T here over 315 teams currently entered in the various categories of this years RACV Energy Breakthrough. 2006 sees a change to the way we manage entries by accept- ing more entries than the quota for some categories. This approach reduces the waiting list and gives more teams a chance to be part of the action in November. There are still places avail- able in the Innovations in Technology. Teams Are Getting Ready Entries, Hybrids 1-2 Musings, Formula SAE 3 Innovations; Waste Wise 4 Wonthaggi, Tasmania 5 Casey, Maroondah events 6 2005 Feedback 7-8 Hybrid seminar 9 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Highlights • Tryathlon popular • Hybrids • Wonthaggi, Casey, Tasmanian and Maroondah Events • Your feedback from 2005 EBT • State Election To date we have received and accepted the following entries: Human Powered Events 2006/2007 ♦ Maroondah ♦ Maryborough Qld ♦ Murray Bridge SA ♦ Maryborough Vic –RACV Energy Breakthrough ♦ Wonthaggi ♦ Salamanca (Tas) ♦ Casey July 2006 Newsletter 1 Category Quota Accepted Entries Waiting List Pushcarts PC1 PC2 Total 70 29 45 74 Nil HPVA Section 1 Section 2 Total 60 24 46 70 Nil HPV B C Open Total 90 47 23 20 90 3 4 Hybrid Section 1 Section 2 Total 40 23 8 31 Nil Tryathlon Primary Secondary B/C Secondary OPEN Total 9 12 12 33 Nil Innovations in Technology Crafty Design (Primary) Moving Water (Prim & Sec) Total NA 19 2 21 Nil
Transcript
T here over 315 teams currently entered in
the various categories of this years RACV Energy Breakthrough. 2006 sees a change to the way we
manage entries by accept-ing more entries than the quota for some categories. This approach reduces the waiting list and gives more teams a chance to be part
of the action in November. There are still places avail-able in the Innovations in Technology.
Teams Are Getting Ready
Entries, Hybrids 1-2
Musings, Formula SAE 3
Innovations; Waste Wise 4
Wonthaggi, Tasmania 5
Casey, Maroondah events 6
2005 Feedback 7-8
Hybrid seminar 9
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Highlights
• Tryathlon popular
• Hybrids
• Wonthaggi, Casey, Tasmanian and Maroondah Events
• Your feedback from 2005 EBT
• State Election
To date we have received and accepted the following entries:
Nil Tryathlon Primary Secondary B/C Secondary OPEN Total
9 12 12 33
Nil Innovations in Technology Crafty Design (Primary) Moving Water (Prim & Sec) Total
NA
19 2 21
Nil
highlighted the opportuni-ties that are available to the students involved in the RACV Energy Break-through. The two guest speakers were Matt Lavric and Chris Jones. Both Chris and Matt are students from Swinburne and members of the Swinburne Formula SAE team. Chris and Matt spoke about their educa-tion and how their in-volvement in the Industry Based Learning program at HOLDEN had provided them without outstanding opportunities to develop their skills and shape their career path. The day was an out-standing success and there was some excellent shar-ing of expertise and ex-periences. We are very grateful for the support of our guest speakers and presenters and in particular to staff from the Swin-burne University of Tech-nology.
All teams are busy work-ing on their entries and preparing for November. This is a busy time as teams work to complete the design and construc-tion on their vehicles. We have a number of new schools entered this year and the numbers of teams from outside Victoria re-mains high.
P A G E 2
Teams Are Getting Ready (Ctd)
E N E R G Y B R E A KTH R O U GH N E W S JU L Y 20 0 6
A nother very success-ful Hybrid Seminar
was held in conjunction with the Swinburne Uni-versity of Technology, Holden and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Over 50 teachers, parents and students from teams entered in the Hy-brid category attended the seminar.
The two key objectives of the seminar were to:
• Provide links to indus-try based expertise that can assist schools in preparing a Hybrid en-try, and
• Make students more aware of the potential career pathways that link to the Energy Breakthrough.
