Science Fair winners enjoy amazing prizes

On the 29th of November, the winners of the annual Fort Street Science Fair were given the privilege to go to the Quantum Computer Laboratory as well as the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. All this was thanks to the work of Gabriel Caus. We were given a tour of the technologies utilised in order to make the computers. We were also lucky enough to meet Professor of Quantum Physics at UNSW and Australian of the Year 2018, Michelle Simmons, who was generous enough to provide us with a presentation about quantum computing and the future of it. We were then guided by Anirban around the SMaRT centre who informed us about e-waste and how electronics can be recycled. We also programmed a robotic arm to carry a phone and drop it into an allocated destination. In addition to this, we were able to destroy an old phone in one of the machines that charged over 6kV. We were also fortunate enough to meet Veena Sahajwalla, the director of SMaRT centre, who also told about electronic waste.

On the 5th of December, the group of 12 went on an excursion to the University of New South Wales Flying Operations Unit in Bankstown. We were greeted by Brian Horton who gave us a presentation about aviation and the types of careers that are related to it. We were then split into groups and were given a guide around the place. We were able to see the flat panel trainers which are accurate simulations of a 737 but on touch screen displays and no simulated view. This was utilised to get the pilots familiar with the buttons. We then got to see a plane simulation in action in which a student was flying. It was quite enjoyable and we also were lucky enough to see the actual plane that was being simulated and sit in it. We then had the lunch that we were provided with thanks to the Flying Operations Staff. The best part by far was the 737 actual simulation with the real buttons and the simulated screen. This was thanks to Steve Weatherstone who was able to get the simulator working again and assisted us all throughout our flights. It was extremely immersive and some of us were even able to fly under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and successfully land the plane.

None of this would have been possible without Mr Caus who organised these spectacular prizes for us and gave us all these wonderful opportunities that we would have otherwise never have gotten. Another special thanks to Mr Webb for coming along with us to supervise.

Manit Anand, Year 9