Toy Design Competition 2016 (Automata Category)

The Design and Innovation Club participated in the annual Toy Design Competition 2016 (TDC16) Automata Category organised 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 challenging competition as participants will meet with difficulties and unwanted surprises during the construction process as well as sacrificing most of their month-long June school 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 second runner-up and the other 2 teams clinched the merit awards.

Second Runner-up

Deriando Goh Jian Kwok - 3E2
Aguinaldo Antonio Jr Dela Vega  - 3E2
Jacynthia Lew Yu Xin - 3N2
Zhang Yu - 2E1A

Merit

Ko Kar Wai - 3N1

Muhammad Nihal S/O Mohamed Abul Kassim - 3E1

K Siti Shareefa Nachiya - 3E1

Nur Sarah Bte Saini - 2E1B

Merit

Yip Ga Chun - 2E1A

Aidan Tan Jing Kang - 2E1A

Goh Fei Tat - 2E1A

Lee Ai Lin - 2N1A

Antonio

From this Toy Design Competition, I have learnt to have the sense of urgency.  With my team mates; Deriando, Jacynthia, and Zhang Yu, we had to think of an idea that would capture people’s attention and construct an automata that would stand out. We had many ideas but were unable to pick one. Eventually, we chose the idea that was simple yet unique. There were a lot of problems with it though, especially with the facial features we had to put on the gingerbread man.  Plus, we did not take the competition seriously as we thought there was a lot of time but in reality we were behind timeline. Yet, in the end my team made it through and won the Third prize.

Muhd Nihal

My most memorable experience of this Toy Design Competition was designing and building the automata with my group members. We had a variety of ideas and eventually we managed to come up with a theme for our automata. The interesting part of building the automata was how the cranks and cams "interacted" with each other. While designing it, we came up with new ideas and incorporate them into our automata. We also came back to school during our June holidays, devoting our time and effort in building it. We finally submit it to Singapore Polytechnic and won a merit prize.

Ga Chun

What I have learnt in this Toy Design Competition is that we have to use the materials provided to build our automata that we conceptualised with our imagination and creativity. The automata though looks simple but we took a lot of time to do it as I was the only member in the group of four with experience. It was fun yet stressful as we did not have much time before the deadline. We managed to fit in any bit of time and eventually complete it. My group is happy that we managed to clinch a merit award.

Clean Water Challenge 2016

Singapore Polytechnic's School of Architecture & the Built Environment organised the 68th Clean Water Challenge 2016 for all secondary school students in Singapore. The competition aims to promote the interest in water technology and enhance awareness of the importance of our water. It involves student team to build a membrane water filtration kit to clean the dirty water. On the day of competition, participating team will pump the dirty water through the kit to obtain clean water using hand pump.

The students' hard work has paid off and Henderson Secondary School clinched the champion of this year's competition.

Champion

Dapoc Christine Richelle Delos Santos - 3E1

Zhang Yu - 2E1A

Lee Ai Lin - 2N1A

Nur Sarah Bte Saini - 2E1B

Nur Sarah

This year we had lesser time to prepare for this competition. However, we still managed to complete water filtration kit by the day of the competition. I am glad that the commitment and effort of all my team members had paid off. I am also proud that my team has represented Henderson Secondary School for the last time in this competition and won the competition by emerging as the champion.