Inter-School Events
The series starts with the EPro8 School Programme, which includes the EPro8 School Final. The top teams from each school final qualify for the inter-school events.
Note: The EPro8 School Programme is not required for year 9-10 and 11-13 schools but is highly beneficial. Year 9-13 students must be given ample opportunity to practice prior to the inter-schools.
At the inter-school events, each team will be located at a workstation, which contains an impressive assortment of easy to use equipment, including gears, wheels, pulleys, joiners, nuts and bolts, tools, aluminium framing, motors and electronics.
At the start of the event, teams will be given a booklet containing four challenges. Each challenge will be split into parts which range from easy to challenging.
Teams choose which challenges they wish to attempt. Typically the more difficult challenges will be worth more points. They won't have enough time to finish all the challenges. Teams need to be strategic about which challenges best suit their skills and abilities.
Scoring
Each time a criteria of a challenge is completed, the team will press the "Big Red Button". Lights flash and music plays.
If they have met the criteria then points will appear on the live scoring leaderboard.
Live scoring adds to the fun and excitement, with teams seeing how they rank as the event progresses.
Teams then choose what challenge to undertake next.
At the completion of 2 ½ hours, the team with the most points will be the winner of that heat. A trophy will be awarded to the winning team from each heat. The top teams from each heat qualify for the regional finals series.
Spectators
The EPro8 Challenge has been specifically designed to be a spectator friendly event. The challenges are all large scale and visually stunning. There will be live scoring. Please feel free to take photos and videos of the event.
We would love supporters to come along and watch. Entry for spectators is free.
All we ask is that teams are left to solve the challenges themselves.
Each team will be based at a workstation containing easy to use equipment.
Teams
Teams are made up of four students.
Each event consists of 12 teams, who will compete to earn the most points in the 2 ½ hour time limit.
EPro8 Equipment
We want contestants to be able to complete large sized constructions easily and quickly - without the use of tools. We searched the world for such a system, and found nothing.
So we have designed our own easy to use system. The equipment is large scale with most structures being over 1m in size.
The system works using a simple joiner, that allows teams to easily design and build structures and machines using aluminium extrusions, brackets, motors, gears, pulleys, and electronics.
The equipment is made from quality parts. For example, all the gears and pulleys have quality ball bearing componentry. We have invested heavily in motors, axles and modular electronics.
Each event will start with a 15 minute tutorial about the equipment to ensure all teams know how to use the equipment.
