 After the physically demanding challenge of the morning, teams had only a short break in which to re-group, recover and devour lunch before setting off for the Stirling University sports field, the location for the much anticipated construction stage ‘Get a Move On’.
The aim of the stage was to construct a self propelled mechanism which could transfer a log over a minimum of two metres, with teams collecting bonus points for any additional distance achieved and further points available for those teams completing the task inside the maximum time allowance of 2 hours 15 minutes.
The approaches to the task were varied, whilst most teams dove straight in and immediately picked up their tools to start work on their build, others took time to discuss design options and formulate a plan before commencing any activity.
After almost 60 minutes of stage time had passed, the first teams, lead by Team 10 of BG Group, nervously began to test their equipment, some heading back to the build bay to make adjustments and improvements to their mechanism whilst others went confidently to the Task Area to trial their equipment.
After an initial rush of successfully completed tasks, the remaining teams were beginning to feel the pressure and many of them, including Team 12 from Petro-Canada, headed off to the information point to collect construction tips whilst incurring time penalties. As the remaining minutes of the stage passed by more than half of the teams were still working to perfect their designs. Unfortunately for many the time ran out too quickly and they were forced to abandon their build, dejectedly rushing off to the finish line within the allocated time to avoid incurring further penalties.
It soon became clear the main reason teams did not succeed was over complication which meant there was a greater chance of their design going wrong. The winners were Team 17, Western Geco, who were not only the first team to successfully move their log, but also the team who achieved the most bonus points by travelling an impressive 18 metres in total.
A member of their team said: “The key to our mechanism was simplicity. It was light and fast to build which earned us valuable bonus time. Without an engineer in the team, we relied on team work and communication and all contributed ideas for the design. In addition to our second place in this morning’s challenge, we have had a very successful day and hope to build on our lead in final stages.”
With that all the teams headed back to campus for a well deserved break, many under the assumption that having completed two very different but very tough tasks they were finished for the day. Little did they know they were in for a surprise………!
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