Lucendi team posing with the Mercedes-Benz Malaysia president and chief executive officer Dr Claus Weidner (right).
KUALA LUMPUR: Garden International school (GIS) teams claimed the top three places in this year’s F1 in Schools Challenge which was held at GIS premises here recently.
GIS’ five teams – Lucendi, Flash, Apeiros, Pulse and Expedite, alongside three teams from Sri KDU International School, Nexus International School and Australian International School Malaysia raced their respective CO2-powered Formula 1 racing cars along a 20-metre track at the school’s foyer, according to a media release yesterday.
“GIS’ team Flash and Apeiros won second and third place respectively, while designer of the fastest car, team Lucendi won first place with a race time of 1.182 seconds, setting a new F1 in Schools (SEAIS) record and qualifying them to compete abroad in the World Finals next year.”
The teams were responsible for holistic aspects from the designing to the making of their racing cars as well as marketing their respective team and product.
The GIS teams prepared for six months prior to the competition with funds from sponsors like Mercedes Benz, and had announced that they would be donating the remainder of the sponsorship funds to Make-A-Wish Malaysia.
This year’s competition was adjudicated by six representatives from F1 in Schools Malaysia, Epsom College and GIS.
Besides the speed of their respective race cars, the teams were also judged based on their overall product design both visually and technically, portfolio, verbal presentation, pit display and marketing strategy.
Among the categories GIS teams won were Best Portfolio, which was won by team Apeiros and Best Verbal Presentation, won by team Pulse.
“What a fantastic day it was, and a real testament to the hard work all students have been putting in over the last few months,” Ryan Ball, head of Design and Technology GIS was quoted as saying.
“The skills and knowledge of the students have increased massively throughout this process, in a range of areas; not only engineering, design and manufacturing skills but also creativity, teamwork and perseverance.
“It was great to celebrate their successes and we look forward to working with Lucendi further in their preparation for the World Finals 2018,” added Ball.