Taieri College pupil Ben Mulholland shows his award-winning
science fair project. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Ben Mulholland had a need to record speed, and his
resulting invention won the premier prize at the 2009 Aurora
Otago Science and Technology Fair.
The year 12 pupil at Taieri College was given the task, by
his teachers, of finding a cheaper way to record the speed of
carbon dioxide-powered racers being made by year 9 and 10
metalwork classes.
The racers travelled more than 50m in about one second, so no
ordinary stopwatch would do the trick and commercial timers
cost upwards of $700, he said.
Ben (17) decided lasers would be the most effective way to
record the speed of the cars so set about creating his "Need
4 Speed" invention.
He worked on the device in his spare time for months.
Its operation involves a car breaking a laser beam at the
start line, which in turn starts the clock on a computer.
The car then breaks the laser beam at the finish line, which
stops the clock.
It cost him about $65 in materials, in addition to his
labour.
The invention could be easily adapted for things such as
sports races, he said.
Ben said he was surprised to win the premier award and
University of Otago prize, even though he had won several
awards for his scientific know-how in the past few years.
Last year, he won first place at the New Zealand Bright
Sparks HiTech Competition with his iPod super dock.
The invention also won Ben one of two Royal Society of New
Zealand travel awards, which paid for him to represent New
Zealand at the International Science and Technology Fair in
Taipei, where he won first place in the engineering category.
Ben, who wants to be an electrical engineer, said he had no
"concrete" plans for his next project.
It was something he keeping to himself at present.
Awards
Aurora Premier Award - Best in Fair: Ben Mulholland.
Otago Institute Award for General Excellence: Rhian Gaffney
(year 10) Logan Park High School, "First Come First Served".
Otago Science Teachers Association Premier Award for General
Excellence: Ike Saunders (year 9) Kavanagh College, "Well eye
witnessed" and Katie Mulholland (year 9) Taieri College,
"Natural Dyes".
Division of Sciences - University of Otago premier award: Ben
Mulholland.
NZ Marine Studies Centre Future Scientists Gifted and
Talented Award: Meran Campbell-Hood (year 7) Dunedin North
Intermediate, "How does your garden grow?"
Dairy NZ - Most promising young scientist: Anne-Sophie Page
(year 8) Columba College, "Snail trails".
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