Four Grade 9 learners from St Albans College in Pretoria were announced as the overall winners of the Sangari F1 in Schools CAD/CAM Challenge in Johannesburg. More than 150 learners raced their mini F1 model cars down a 20-metre track to compete for the title of overall winners of the South African National Finals as well as best engineered car, fastest car and best marketing and sponsorship programme.

The St Albans's learners, nicknamed `Team Flash', prepared and trained for almost nine months to clinch the competition. "We worked really hard throughout the competition to win. It was a team effort and although we had many setbacks in the beginning in terms of the design, we managed to pull it together," says team manager Sean Gauton.

24 schools from Tembisa to Vryburg competed at the Sci Bono Discovery Centre in Newtown. Each team consisted of a team and resource manager, a manufacturing and a design engineer, as well as a graphic designer. The cars had to be designed according to specific specifications and the end-result was small scale dragsters of between 20 cm and 30 cm long.

Bez Sangari, managing director of Sangari SA says, "One of the objectives of this competition is to teach learners world-life skills. Some of our teams consist of 11-year olds and they are already employable because of the skills that they have acquired through this competition."

He continues that the learners have to transfer their design from paper to a computer using Solid Edge 3D modelling CAD software. The designs are then converted to computer assisted manufacturing (CAM) software. "It is amazing to see the potential of the learners. The software is supplied to the schools by Sangari SA and is usually used by second year university students. I have witnessed 11-year-olds operating the software without any difficulty," says Sangari.

This competition, in partnership with the Technikon Witwatersrand, has been adopted by the Gauteng Department of Education within the Math Science and Technology project, encouraging schools to get involved. "Recently, the North West Department of Education sponsored 100 schools to compete, and thus we hope to see the competition grow from strength to strength," says Sangari.

The competition was first introduced in schools in the UK in 2000 to develop awareness of engineering careers. "Sangari started the competition locally in response to the government's encouragement to foster an interest with learners in science, engineering and technology. The aim of the project is to provide the learners with outcomes based education that gives them hands-on experience in the industry," says Sangari.

The competition has been running globally for three years in countries such as the UK, Australia, Portugal, the Far East and North America. The St Albans learners, as well as the runners-up, Team Eskom Ingwé from the Tersia King Learning Academy in Tembisa, will be representing South Africa in the international championship finals in the UK in October this year.

For more information contact Bez Sangari, Sangari SA, 011 466 1440, bez@sangari.co.za, www.f1inschools.co.za/</a>