Toy Design Competition 2015 (Automata Category)

The annual Toy Design Competition is organized by Singapore Polytechnic’s School of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering and jointly sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Singapore (Sales) Pte Ltd and Autodesk Pte Ltd.

In this competition that is open to all secondary school students in Singapore, participants were required to design and construct Automata toys, consisting of cams, pulleys, gears, linkages, belts and pulleys, ratchets mechanisms.

With functionality, model quality, originality and creativity taking up the most percentage of the judging criteria, Henderson’s entries are of high standards and quality since participating in this annual competition in 2011. This is supported with the positive feedback and reviews from Mr Choy Fook Seng, the Singapore Polytechnic lecturer in-charge of the Toy Competition Automata Category.

This is a competition not for the fainthearted as participants will meet with difficulties and unwanted surprises during the construction process as well as sacrificing most of their June holidays.

However, our students persevered as they are determined to realize their design not only for submission but also the automata they have envisioned.

Their hard work was rewarded annually when they clinched the top and merit prizes. This year one team emerged as the champion and the other teams clinched the merit awards.

Prize Presentation @ Singapore Polytechnic

Champion
Zekeriye Pak - 3E1
Teresa Zaw Tun - 3E2
Nur Sarah Bte Saini -1E1

Merit Prize
Avery Koh Jia Le - 3E1
Tan Cheng Hian - 3E1
Yip Ga Chun - 1E1

Zekeriye
The most memorable experience from this toy design journey are all the days when my group need to stay back to construct our automaton. We had to be committed by putting all our time and energy to realise our vision we had for our automaton to near perfection.

Teresa

The most memorable experience from this toy design journey is coming up with the scenario that would satisfy our decided theme. We had discussions on the different types of scenarios based on the theme and how the characters would move. Another memorable experience is when I attend the prize presentation at Singapore Polytechnic and have the opportunity to view the shortlisted entries.

Nur Saini
Being a junior who joined the Design & Innovation Club just this year, the most memorable experience from this toy design journey is working as a team with my seniors by spending the first week of our June holidays to construct the parts required for the automaton.

Avery and Cheng Hian

We learnt to cooperate with each other and work as one.  We also learnt how light works in a zoetrope. Thinking out of the box has always been one of our most valuable asset. We create and innovate by doing things that no one has ever done.Workmanship is also one of our must-haves.We have to work hard to achieve quality products.

We incorporated our knowledge of art and science into the automaton.The zoetrope utilizes the slits on the side to allow only some light to pass through, creating an illusion of moving pictures. Through the course of making the automata we have learnt a lot more about each other and fostered a stronger sense of camaraderie.

In a nutshell, each of us learnt something new and we will always be sharing our knowledge with ourselves to get better and better.