Awesome science-inspired playgrounds for students

The Faculty of Transportation Engineering, Nha Trang University has just held the 4^th Specialization Club, including ship and car model racing NTU, marine transportation and logistics; automotive engineering. This is an inventive  playground for students to promote scientific research.

This year, 14 teams participated in the ship model racing with products made of steel, stainless steel designed and created by students. 4 competition rounds included design, speed racing, ship control and ball control. The Homemade Car Competition - Racing NTU attracted 10 teams competing in such contents as driving forward in zigzag shape; Driving over obstacles; and Fuel-efficiency.

Students with their model cars.

The Shipping and Logistics Competition had 4 rounds including Warm-up, Acceleration, Reaching the finish line and Integration. At the knowledge competition about automotive engineering, 4 teams made presentation about innovative ideas and products and then received comments from lectures to turn the ideas into reality.

Student Dang Tan Khoa, Ship Engineering Class Course 63 said, “We had challenges dealing with material purchase, design and fixing breakdowns. Thanks to the competition, we learn more how to improve our product. This is a good opportunity for us to apply theory into practice.”

According to PhD. Huynh Van Vu, Dean of the Faculty of Transportation Engineering, Nha Trang University, competitions held by the 4^th Specialization Club are linked with 4 specialties, namely Maritime Science and logistics; Automotive Engineering, ship Engineering, car Engineering. The events are to inspire creativity among students.

The competition entries can be considered as graduation projects.  This year’s competitions have more assessment criteria based on adaptability to actual production. Many students had spent 6-8 months to prepare for the completion working on ideas, design and material purchase.

Several students made appearance and operation innovation in products created earlier. Besides, this year’s science-inspired playground attracted financial support from businesses and formers students.

For example, the ship model race received sponsorship for the installation of the race tank with the durability of more than 10 years. The shipping and logistics competition is held outdoors with diversity of vehicle products. The faculty will cooperate with other university faculties to expand the competition next year.

According to PhD. Huynh Van Vu, Dean of the Faculty of Transportation Engineering, Nha Trang University, when learning the subject about scientific research methods, second-year students are encouraged to have research ideas and join scientific research groups to develop the ideas. Third-year students are able to start their research projects. On average, each year, the faculty has from 15 to 20 school-funded scientific research projects developed by students.

H.Ngan

Translated by N.T