Both of these objectives were very successfully achieved and the contribu-tions of Team Swinburne
The Try-athlon category is proving to be a very popu-lar place for schools to start their involvement in the ‘Breakthrough’ and this year we have 33 teams entered. For full Entry lists, head to: www.racvenergybreakthrough.net/entries.shtml
Successful Hybrid Seminar
“… The day was an outstanding success and there was some excellent sharing of expertise and experiences …”
J U L Y 20 0 6
W ith entries nearing record levels again,
and plans for further capi-tal works at the RACV Energy Breakthrough site, 2006 is shaping up as the biggest and best again. Car parking and traffic management was greatly improved in 2005, but the Local Planning Committee would like this aspect of the event to be even better in 2006. All teams should remember that there is only one vehicle pass per team for a vehi-cle to park inside the RACV Energy Break-through site, all other vehicles will need to park in close proximity to the site in the designated car parks. It must be remembered that car parking, like many
of the aspects of the event, is managed by a voluntary community organisation. The Maryborough Cara-van Park, which is pre-dominantly utilised by the
primary schools, made a ruling that there were to be
no vehicle parking inside the “caravan park” in 2005. The Maryborough Caravan Park is a privately managed facility, and as such they control all park-ing inside the “caravan park” themselves. The RACV Energy Break-through Local Planning Committee will be liaising with the management of the Maryborough Caravan Park regarding vehicle parking and camping
P A G E 3
MARTY’S MUSINGS
again in 2006, but if man-agement decide there will be no vehicle parking in-side the “caravan park”, then the passes the “committee” provides will not override “management’s” decision, and all vehicles will need to be parked on the adjoin-ing roads as directed. Maryborough is still in a period of major drought, with water supplies at an all time low, and as such the community of Mary-borough asks all its guests, the participants in the RACV Energy Break-through, to be “waterwise”. Please use water wisely when show-ering, and limit the length of your shower times at the event.
Power again will be for lighting only on the camp-ing areas, so please plan ahead. Gas fired cooking facilities are the popular choice for the majority of campers, and the use of battery powered appli-ances a necessity to ensure there is electrical power for all at all times. The Central Goldfields Shire community, and especially the community of Maryborough, look forward to providing friendly country hospital-ity for all the participating teams again in 2006. Let the energy be yours in 2006, Martin Mark
RMIT Formula SAE Success The Society of Automo-tive Engineers, Austral-asian division is a sponsor of the RACV Energy Breakthrough and Dean has likened the Formula to ‘the Energy Breakthrough for Universities’.
Similar to the RACV EB, teams are judged over a range of disciplines – not just their on-track per-formance. The point system encom-passes: Cost score (Out of 100) [In Detroit, RMIT scored 84.767]
Presentation score (75) [RMIT: 65.967] Design score (150): [RMIT:130] Acceleration score (75): [RMIT: 58.505] Skid Pad score (50): [RMIT: 25.128] Autocross score (150): [RMIT: 123.323] Endurance Economy score (400): [RMIT: 400] RMIT’s total score was 887.869, with Penn State University second on 785.98 points and third place went to the Univer-sity of Michigan-Ann Ar-bor on 759.35. For more info, check out RMIT Racing's Website: http://www.fsae.rmit.edu.au/ or find out more about FSAE Australia: http://www.sae-a.com.au/
Dean Cowling is pictured here providing a tour of RMIT’s FSAE workshop to an Energy Breakthrough group from Bendigo and Bendigo Youth Racing ear-lier this year.
“...RMIT Racing has won the 2006 Detroit FSAE Cup…”
F ormer RACV Energy Breakthrough partici-
pant, Dean Cowling has led RMIT Racing's For-mula SAE team to success in the United States! RMIT Racing has won the 2006 Detroit FSAE Cup, held on May 20 and 21. Dean has been the Team Leader of RMIT for the past 18 months and par-ticipated in the RACV Energy Breakthrough be-tween 1997 and 2001. RMIT had a frantic race build-up as they blew-up and rebuilt an engine in the lead-up to the event. They eventually finished 100 points clear of second in a field of 140 teams! The Cup is now back at RMIT as the core team of four prepare for the Cali-fornian leg of their tour, to be held on June 17.
