Second year students from Mechanical Engineering put a year's work into practice as they designed, built and then raced scooters outside Eastside Bar.

The end of year event proved a real hit with students, who were able to test the electronic scooters they built as part of their design and manufacture course.

In groups of six, each team had spent the majority of the year on this project, starting with a five week design stage in October, followed by the workshop build which took around a hundred hours. For the race they nominated one person (weighing above 67kg) to try and steer them to victory.

Marc Masen, a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering who teaches on the course, played the role of race marshal on the day and kept order among a competitive cohort of racers.

As Marc explains "we gave the teams the board, a motor, steering wheel and the wheels, but they had complete freedom to design and develop their own transmission."

Winning team: Douglas Andersen, Anna Duncker, Kiran Laidlay, Priyav Shah, Oliver Bradley and Susan Goodman

This is the first year that this particular project has been undertaken, differing from previous years where pumps and winches have been designed and built.

Just as in these previous years, a design review and submitted reports formed the basis of the course assessment, but in this year's project the end of year race itself has helped bolster the students' understanding of the link between design and build, as well as the challenges involved. It has also provided a good way for the students to celebrate their work.

"The scooters proved a good way of having fun after a long build process." Marc explains, "Through the combination of engineering and electronics, we were able to move away from traditional mechanical engineering into something a bit more modern."

With a top speed of around 22km/h, the scooters were built in a range of ways in search of the most efficient vehicle, and although there wasn't much to choose between the winning teams in the final, the simplest approach proved to be the most successful.

Marc felt that with such a closely contested event, it showed that "they came up with a pretty optimal design."

You can look through a gallery of images from the event below.