Spark Engineering Camp 2018

From July 2 to 7, Sakir Nawaz was away at University of Melbourne’s Spark Engineering Camp at Ormond College.

At camp, we were separated into groups of five. We went touring around uni’s and got to explore different types of engineering.

For civil engineering, we had to test if concrete was strong enough. We also had to find the metal bars in a wall of concrete. An aspect of civil engineering is environmental engineering. We had to build shelters for people in Asian countries where they experienced flooding every year. We had to build house boats and see if they would float.

For mechanical engineering, we went to Monash University. We created drones for a competition around Australia. They are currently trying to build the fastest drone which would carry and deliver blood to hospitals. We had to build a metal car and use products like sponges, plastic cups, Styrofoam, and straws. We had to smash it into a wall and a computer would measure the impact and how strong the car was.

Another thing we had to do was we had to pretend a coke can had nuclear waste in it. We couldn’t hold it in our hands. We had to use materials like strings, paper clips, or straws to take the coke can and move it to the other side of the room without dropping it.

Overall, my favourite activity was for civil and aerospace engineering. For the latter, we went into a simulator and pretended to fly planes. There were so many activities, that I can’t mention all of them.

For anyone who is interested in engineering, I really suggest you apply for this scholarship in 2019. It will give you the opportunity to understand engineering and give you an idea of which uni will suit you.

SAKIR NAWAZ

Year 11 Student