P A G E 4 E N E R G Y B R E A KTH R O U GH N E W S JU L Y 20 0 6
support for these initia-tives.
assistance with recycling and litter minimization at Maryborough in 2006. The target for 2006 is a diversion rate of 60%. This will be achieved by the provision of more cage trailers for the col-lection of recyclables in-cluding cardboard and large water bottles at even more convenient locations and by your continued
RACV Energy Breakthrough – Waste Wise in Maryborough ‘06 WASTE WISE CAN ONLY GET BETTER
A t the 2005 Break-through excellent
recycling results were achieved with a 41.4% diversion of waste from landfill. For those of you who helped us achieve these results thankyou, to new HPVers and your families and support crews we look forward to your
might coax them to do so. Maryborough teams pres-ently outnumber other teams. Great support from the Maryborough Education Centre and St Augustine's - thank you; also thanks
too for early entries from Hillsmeade and Beacons-field Upper.
Perhaps teams are waiting for the winter break to finalise their arrange-ments; please send them in as soon as possible to secure your place in the event. Where are you? ... Avoca,
Bairnsdale (yes, I know it's a long way to travel, but we love to see you), Newstead and Tyabb, Keysbor-ough, Sandringham East, Strathfieldsaye, Moorooduc, Derinya, Glendal, Hallam Val-ley . . . Enjoy the school holi-
days. Tricia Walsh Convenor
Innovations in Technology (Proudly sponsored by CENTRAL HIGHLANDS WATER)
Y ou are all probably busy collecting ma-
terials (lego blocks, bot-tles, props, boogyboard, perspex) to recycle into your craft and model; checking for design ideas (solar, air or other power, which macro inverte-brate/water catch-ment?, colours and style ) and planning your uniform. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the task as much as your teach-ers do. Entries are low for end of Term 2 - a bit like our catchment areas! So if you know of a school which has not entered you
Remember – Innovations in Technology (Crafty Design and Moving Water) section is open to and will welcome entries from Secondary schools.
J U L Y 20 0 6 P A G E 5
T here were 68 team entries in the
Wonthaggi Human Pow-ered Grand Prix held over the weekend of February 25-26. Many of the school entries were participants in Maryborough in Novem-ber. The entries included 21 Community class teams, resulting in a hotly contested race in this class. Many community class team members were ex-Energy Breakthrough par-ticipants from past years.
As is often the case with these events, rain inter-vened with heavy rain keeping the track wet for several hours and making racing hazardous. Bendigo Youth Racing (BYR), a community class entrant, led the event from start to finish in ‘BYR03’, crossing the line 3 laps ahead of Trisleds ‘The Apex’.
Of the school teams, Ber-wick’s ‘Firetruck’ finished
Wonthaggi 2006 first ahead of Weeroona College’s ‘Fill’. School-based division winners were Maiden Gully PS,
Flora Hill SC, Mt Eliza SC and Berwick SC.
Tasmania 2006 6 students by having a primary division next year. The RACT have joined the event in 2006 after seeing the involvement of the RACV at the Energy Breakthrough in Marybor-ough. Rosny College which has competed at Maryborough was promi-nent at the presentations, winning two of the divi-sions.
The Challenge is held on a tight and twisty course 800m long. This year a wet track from a down-pour before the start made racing difficult. The organisers are plan-ning visits to Victorian and South Australian events to get ideas to im-prove in the Tasmanian event in 2007. It is pro-posed that the event be opened up to Grade 5 and
T he second Tasmanian HPV event, the
RACT Insurance Chal-lenge was held on April 30, 2006. The Challenge is held as a 6-hour race and had 17 teams partici-pating, including one in-terstate entry from St Pats in Warragul, Victoria. A number of Victorian schools visited this year with a view to entering the event in 2007.
