Design and Build Competitions
Our school design-and-build competitions provide a fantastic opportunity to apply and expand your engineering skills and meet new people in the field.
You have two fun competitions on offer—one during Orientation Week (O'Week), and the other in second-year of your undergraduate mechanical engineering degree. Participation in the first is voluntary.
Orientation week
Our optional Orientation Week design-and-build competition gives you a wonderful way to transition into university. You’ll make new friends, meet our staff and refine teamwork and problem-solving skills that will serve you well throughout your degree and beyond.
Each year we offer a stimulating new brief for students to fulfil. In previous years, students have designed and built contraptions like a vehicle that can transport uncooked eggs, and a launch device to play a game of ten pin bowling.
Groups are formed and provided with their design task on the Monday. Students attend one lecture on teamwork during the week, and a workshop on the Wednesday that sets out how to write a brief report. Teams then present their submissions on the Friday on the Walter Young Gardens lawns (see North Terrace campus map), with BBQ lunch provided.
WARMAN design and build competition
During second-year you’ll participate in the annual WARMAN Design and Build Competition as part of your undergraduate studies. Your mission will be to design and build a prototype autonomous device to perform specific tasks on a competition track.
Sponsored by Weir Minerals Australia and organised by Engineers Australia, the WARMAN Design and Build Competition has been running for 30 years. It involves around 2000 students from up to 20 universities across Australia and New Zealand.
Competition heats are held as part of the MECH ENG 2100 Design Practice course, with winners attending the national final in Sydney. We have a proud history in this competition—our teams won the national finals in 1997 and 2008, came second in 2009 and third in 2017.
Find out more about this year’s Warman Design and Build Competition.
The WARMAN competition was a big learning experience for me, in terms of skills and academic knowledge gained but also about my personal interests, and ability learn from and overcome failures in a pressured environment. Despite unexpected issues arising, the team's communication, teamwork, resolve and ability to systematically solve problems meant we could overcome these, resulting in a successful third place finish.
Thomas Jacquier
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Mechatronics) with Bachelor of Computer Science