The Design & Technology Learning Centre (DTLC), which is part of the Ministry for Education and Employment, will tomorrow be showcasing innovative projects from secondary school students and high-end manufacturing technologies available in schools in an expo being held at St Clare College Secondary School in Pembroke (ex Sandhurst).
Also exhibiting their work will be professional designers and entrepreneurs, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Mcast) and the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta, representing the added quality design and manufacturing sector in Malta.
During the event, there will be a number of hands-on design challenges and workshops where participants have to build models on the spot.
The University of Malta Racing – an association made up of students from five different faculties – will be exhibiting their locally built racing car.
The expo will also feature the final phase of the ‘Everyday Heroes National Product Design’ competition, which has been running in schools for the past couple of weeks.
Tomorrow’s expo will also be featuring a galactic appearance of a very challenging project, Star Wars: The Force Awakens BB-8 robot.
The department of Design & Technology, MEDE and a number of computing labs from State schools teamed up for this full-size 3D printed electromechanical project built at the DTLC.
The idea was originally the brainchild of James Catania, Education Officer for Computing and ICT, but then took up collaboratively by Keith Galea, EO for D&T who immediately saw the DTLC as the perfect place where this project could take real shape.
The design stage included a high level of collaboration with international peer sharing communities and builders clubs who shared designs, suggestions and experiences.
It is in fact a merger of three different projects taking the shell body from the most realistic models, the internal frame way inspired by one 3D printed design but then fully redesigned to be cut with CO2 laser cutters at DTLC and finally the mechanism that propels it and makes the head roll freely around the spherical body was all designed by D&T.
The electronics and programming was also something Catania fully took up.
Finally the finishing process, fitting, masking, spraying and all nuts and bolts were a group effort by all the team of support teachers at DTLC, the EOs and even other helpers.
BB-8 was first revealed in the Malta Robotics Olympiad 2016 where large crowds queued to take pictures of the robot beeping and revolving its head.
The end result is still under development as more testing is being done to see the working BB-8 take its full bluetooth controlled, independent stroll at the ND&TE2016.
Such initiatives were only possible after the huge investments in educational technology, part-financed by the EU funding and always supported by DTLC and MEDE.
• The National Design & Technology Expo is being held at St Clare College Secondary School, Pembroke tomorrow from 9am to 1pm for students and from 5 to 9pmfor the public. Free entrance and ample parking space.
More information may be obtained online at www.designtechexpo.com.