P A G E 6 E N E R G Y B R E A KTH R O U GH N E W S JU L Y 20 0 6
lowed unlimited riders and some teams opting for a change of rider every lap. Beaconsfield PS vehicle ‘The Incredibles’ won the Grade 6 event from two HPVs from Upper Bea-consfield. Berwick PS was successful in the Grade 5 event. The secondary and com-munity entrants raced to-gether with a total of 34
HPVs lining up at the start. The outright winner was the community vehi-cle ‘Tru Blu’, two laps ahead of the Senior Secon-dary entrant ‘Firetruck’ which raced well at Mary-borough last November. Weeroona College’s ‘Rocky’ was third outright and 2nd in the Senior Sec-ondary category, followed closely by XLR8 from Padua College and ‘Reloaded’ from Weer-
oona SC. The Junior Sec-ondary event was won by Weeroona SC in ‘Bee Bee’ from ‘Chucky’ from Padua and “junior Wizard’ from Wonthaggi SC. The Festival also offered a girls only class for secon-dary students and this was won by St Margarets (‘Something Blonde’) from Weeroona SC (‘Fill’) and Wonthaggi SC (‘Girls Wizard’).
Casey-Cardinia 2006 HPV Event
T he second Casey-Cardinia Cycling
Festival was held recently at the new Casey Fields precinct in cold and damp conditions. The primary HPV event was held on a 600m loop while the Sec-ondary and Community teams raced on a 1600m track. The Primary event ran for 3.5 hours with teams al-
schools to participate to test machines and riders.
In a very strong showing Weeroona College from Bendigo won the event outright with ‘Reloaded’ ahead of several HPV Community entries. Weeroona College was dominant with victories in HPV Primary with ‘Bee Bee’ and first and second places in Hybrids with ‘eMax’ and ‘PJ2’.
T he Maroondah Grand Prix was held in Sep-
tember 2005 on a 900m circuit at the Metropolitan Traffic Education Centre in Kilsyth. The 2005 event attracted 39 entries comprising Community, Hybrid, Secondary HPV and Primary HPV teams. Many schools see this event as a good lead-up to the RACV Energy Break-through at Maryborough in November. Schools are able to get in valuable practice and sort out any problems with their vehi-cles prior to the 24-hour trial at Maryborough. The organisers have promoted the Maroondah Grand Prix in this way, inviting
The 2005 Maroondah Grand Prix
Chucky and Reloaded in close company Firestorm from Berwick Secondary College
...a good lead-up to the RACV Energy Breakthrough at Maryborough in November…
of communication for the Energy Breakthrough organisers and partici-pants. The areas of Administration & Regis-tration; Communication; Camping; Waste Management and Security were all rated ‘Good’ to ‘Very Good’. Over the past few years, the Registra-tion process has been streamlined and there were a number of positive com-ments relating to the volunteers who man the admin desk throughout the weekend. Communication between the schools and the organisers has also been re-fined – with the CD handbooks and the paperwork becoming more suc-cinct and accessible. Waste Management is always a diffi-cult area for an event which spreads over 5 days and a couple of square kilometres. 30% rated the Waste Management as Very Good; 48.3% Good and only 1.7% considered it Not Good. The Planning Committee introduced compactors and recycling cages for 2005 and this system actu-ally worked extremely well. These are the things that people don’t notice (that’s how it should be, really) but in fact around 15.5 tonnes of waste is managed during the Energy Break-through! The worst time – as noted by many of the survey participants – is on Sunday afternoon, when 10,000 people up and leave within four hours and leave everything they don’t want. Rosemary Angus of the Planning Committee will continue her work in refining our Waste Management processes.
Security was also well regarded by the participants - although there was a small number of items stolen and a number of disturbances reported on Thursday evening. These reports reit-erate the need for people to secure all items and keep an eye on their camp-ing area during the Energy Break-
J U L Y 20 0 6
F or the first time in Energy Break-through history, feedback was
conducted online for two weeks after the 2005 event. Open to students, teachers, team managers, pit crew and parents, the feedback survey took around 10 minutes to complete and attracted 60 participants from 40 dif-ferent schools. Competitors and Team Managers were predominant participants and were involved in every category ex-cept Innovations in Technology. The feedback channel will be operat-ing again after this year’s event and the Planning Committee would love over 100 people to participate. The results of the survey highlighted a number of areas where refinement is needed for the event to continue to be the success it is. For full results from the Feedback s u r v e y , g o t o : www.racvenergybreakthrough.net/feedback05.shtml Here we look at the key findings: Camping was considered excellent across the site – in the caravan park, hockey field, Princes Park and Jubi-lee Oval.
