In only their third year of competition, mechanical engineering students from Flinders have outperformed their rivals from Australian and New Zealand universities to win the Weir Minerals Design and Build Competition.

Instituted by the National Committee on Engineering Design in 1988, the annual competition (previously known as the Warman Competition) is open to teams of first and second-year mechanical engineering students from universities across the region.

The Flinders team comprised James Albrechtsen (team captain), Kieren Rupcic, Christopher McNeill and Jack Burgess.

The objective for 2012 was to design, build and prove a prototype system in a laboratory environment that serves to deliver autonomously a supply package to a balloon-based observation facility, using the balloon tether to deliver the package.

The Flinders team also won the competition’s design award for the second year running.

“For a University with such a young mechanical engineering discipline, this is an exceptional result,” said Professor John Roddick, Dean of the School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics.