After a successful representation in 2019 competing in the Development Class of the F1 in Schools competition Momentum, the all-girl team from Albert Park College in Melbourne, will be stepping up to the Professional Class in 2020.
In October 2019, Momentum competed in the Victorian State Finals and received awards for ‘Best Portfolio’ and ‘Best Verbal Presentation’ in their class and placed second overall. This earned Momentum a wildcard into the 2020 Australian National Finals that were held in March of this year, on the eve of what was meant to be the Australian F1 GP weekend. Momentum placed tenth in Development Class at the National Finals and received an award for ‘Outstanding Industry Collaboration’.
There have been some changes to the team personnel with two of the original team members deciding not to participate again in 2020. In their place Olivia becomes the Manufacturing Engineer and Miranda the Marketing Manager. Agnes takes on the role of Team Manager and Ami will continue to hone her skills as the team’s Design Engineer.
As Team Manager Agnes is responsible for the financial aspects of the project as well as overseeing long and short-term project goals. “I collaborate with the Marketing Manager, to secure sponsorship, and continued to work with Momentum’s sponsors and its charity, the GOMO Foundation over the course of the project. I also organise the team’s main events and work with the team to design and then order the team uniform and promotional material,” Agnes said.
Ami is Momentum’s Design Engineer and her role is to design the car. “I design different prototypes by experimenting with new concepts based on aerodynamic theory and then testing those concepts both virtually and physically. I will then refine the design based on the results that the prototypes show and work with Momentum’s manufacturing engineer to see through the manufacturing of the car,” Ami added.
Olivia is the new Manufacturing Engineer and will be responsible for the manufacturing stages of our team’s car. “My job is to turn the car design into a finished product using CNC machining, then sanding, priming and painting the car. I will also communicate with industry to research the benefits of different materials and brands in relation to manufacturing,” said Olivia.
Miranda comes on board as the Marketing Manager and is responsible for graphic design and marketing aspects of the project. “As the graphic designer I am in charge of the team’s new logo, formatting the portfolios and organising the trade display. The marketing aspect of my role covers designing the uniform, creating promotional products and working with the Team Manager, Agnes, to contact and organise the team’s sponsors,” Miranda told Driven Women Magazine.
The F1 in Schools competition involves students working together to design and manufacture a car that has to race down a 20m track. It is considered the world’s most competitive STEM competition with the main objective to help change the perceptions of science, technology, engineering and maths by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in engineering, Formula 1, science, marketing and technology.
The entire process, which spans around three to five months, is documented through Portfolios and culminates with a trade display and racing. The rules surrounding the design of the car are very complex and competitors are penalised if their cars are not within a set of parameters.
“We aim to do our very best in the competition, challenging ourselves and pushing each other to achieve this. This project will help to further improve our skills in problem-solving, project management, communication, presentation, teamwork, innovation, self-promotion, collaboration, marketing and entrepreneurialism and empower more girls into STEM,” said Agnes Momentum’s Team Manager.
In order to competitively take part in the 2020 Victorian State Finals and reach their full potential Momentum are seeking sponsors to be a part of their campaign. Driven Women Magazine is once again proud to be a Bronze Sponsor of Momentum and we will follow their progress throughout the year with updates on our website. Momentum offers four levels of sponsorship; Bronze ($100+), Silver ($400+), Gold ($800+) and Platinum ($1500+). If you are interested in being part of this exciting and very rewarding competition with Momentum then contact them directly on [email protected]
Photographs by Momentum.