The Website was the most highly rated category from the feedback, with 63% rating the site as Very Good. The site moved to Bendigo IT in April 2005 and is now managed by the Planning Committee. This will continue to become an important tool
P A G E 7
Feedback From RACV Energy Breakthrough 2005 through. The Planning Committee will continue to work with local Po-lice and security teams to ensure safety for all at the Breakthrough site. The accuracy of the scrutineering process was considered ‘Spot-On’ although some also considered it ‘Harsh, but Fair’.
As many of you may have noticed – Scrutineering times will be allocated for teams in 2006. This will vastly reduce waiting times for all teams and improve conditions for RACV Technicians and teams. Queues of up to three hours in 2005 kept students hot, hungry and tired and the survey responses highlighted the discomfort felt by students and team managers.
Judging – as always – received mixed responses from participants across the categories. The Chief Judges for Dis-
play & Presentation complete a rigorous process in an attempt to create a level playing field for all teams. Despite improve-ments to the judging in the Handbook, many teams appear to have failed to recognise that the purpose of the Display & Presentation component is for
students to demonstrate what they have learnt through the Energy Breakthrough program. There were many requests for feed-back in both areas of judging. Quali-tative responses ranged from ‘we were totally bamboozled by the re-sults’ and ‘these areas need a total
Website
63.3%
26.7%
6.7% 3.3%
Very Good
Good
Okay
Not Good
Sit e C leaning / W ast e
30.0%
48.3%
18.3%
1.7%
0.0%
10.0%20.0%
30.0%
40.0%50.0%
60.0%
Ver y Good Good Okay Not Good
Scrutineering - Secondary HPVs14 %
34 %37 %
6%9 %
Too Harsh
Harsh, But Fair
Fair (Spot On)
Too Lenient
Way Too Lenient
33.3% 38.3%
21.7%
5.0%
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
Very Good Good Okay Not Good Poor
Camping
Judgi ng - Bot h Desi gn and Di spl ay
14
23
14
6
3
0 5 10 15 2 0 2 5
Ver y Good
Good
Okay
Not Good
Poor
P A G E 8 E N E R G Y B R E A KTH R O U GH N E W S JU L Y 20 0 6
ered by D-Link and managed by RaceTime Computing – were praised by those who used it. This is quickly becoming an essential part of check-ing results at the event.
The toilets and showers are a key area for improvement in 2006. Survey participants were gener-ally very negative about this as-pect of the event. The cleaning team will be cleaning around the clock throughout the event. Modi-fications to the grandstand ameni-
ties will see cleanliness and privacy improved.
The set-up of the track was another area where views differed – although the positioning of lights on corners will be addressed for this years event.
The changes to the RACV Track drew wide criticism. On a lighter note, those who heard Australian rockers ‘KissChasey’ and others in the FReeZA Battle of the Bands on Friday night were most im-pressed. This event is pencilled in for a return in 2006.
The parking system definitely settled down in 2005 and will be refined further for 2006. The online feedback mechanism will be operating after EB06 through the website:
www.racvenergybreakthrough.net – so remember to log on and have your voice heard.
Feedback EBT 2005 (continued) rethink’ to ‘excellent’ and ‘a good system. The survey results showed 23.3% believed the judging was Very Good; 38.3% Good; 23.3% Okay; 10% Not Good; and 5% Poor. This was the second widest spread of results after the Toilets and Showers and work will continue to improve the trans-parency and communications sur-rounding the Judging process.
