2015-03-25

FIMA takes part in anniversary EBEC Kaunas competition

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The annual international engineering competition for students, EBEC, was held for the tenth time on March 6 and 7. Twelve teams competed to get through to the next round at Santaka Valley of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU). It was the sixth year in succession that FIMA presented the Team De-sign assignment for students inviting them to design engineering systems. This year engineers-to-be were challenged to design a chronometer.

The competition is made up of three phases – a local phase, regional contests and then the European finals. Students are presented with two kinds of challenge by firms taking part: a Case Study, for those who are good at analysing a situation, able to identify an appropriate solution and then present it, and Team Design for teams who are focused on designing.
The teams had 14 hours to design a chronometer from materials provided by FIMA. Against all odds, as many as 11 teams managed to complete the task and presented their work.

The electronics team “Neturim ką veikt” (“We have nothing to do”) was this year’s winner. Its members will now go on to the Baltic region’s second round which will be held in May in Estonia. Two teams – last year’s winner, “Koviniai ežiai” (“Combatant hedgehogs”), and “Svarkės”, were awarded consolation priz-es.

The winner’s design was the only device to meet all of the contest requirements but because of a human factor, it failed to activate during one of the three tests and so only the measurements from two of the tests were recorded in the assessment report. The second team created two chronometers over the two days – the only team to do so.

“All the teams worked very hard with genuine enthusiasm. All the work was unique and innovative and showed a real team spirit. The future generation of young engineers pleasantly surprise us every year and remind us time and time again how exciting and creative a profession engineering can be,” the Pro-ject Manager at FIMA’s Solutions Department, Simonas Šidlauskas, said.

EBEC aims to bring together tomorrow’s engineers, giving them the opportunity not only to improve their knowledge and skills but also to apply them in practice as they look for solutions for real day-to-day situa-tions. More than 6,500 students take the EBEC challenge every year within their selected construction or case study category.

BEST Kaunas hosts the EBEC competition in Lithuania. It is the only representative of the international, non-governmental, non-political and non-profit student organisation, BEST (Board of European Students of Technology), in the country. BEST unites more than 96 technology universities across Europe. Having its office at KTU, BEST Kaunas has been operating for ten years, seeking to provide the opportunity for KTU students to explore Europe, its culture and other spheres.