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The Young Inventor Competition 2008-2009
By Mr C O YAU

Every year, the Young Inventor Competition provides 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 MC 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. There were 17 teams from 11 secondary schools and one primary school participatedin the game and five awards were set up.

The 1st round competition was held on 15 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 28 February 2009 at Repulse Bay. All students were 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 was required to operate on the sand foundation. Several critical factors such as how to ensure the tight attachment between wheels of the collector and sand, the maneuverability of the collector and the mechanism that could effectively collect the rubbish samples within a specified time. In this round of competition, there was no restriction on the design of the collector, it could be remote-controlled or fully automatically-controlled.

The results of the competition were as follows:

• Champion: CMA Secondary School
• 1st runner-up: Fung Kai Liu Man Shek Tong Secondary School
• 2nd runner-up: Sing Yin Secondary School – team 3
• Hi-tech prize: CMA Secondary School
• Creative prize: Sing Yin Secondary School – team 3

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

Original: http://www.hkengineer.org.hk/program/home/idamain.php?cat=IDA&volid=106&dept=mmnc