As the National Sponsor of the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA), the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) is now supporting an amazing competition that encourages engineering and project management innovators of the future.

The REA sponsorship is part of the Federal Government announcement in November last year of a commitment to defence industry skilling - the Industry Skilling Program Enhancement package (ISPE). Over the next six-years 14 separate initiatives will be implemented that will involve Defence partnering with other agencies and industry.

The ISPE package seeks to address the significant shortfall in the quantity and quality of skilled workers available to defence industry.

REA’s primary initiative creates first hand experience with project management and engineering amongst Australian high school students. REA’s F1inSchool Challenge is the stuff young dreams are made of: the opportunity to be part of the global phenomenon that is Formula 1 motor racing.

The dream comes true for thousands of year 7 to 12 students across Australia, and millions around the world, who are taking part in the F1inSchools competition. The aim is to design and construct the fastest, most innovative model Formula 1 car of the future. The students have access to professional-standard 3D engineering design and analysis software, smoke tunnels, wind tunnels and multi-axis manufacturing centres. Powered by small CO2 cartridges, the cars built by these 12 to 17-year-olds are capable of reaching speeds of 80 km/hr, and getting faster all the time.

At Australia’s 2008 national finals, three teams broke the highly-prized one second barrier over a distance of 20 metres. That’s pretty fast for a block of balsa wood.

Judges at the finals described the standards as ‘mind boggingly high’, with students also achieving unprecedented perfect scores in verbal presentations and innovation.

Engineering professionals, teachers and parents have been left gob-smacked by the results, with employers even declaring some students immediately employable.

The competition is delivering on a number of fronts. It’s providing strong educational outcomes, enhancing career prospects and reigniting interest in technology-related subjects previously being overlooked by students more interested in business or law than engineering. Many schools have reported that enrolment demand has increased by 300 to 400 per cent for design and technology related subjects.

Organiser and engineer, Michael Myers of the Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA), says he’s been blown away by the quality of work the kids are generating. “It’s very high and it keeps getting higher,” he says. “When you see the work these kids are turning out, it’s absolutely world class

“I doubt there are five engineers in the country using computational fluid dynamics, and we’ve got thousands of kids doing it.”

A not-for-profit organisation established ten years ago to raise awareness of engineering as a career, REA offers the F1inSchools competition as part of its ‘Schools Innovation Design Challenge.’ There is an estimated 30,000 students taking part in the competition from more than 240 high schools across the nation.

Supporters of REA include the Defence Materiel Organisation as the National Sponsor, the Royal Australian Navy, the NSW Government and industry groups such as Concentric, Webex, ResMed and Dassault Systemes.

REA believes its rapidly expanding program is providing a valuable solution to the skills crisis facing engineering and manufacturing. The philosophy is simple: provide students, teachers and schools with the best technology and we’ll end up with the best students.

According to Mr Myers, the schools getting the best results are the ones giving all the decision making responsibilities to the students. “In a sense we’re just opening the door and letting the kids go. The results are absolutely staggering,” he says.

While the F1inSchools competition revolves around a model racing car, the aim is to inspire students to learn about engineering and science principles such as physics and aerodynamics, design and manufacture and apply them in a practical, imaginative, competitive and exciting way.

They also learn about leadership, teamwork, media management and financial strategy, but because they’re so focused on getting the fastest test times, they often don’t realise all the skills they’re developing. “It’s all about the racing, that’s what they’re excited about, but it’s only 10 per cent of what they do,” Mr Myers says.

Because it’s fun, these students aren’t fazed by the enormous amount of work involved and are happily spending time after school, on weekends and in school holidays working on their cars. Their teachers are usually just as enthusiastic, and possibly the only complaint about the competition is from their partners who are seeing less of them because of the hours they are devoting to the program.

Graeme Hutton has an engineering background and is now a teacher at Canberra’s Trinity Christian School, the school behind the most recent national champions - Redline Racing. He’s a big fan of the competition and what it’s achieving. “From the moment I heard about F1inSchools I was very excited about the possibilities for learning and having fun at the same time,” Mr Hutton says.

“These students are going through an engineering process where they analyse and make judgments about which way to go with their car. These are really important problem solving and innovation skills.

“They’re also learning that if you work hard and are prepared to put in the time and effort, then you can get some really good rewards. I think they’ll all develop a great career from that.”

Trinity Christian School Principal, Carl Palmer says the competition combines valuable learning with fun and appeals to both boys and girls. The school’s winning team is made up of four boys and a girl. “The engineering is at the cutting edge. Even the engineers involved said if only they’d known as much as these young people in their time, what a difference it would have made.

“It provides an important learning experience, that if you give something your best, you can achieve success.”

As part of its vision to stimulate the nation and inspire young Australians to take on the world, REA offers more than the excitement of Formula 1 racing. Children as young as kindergarten age, around four or five-years-old, are also being introduced to engineering and innovation programs.

Using 3D modelling software, these children are designing their own toys. Once designed on the computer screen, the toys are prototyped and sent back to the children to experience the outcome of their imagination. One school used this modelling activity in a science class, where students examining insects under microscopes were given the software to design their own bugs.

This is a process which demystifies technology, according to DMO General Manager Programs, Mr Warren King. “It flips technology on its head and shows how it can work for you,” he says, “and young people who have done that will never have a worry about technology. They’ll always be looking for the next challenge.”

An enthusiastic supporter of the aims and ambitions of REA, Mr King hopes there’ll be a positive spin-off for Defence as high school students start considering their careers. “All the things they’re doing now they could apply on a larger scale if they choose to come to the DMO in the future. We’re a neat match for a lot of these students,” he says. “Our work is very much like the program management they’re involved with and we’re very interested in making some of these students think about us as a career.”

He says in the past the DMO had a poor reputation for project management, but since its success rate had gone up ‘quite dramatically’ he’d been invited to Washington to work on defence procurement reform. “You might have thought being seconded to the Pentagon was the highlight of my year, but it wasn’t,” he says. “The highlight of my year was going around talking to these young people. I’m often overwhelmed by their ability, and always re-charged by their enthusiasm.”

Opportunities like this, where students meet and talk to people like Warren King, show them the relevance of their classroom activities, according to Michael Myers, who is also currently working on a doctorate in child psychology. He says the ages of 15 and 16 are two of the most important years for teenagers making big life decisions.

Students need to be introduced to a whole variety of role models and mentors to help plant the seeds of inspiration. “I want kids to meet as many famous and important people as possible,” says Mr Myers. “To see them and meet them and realise how normal they are, so they come away thinking, wow, I can do that.”

• This is an edited version of an article written by Georgie Oakeshott, and is published courtesy of the House of Representatives About the House magazine.