Last term the Makerclass visited Auckland University’s Newmarket campus for the day. Our trip had two main focuses. Firstly, to explore the Additive Manufacturing Department to learn about cutting edge industry 3D printing technologies, including metal 3D printing. We wanted to observe how 3D printing and design is used in ground breaking industry applications. Many MakerClass students are passionate about 3D printing and CAD design and it was exciting to see how they could apply that into the future.
Our second focus was to visit Auckland University’s F:SAE team. This university-student led team develops an electric race car every year, which they send to compete internationally, and Auckland University is consistently one of the top teams in the world. We currently have 24 students in the masterclass building 4 electric carts and bikes to compete nationally in the E-Volocity competition later this year. It was fascinating to see that while the builds get more technical, many of the skills and technologies the Makerclass students have been learning in class are still in use at higher levels – including a familiar brand of NZ made 3D printing filament.
We had a great day and while we could not take any photos in the F:SAE teams workshop, for competition security reasons, we did get to see all the cars the Auckland University team had built from previous years competitions. A big thank you to Auckland University’s Additive Manufacturing Department and the F:SAE team for allowing us to come visit and explore.
Daniel Wyatt and Adam Martin – Teachers’ in charge