The Results were blasted for being slow to reach the website, although most survey participants recognised that the physical presentations at the event are happening as quickly as they can. The presenting line-up may be changed in 2006 and provi-sional results are likely to go online before the Sunday night. The on-site wireless results – pow-
Results
9
28
16
5 205
1015202530
Very Good Good Okay Not Good Poor
Toilets / Showers
8.3%31.7%
41.7%6.7%
10.0%
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0%
Poor
Not Good
Okay
Good
Very Good
Track Set-up
0
5
10
15
20
Very Good Good Okay Not Good
Parking
Good, 3 3 %
Okay, 4 7%
Poor, 3 % N ot Good, 7%
V ery Good, 10 %
1. Andrew Coston (SAE) and Arnie Verjins (Holden) discuss Swinburne’s Formula SAE vehicle with students.
2. John Taylor from Weerona SC with the pet-rol-electric hybrid PJ2.
3. Chris Jones (RACV). 4. Robert Smillie (Swinburne) and Stawell
students at wind tunnel simulation. 5. Chris Jones & Matt Lavanic (Swinburne and
Holden). 6. Interest was high in PJ2 and Swinburne’s
Formula SAE car. 7. Josh Pell (Energy Breakthrough).
J U L Y 20 0 6 P A G E 9
There were six workshops offered, with participants able to attend three of these. Each school group was split into two teams so the six workshops were covered. Engine Efficiency Andrew Coston, Swin-burne Formula SAE team, Arne Verjins, Holden Aus-tralia Aerodynamics Robert Smillie, Swinburne University Centre of New Manufacturing Project Management & Sponsorship Tim Newton, Swinburne Electrical Systems Scott Dickerson, Electrical Vehicle Pty Ltd, John Tay-lor, Technology Teacher at Weeroona SC. Environment Chris Jones, RACV Materials Engineering Josh Pell, Energy Break-through. After lunch Formula SAE was highlighted in a pres-entation by Erin Heasman from Society of Automa-tive Engineers (SAE-A). A number of past Energy
Breakthrough participants have moved into Formula SAE since entering tertiary engineering courses. The day concluded with a panel discussion with op-portunity for questions and answers. Participating schools judged the day as
Swinburne Hosts Hybrid Seminar
O nce again the RACV Energy Break-
through, in conjunction with Holden and Swin-burne University of Tech-nology, has conducted a Hybrid Seminar for schools who are entered in this category or who are interested in putting in a hybrid entry in the future. The seminar was held on May 4 at Swinburne Uni-versity of Technology, Hawthorn and attracted over 50 participants. As well as assisting with ideas to help in the preparation of a competitive hybrid vehicle, the seminar also expanded schools’ hori-zons regarding technology available and provided opportunities to forge links with related industries. Guest speakers were Matt Lavanac and Chris Jones who are part of Team Swinburne (Formula SAE) and have involvement in industry based learning with Holden. They spoke on getting involved in engineering projects and careers.
very successful. The RACV Energy Break-through appreciates the support given to the day by guest speakers and pre-senters, particularly those associated with Swinburne University of Technology.
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"It's more than an event, it's a new way of learning"
the last Saturday in No-vember. The elections are independently conducted by the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC). The next State election will be held on Saturday, 25 No-vember 2006. This hap-pens to coincide with the 2006 RACV Energy Breakthrough in Marybor-ough. It is anticipated with around 20 000 visi-tors to Maryborough for the Breakthrough that vot-ing is going to be an issue
for many of them. Ways to vote at State elections
At a voting centre on Election Day: This would be the ‘normal’ method of voting for the majority of Victorians. However most visitors would have to vote ‘absentee’ because the voting centre in Marybor-ough would not be sup-plied with ballot papers for electorates other than the local one. It is anticipated that the VEC may put in
State elections 2006 – clash with RACV Energy Breakthrough
place an arrangement to streamline this process.
Other options
Early voting: You can vote before Election Day by visiting an early voting centre. The locations will be advertised at the time of the election.
Voting by post: If you cannot vote in person, you can apply for a postal vote. Applications will be avail-able from the VEC and from post offices closer to Election Day.
