The pipeline of future submariners in Australia appears to be healthy if the 2018 SUBS in Schools National Final is any guide.
The outright winner of the 2018 final, which was held in Sydney last month, was a team named “Propulsion” from Brighton Secondary School in Adelaide.
Members of the winning team were Sami Madlur (who looked after industry collaboration and marketing for the team), Brooke Jones (electrical engineer), Nicholas Walker (submarine engineer) and Hunter McFarlane (team manager).
The entire competition ran over many months and involved school teams from across Australia designing, building and demonstrating a 1m long model submarine.
Teams drove and manoeuvred the model submarines around an under-water course in a swimming pool.
The judges of the competition assessed the full spectrum of business activities associated with such submarines as if they were real, including ideas for design, product marketing and the ability to present what the model submarine does.
State/territory-level competitions were held prior, to determine which teams competed in the national final.
In addition to being the outright winner, “Propulsion” also won the following awards:
- Best Team Marketing;
- Outstanding Industry Collaboration Award;
- Best Application of Computer Aided Design;
- Innovation Award;
- Best Graphic Design;
- Best Manufactured Submarine;
- Best Engineered Submarine; and
- Best Team Verbal Presentation.
The SUBS in Schools competition is an extremely valuable initiative in promoting careers in submarines and industries which help support submarines.
SUBS in Schools is an initiative of the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation, of which the Submarine Institute of Australia (SIA) is a gold sponsor and members of the SIA assisted with judging for the final.
