Tomorrow's engineers exhibit at Showgrounds

Demonstrating the self-balancing unicycle
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Monday, 25 October 2010

Our future engineers will showcase projects including a self-balancing unicycle, a robotic 'graffiti' artist and a wind turbine for urban environments in a public exhibition, MechExpo 2010, at the Adelaide Showground's Goyder Pavilion this week.

The University of Adelaide's School of Mechanical Engineering is holding its 16th Annual Student Project Exhibition with more than 60 innovative final-year student projects on display. It will be open to the public 7-9pm Tuesday 26 October and 9am-4pm Wednesday 27 October.

"The exhibition has evolved into a celebration of ideas, innovation and engineering talent with great support from industry and government," said Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Professor Bassam Dally. "The exhibition also attracts many high school students, teachers and the general public.

"It gives our students an opportunity to both develop their presentation skills and to show and explain their ideas to potential employers, schoolchildren and the public.

"The staff are very proud of the annual exhibition. It demonstrates the skills level and breadth of talent of their graduating students, and the hard work that has gone towards solving real engineering challenges facing our society. A significant theme in many projects is our future sustainability."

Associate Professor Dally said that in the past some of these student projects have led to patentable systems.

Other projects at this year's exhibition include: autonomous flying quadcopter maritime robots that may have application in search and rescue; a solar thermal air conditioner powered by the hot conditions it is needed for; using wind energy for desalination and harvesting water out of air; and motorbikes fuelled by a variety of energy sources.

A range of prizes will be awarded to the best student projects after the public exhibition on Wednesday.

The MechExpo exhibition is free and open to the public. There is free car and bus parking off Rose Terrace and a shuttle bus from the University of Adelaide.

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