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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-27 Daily Xml
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COLD FUSION AUSTRALIA

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (15:34): I rise today to acknowledge the extraordinary achievements of a group of Brighton High School students. Jane Burton, Jake Grant, Spencer Olds, Michelle Lennon, Henry Lynch and Tom Agars are Cold Fusion Australia. These six amazing young people represented their school, their state and their country in the largest school-based technology challenge in the world, and emerged as world champions.

Operating in around 20 countries, the F1 in Schools Program was designed by a commercial racing team to spot the best young school-aged engineers. Well over 500,000 students globally competed for a chance to win the Bernie Ecclestone Trophy, and to represent their respective countries.

The competition requires teams to cover all facets of engineering a vehicle from the ground up. Teams must design, test, make and race a prototype F1 car, powered by a CO2 cannister, down a 20-metre track, as well as to provide marketing materials and collaborate with industry. Necessary skills include the ability to use computer-aided design and manufacturing tools, virtual wind tunnel testing, artistic design, marketing and corporate sponsorship, and create a full portfolio presentation to sell the product. The team also undertakes advanced graphics, testing and analysis of computational fluid dynamics data, team management, design of display booths and competition uniforms, and writing NC code to drive a fourth axis milling machine to manufacture the prototype F1 cars. Simply amazing, isn't it?

The competition progresses from regional and state levels to national and international competitions. Cold Fusion first appeared in the national competition back in 2008 and has made it to the nationals ever since. This year, it became the first team from South Australia to make it through to the international competition.

The national competition saw Cold Fusion compete against 23 other schools and defeat some highly fancied and heavily financed opponents from all over Australia. After winning the national competition, the team went on to compete in the international competition against 21 countries and 32 teams from around the world, including teams from Germany, the USA, Britain, Canada, Malaysia and Ireland.

On 31 October, Cold Fusion was crowned F1 in Schools world champions at the eighth world championships held at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. As well as the prestigious Bernie Ecclestone Trophy, the team also receives Motorsport and automotive engineering scholarships from the City University in London. Cold Fusion was presented with its trophy by Force India F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg, and founder and chairman of F1 in Schools, Andrew Denford.

While in Abu Dhabi, team members met Ferrari drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and visited the F1 paddock just before the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where they mingled with more drivers and teams from Formula 1 motorsport.

Cold Fusion impressed all the judges with the engineering of its car, the depth of its research and its innovative design. Incredibly, Cold Fusion's car was found to have incorporated a feature that appears in the Red Bull real F1 racing vehicle—the students having no idea of this beforehand. That gives you some idea of the talent of this home-grown team.

Cold Fusion not only the world champion crown, but also took out the Fastest Car Award with a time of 1.045 seconds, won the Best Engineered Car Award, and the Knockout Racing Competition. For someone like me, who has a background in car manufacturing and is a motorsport enthusiast, it is little wonder I am excited about the team's success.

It is fantastic that our young people have an opportunity to be involved in programs such as this. It is also something my generation would not have even dreamed of. I am immensely proud because these amazing young people have learned their skills at a public high school—Brighton High, where my own kids attend. I would also like to acknowledge the Brighton High School staff who have supported them: Stephen Read and Lynlee Graham.

If any of my colleagues would like to offer their congratulations, the team will be visiting Parliament House this evening for a tour and dinner. I pay tribute to their success, and I am certain it is just the beginning for these young adults.

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