Middle College Team Through to EPRo8 Challenge Grand Final

A team of Year 10 boys put on their problem-solving hats last week to secure a place in the Upper North Island EPRo8 Challenge Grand Final. 

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 last week 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 will now go on to compete in the EPRo8 Grand Final at the start of September against the finalists from other challenges around the Upper North Island. This is the first time that Saint Kentigern Middle College has had a team qualify for the Grand Final. Good luck boys!