@ Friday 2 March 2012 AIT is running two exciting competitions on Friday 2 March for Engineers Week 2012 and we would like your school to participate. Schools are invited to enter one or two teams of 4 students each from either transition year or fifth year. The competitions are as follows: • BATS (beams, arches, trusses and suspensions) • Bugs, Birds and Projectiles: Further details of both competitions are contained inside this brochure
SCHEDULE 9.30
Students arrive to the Engineering and Informatics Building
9.40-10.30
Overview of the competition and project guidance
10.30-11.00
Students given project assignments and equipment
11.00-1.00
Completion of projects
1.00-1.30
Judging of projects
1.30-2.10 Lunch 2.10-2.40
Presentation of prizes
2.40
Depart AIT
HOW TO ENTER
Places are strictly limited to ten teams per competition, so please register your team(s) asap. Contact Annette Buckley abuckley@ait.ie
090 647 1883
Athlone Institute of Technology
Friday 2 March 2012
Engineers Week 2012 flyer.indd 1
22/02/2012 13:11
BATS
BUGS, BIRDS AND PROJECTILES
If you're going to build a bridge, you'll need some help from BATS – not the furry, winged mammals that so often live beneath bridges, but the key structural components of bridge construction: beams, arches, trusses and suspensions.
One of the major challenges facing engineering education today is to make it interesting to an ever more demanding student population. With the proliferation of electronic entertainment devices, it is necessary to embrace new technologies in the teaching of basic skills such as mathematics, physics, software development, etc.
The Basics of Bridge Design
Various combinations of these four technologies allow for numerous bridge designs ranging from simple beam bridges, arch bridges, truss bridges and suspension bridges to more complex variations, such as the side-spar cable-stayed bridge. For all its 21st century complexity, the side-spar design is based on suspension principles first used some two centuries earlier.
To this end, we present a collection of three challenges to students.
EYE-HAND COORDINATION Each team member is to use the Xbox 360 Controller to navigate a Finch Robot around • A number of obstacles. Points are lost for collisions with each obstacle. • A maze while being timed. Points are won/lost on the times achieved.
What allows an arch bridge to span greater distances than a beam bridge, or a suspension bridge to stretch over a distance seven times that of an arch bridge? The answer lies in how each bridge type deals with the important forces of compression and tension. We thought you might like to hear a bit more about how these structures work... then we thought you might even have a go... bring a friend.... challenge a friend... to destruction!
The Challenge • • • • •
Take 207 pieces of plastic Choose your design, you’ve got 2 hours Make it span 50 cm Build it high .... let’s say 30 cm Test to DESTRUCTION!
HEXBUG MANIA • Use the Hexbug Nano and Lego supplied and measure how the Hexbug behaves. • Use these results to determine how long it should take to navigate a small maze provided.
Engineers Week 2012 flyer.indd 2
PROJECTILES Each team is to investigate the effect of angle on the range of the projectile fired from a Nerf gun. Extra points will be awarded to those teams that can estimate the velocity of the projectile.
22/02/2012 13:17
BATS
BUGS, BIRDS AND PROJECTILES
If you're going to build a bridge, you'll need some help from BATS – not the furry, winged mammals that so often live beneath bridges, but the key structural components of bridge construction: beams, arches, trusses and suspensions.
One of the major challenges facing engineering education today is to make it interesting to an ever more demanding student population. With the proliferation of electronic entertainment devices, it is necessary to embrace new technologies in the teaching of basic skills such as mathematics, physics, software development, etc.
The Basics of Bridge Design
Various combinations of these four technologies allow for numerous bridge designs ranging from simple beam bridges, arch bridges, truss bridges and suspension bridges to more complex variations, such as the side-spar cable-stayed bridge. For all its 21st century complexity, the side-spar design is based on suspension principles first used some two centuries earlier.
To this end, we present a collection of three challenges to students.
EYE-HAND COORDINATION Each team member is to use the Xbox 360 Controller to navigate a Finch Robot around • A number of obstacles. Points are lost for collisions with each obstacle. • A maze while being timed. Points are won/lost on the times achieved.
What allows an arch bridge to span greater distances than a beam bridge, or a suspension bridge to stretch over a distance seven times that of an arch bridge? The answer lies in how each bridge type deals with the important forces of compression and tension. We thought you might like to hear a bit more about how these structures work... then we thought you might even have a go... bring a friend.... challenge a friend... to destruction!
The Challenge • • • • •
Take 207 pieces of plastic Choose your design, you’ve got 2 hours Make it span 50 cm Build it high .... let’s say 30 cm Test to DESTRUCTION!
HEXBUG MANIA • Use the Hexbug Nano and Lego supplied and measure how the Hexbug behaves. • Use these results to determine how long it should take to navigate a small maze provided.
Engineers Week 2012 flyer.indd 2
PROJECTILES Each team is to investigate the effect of angle on the range of the projectile fired from a Nerf gun. Extra points will be awarded to those teams that can estimate the velocity of the projectile.
22/02/2012 13:11
@ Friday 2 March 2012 AIT is running two exciting competitions on Friday 2 March for Engineers Week 2012 and we would like your school to participate. Schools are invited to enter one or two teams of 4 students each from either transition year or fifth year. The competitions are as follows: • BATS (beams, arches, trusses and suspensions) • Bugs, Birds and Projectiles: Further details of both competitions are contained inside this brochure
SCHEDULE 9.30
Students arrive to the Engineering and Informatics Building
9.40-10.30
Overview of the competition and project guidance
10.30-11.00
Students given project assignments and equipment
11.00-1.00
Completion of projects
1.00-1.30
Judging of projects
1.30-2.10 Lunch 2.10-2.40
Presentation of prizes
2.40
Depart AIT
HOW TO ENTER
Places are strictly limited to ten teams per competition, so please register your team(s) asap. Contact Annette Buckley abuckley@ait.ie
090 647 1883
Athlone Institute of Technology
Friday 2 March 2012
Engineers Week 2012 flyer.indd 1
22/02/2012 13:11