On Saturday 3 December 2011, students from University of Western Australia (UWA), mentors and sponsors attended the ‘Dreamfit unveiling and awards ceremony’ where the Arup trimaran team won the project management award for their planning and organisational skills. After the awards, the dreamDay community festival run by the Dreamfit foundation was opened to the public by the Minister for Disability Services, the honourable Helen Morton, MLC. The dreamDay festival was all about inclusiveness and provided the community an opportunity to come together, have some fun and try a variety of modified recreational equipment.
The Dreamfit program offers final year engineering students the opportunity to work on real world projects as part of their university course. The program is run through the Dreamfit Foundation, a unique not-for-profit organisation that has taken up the challenge of designing dreams for people with disabilities through innovative engineering solutions.
In the Perth office our mentors Bernie O’Shea, Suan Guo and Mira Lee have been working closely with two fourth-year engineering students on this project sharing their knowledge, motivating the students and providing advice in the areas of engineering and project management. This worthy cause provides Arup a means of developing our mentoring skills, share knowledge and skills with the students, as well as the satisfaction gained by being part of this worthy community project.
Fulfilling a dream
The Trimaran Yacht project was inspired by the dreams of Brett Gillies who has Muscular Dystrophy and wanted to be able to rekindle his passion for sailing. In order to make this dream come true, engineering students from UWA, David Ong and Ryan Kim were tasked by Dreamfit with redesigning the Trimaran Yacht. The students not only need to comply with academic requirements but also Dreamfits obligation to have the project designed and built by the December 3rd deadline, the international day of people with a disability.
The two students were given different focus areas for their final year project. David’s focus was on the control and manoeuvrability with the primary objective to design and implement a control system of electrical motor and outboard motor to provide maximum manoeuvrability and safety. Ryan was focused on the accessibility and superstructure. This involved modification of a fabricated ramp to suit the trimaran, as well as safety rails, provisions for shelter, anchoring and mooring equipment and a functional console design.
A short video is on YouTube showcasing the Dreamfit Trimaran Project. The students talk about the challenges they face and the final vision for the project.
