EOY Celebration

Today was the last CCA session of  the year. The RnE Club organized a pizza party to celebrate the achievements over the past year and also to mark the end of the CCA calendar. We had a whale of a time as we ate and talk about the club's achievements for the year and we aim to reach greater heights in the coming year.

We certainly hope to better our achievements so that at the end of the year in 2016, we would rejoice over our growth as a club. Cheers for more successes to come! 

Engineering and Science Challenge 2015

                                                                                                

In the Engineering and Science Challenge, the task was to allow the car provided to push and/or pick up some styrofoam cubes that were in the track. There were two colors, blue and white. The white ones were those that were pushed to the end of the track, while avoiding the blue ones. After all of the white cubes were dropped at the end of the track, we were required to push all the blue ones back into the starting point. We were not supposed to push the blue ones into the end or any white ones back to the beginning. If we did so, points will be deducted. The maximum timing for each round is a whopping thirty minutes. Our team got an astounding 2.22 minutes in the first round! Thanks to Arun, our driver, we made it into the finals. Although we made it into the finals, our car started to malfunction. The car would not go the direction Arun controlled it to go and the left wheel was stuck, making it quite impossible to turn. The battery died on us thrice while on the track and the car would not go where we wanted it to. Through all these ordeals, our driver, Arun, still miraculously pulled it off in 15.18 minutes! Although we were the 4th in the finals, Arun still did an amazing job controlling a malfuntioning car.

DESIGN PROCESS

Alex and Arun brainstormed on the design, and they finally came to the conclusion that they would make a design, resembling that of a forklift. We glued a few ice cream sticks to the car and screwed in bottle caps to each side which acted as rollers. That saved us in situations in which the cube is against the wall. All Arun has to to was to ram the cube in. We also used a generous amount of glue to ensure that it could hold up to crashes and abuse. Though the final product isn't the most aesthetically pleasing, it is a very practical and innovative design.

F1 in Schools World Finals 2015

From the 13th to 16th September, AeroPhoenix 2.0 which consists of 4 members - Jillian, Allen, Jeremy and Ezekiel - participated in the F1 in Schools World Finals 2015 held at Resorts World Sentosa. This competition is held annually in different countries. During the competition, we went through several intensive judging sessions such as the Verbal Presentation, Enterprise Judging, Engineering & Car Scrutineering Judging and the Car Races. For this competition we came up with several different new cutting-edge innovations such as the movable front aerofoil which is the first of its kind in the F1 in Schools Competition history!

We thought that the one of the highlights of the competition was the visit to the F1 Pit Lanes where we were able to get up close and personal with the actual F1 cars up close. This was possible because we befriended the marketing manager from Manor Racing during the gala night dinner. Many drivers and members from other F1 teams also attended the dinner and we had the opportunity to interact with them.

 

As a team, we learnt many new things from our foreign competitors and also learnt from our mistakes. Overall it was a really great experience and we hope to go to the World Finals again!

 

F1 in Schools National Finals 2015

During this year’s National Finals for F1 in Schools from 20 - 21 July, our school sent out two teams to challenge the top teams in the competition. Our teams were assigned to the two different classes of cars in F1; Swift Tachyons was the team that marked their spot in the D-Type class and AeroPhoenix 2.0 returns to the R-Type class. The National Finals will determine the future of the teams and how they will progress henceforth. Because of this, the two teams were unwavering in their desire to win the competition, but yet they still showed great sportsmanship. Upon entering the competition venue, the teams were surprised at the number of teams competing and the designs of their cars and posters. 

On the first day, they set up the booths for their pit display and prepared themselves for the judging sessions. We set up our new posters featuring L.E.D (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting and we ‘popped out’ the specific key features of the poster like the car and the custom-made team logos.

We spent time ensuring that the booth was set up properly to captivate the audience. As they walked around, the teams also made new friends and soon got used to the environment and people. 

The next day was the day the cars' performances were tested. Each team had to give a verbal presentation where the members highlighted the process behind the creation and manufacturing of the car. Everyone practiced for hours before finally entering the room where they were judged on their presentation skills. Then came the time trials before the reaction races.

Team AeroPhoenix 2.0, being more experienced, was able to reach the finals for the car race. Though it did not manage to win the race, they were able to grab the Best Marketing and Sponsorship Award and Swift Tachyons won the Best Team Identity Award. Both teams were also presented with the Team Gold Awards. 

Overall, not only did the teams walk out with trophies in their hands, they also gained a lot of experiences and broadened their horizons.

                                      

National Junior Solar Sprint 2015

On the 10^th of June 2015, 3 students from Henderson Secondary, Allen, Ivan and Xavier, participated in the annual National Junior Solar Sprint competition which was held at Singapore Polytechnic. Before the competition we received our racing car from Singapore Polytechnic which we had to modify.

There are two main categories which are the aesthetics and the speed. We aimed to get a good placing for the speed category. There are two main factors that affect the speed of the car, which are the weight and the aerodynamics of the car. Since we are not allowed to modify the chassis of the given car, we must be careful about the materials that we use for the car as we must monitor the weight of the car.

The materials that we can use include corrugated plastic, cardboard and light weight balsa wood. Among the materials, we decided to use corrugated plastic because of its flexibility and its light weight. We spent one week to build our first prototype and brought it for a test run at Singapore Polytechnic. Mr Low, one of the lecturers in Singapore Polytechnic suggested using a substitute for corrugated plastic.

Soon it all came down to the competition. Everything went smooth and we were faster than most of the other cars that we were up against until we were up against the champion car. We thought that we would not be able to make it to the finals but to our surprise we did. In the end, we got the 2^nd place!