creating a limbo stick that will light up or not depending on the polarity of an electromagnet that is moved under it.

Well done boys on your ability to think fast and apply your knowledge to new situations!