Engineering students sweet on CRL visit
July was a busy month for City Rail Link in terms of educational visits, with one engineering exercise rendering some students well and truly stuck.
A group about 40 high school calculus students on an engineering “boot camp” were given an introduction into CRL, then were asked to impress us with their engineering skills.
The task was simple; in teams, build a marshmallow as high as they could off a desk only using a handful of dried spaghetti pasta sticks and cellotape. There was a 5-minute design phase where no ‘building’ was to take place, then the groups had half an hour to construct their creations.
The tallest structure came in at 1.2 metres but unfortunately, it didn’t stand the test of time. It collapsed before judging could take place – imparting a valuable lesson of future-proofing designs so that they stand the test of time.
The winning structure therefore defaulted to the next tallest tower, coming in at a structurally-sound 1.03 metres. The team said cellotaping the structure to the table made for strong foundations and definitely gave them a competitive edge, while the amount of left-over pasta equaled great cost savings in the long run.
The shorter structures, although vertically challenged, were commended for smaller ecological footprint or sticking to the design.
The students were then given a quick presentation of the Mt Eden Station works and taken on a tour of the site.
The engineering boot camp, called the Apollo Programme, was organised by the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering - as a way to show year 13 students that are interested in the career path, what it’s like in the real world.
The faculty’s Steve Roberts said, “The important part for us is making sure we connect the practical with the theoretical. These students do math at their high schools but don’t really know much about the subject’s real-life application.”
“Today went great, coming down and getting to see what calculus and complex equations look like in real-life is massively important for these students.”
CRL also welcomed Auckland Council’s engineering graduates and colleagues to tour the twin tunnels underneath Lower Queen Street. They found the tour very interesting and were impressed by the tunnel construction to date.
A graduate engineer thanked CRL for the opportunity to see how this “amazing” project was helping Auckland become a world class city.
He said, “It was indeed a great tour with CRL, also it helped us to understand some interesting things and facts about the project.”