An Australian team has taken out first and second places at the Jaguar Land Rover 4x4 Technology Challenge in England.
The competition is open to high school students from around the globe and the World Finals at Coventry attracted teams from every continent.
The title of World Champion went to a team from Pine Rivers State High School in Brisbane and the runners-up are from Dubbo College Senior Campus in regional New South Wales.
Australian teams also dominated the international competition by winning two category awards (including Best Engineering) and being nominated for three more.
The Brisbane team, who call themselves 'Wombat Warriors' and wear Australian Army uniforms, came third at this event last year and returned with the goal of improving on that result. They were led by team manager, Lily Eiseman, who last year received the Women In Engineering Award.
It is the second time in three years that Pine Rivers teacher Corey Geiskens and his students have won an international STEM competition – in 2013 they became World Champions of the F1inSchools Technology Challenge.
It was the first time that Dubbo team “Zircon” has made it through to the World Finals. Both teams had spent months designing and building miniature remote controlled 4x4 vehicles to negotiate an extreme off road course in the quickest time.
t the same time, they prepared engineering portfolios and verbal presentations will were judged by engineers and academics. They earned the right to go to the UK after defeating all other Australian teams at the National Finals.