The Young Inventor Competition 2008-2009
By Mr CO Yau

 

Once a Year, “The Young Inventor Competition” provided an opportunity for youngsters to get a taste of being an engineer, and encourages them to use their imagination and creativity in solving problems. The competition was jointly organised by the MMNC Division, IMechE - HK Branch and ASME - HK Section, with the support from the Mechanical Engineering Department of The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 17 teams from 11 secondary schools and 1 primary school participated in the game, and five awards were set.


The 1st round competition was held on 15th November 2008 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, each team was required to design and build a trash collector (the ‘machine’) with efficient mechanism to collect the trash in the water tank with limited power source and limited size. The machine collected the greatest amount of trash within the allowed time would get the highest mark and get advantages in the final round.

 

The final round competition was held on 28th February 2009 at The Repulse Bay, all students are required to design, build and operate their rubbish collector to clean up, as many as they could, all rubbish samples placing on the beach at different locations. Unlike the first round of competition, the machine is required to operate on the sand foundation. Several critical factors, such as how to ensure (i) the tight attachment between wheels of the collector and sand, (ii) the maneuverability of the collector and (iii) the mechanism that can effectively collect the rubbish samples within a specified time. In this round of competition, no restriction expect those addressed below, on the design of the collector, it can be remote controlled or fully automatically controlled.

 

The results of the competition are listed as below.

Champion : 廠商會中學

1ST Running up:鳯溪廖萬石堂中學

2nd running up:聖言中學team3

Hi-tech prize: 廠商會中學

Creative prize: 聖言中學team3

 

All the participants enjoyed the exciting competition and the event was a full success. We look forward to the Young Inventor Competition next year.

 

Photo No. 1: The machines for attending the contest attracted the attention of the media, participants and audiences.

 

 

Photo No. 2: One of the machine was moving on the beach for collection of trash.