Pick, Sort, Pack, Win!

Congratulations to Year 8 Middle College students, Mia Li, Imogen Perry, Katelyn Quay Chin and Jina You who put on their problem-solving hats to win, firstly, a local round, then the Auckland semi-final of the EPRo8 practical engineering competition, to secure a place in the EPRo8 Challenge Auckland Grand Final to be held in early December.

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.

At last week’s Auckland semi-final, held at Somerville Intermediate, the tasks were within the context of an orchard – picking, sorting, packing. Working as a team to pool their ideas and make the best use of the resources available, the girls were asked to create picking structures, motorised conveyor belts, electronically controlled spray and lighting systems, automated fruit sorting devices and fruit counters.

The girls won the semi-final competition by 80 points! Well done girls on your ability to think fast and apply your knowledge to new situations! From a competition that started with 30 teams at local level, only 12 now remain and the girls are looking forward to competing again in December at the finals. Good luck!