SUBS in Schools™ – is designed to be a multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of high schools students from years 10–12 design and manufacture a working scale model of a submarine no longer than 1 metre. The submarine will have to be able to dive, manoeuvre and carry out a number of tasks within a set of time constraints and will have to meet a number of design limitations set by the rules. It will also have to be remotely operated from land.

The task for the students will be just as complex as a real submarine design project. It will expose the students to real world challenges faced by a Submarine Design Team and it will have significant scientific and construction challenges that will provide opportunities for creativity and innovation.

To succeed in the challenge the students will work with modern design, manufacturing and virtual reality technologies.  The complete design for manufacture process will need to be documented, along with team marketing and promotion. The students are also required to form one or more specific industry partnerships to obtain advice or even assistance with manufacturing components not possible within their school. To this extent Brighton Secondary School is linked with Babcock, St Peter’s Girls School is linked with SAAB Australia, Le Fevre HS is linked with ASC and Queechy HS with AMC in Tasmania.

SUBS in Schools is designed to promote the development of high level employability skills in students by having them work directly with industry on a project which is aligned with real industry outcomes.

While each of the schools participating in the SUBS in Schools pilot is currently at a different stage in the design and manufacture cycle, at least 3 of the schools have already started manufacturing their hull components on their MakerBOT 3D Printers supplied by REA. Soon after the schools holidays the full assembly and testing of the Sub models will begin in earnest.

SUBS in Schools Supporters

Other Projects in the Office

Prototyping to Production

With the goal of highlighting to students the capabilities of 3D printers, we have been regenerating some of the more complex 3D projects that we have worked on over the years. One of these was the design of an inlet manifold for the S2000 Corolla Rally Car for Neal Bates and Toyota Australia. This complex model is an example of the complexity achievable with MakerBot 3D printer.

In the original project, the manifold was manufactured in an Glass reinforced ABS plastic. The 3D model was then bolted directly onto the engine and dyno tuned to ensure the performance goals were achieved. Once tuning was complete the finished components were manufactured in cast Aluminium and Carbon Fibre with the complete “design-model-test-manufacture-race” cycle being completed in just a few of weeks.

More Information?

For more information about SUBS in Schools, MakerBot 3D Printers or any of the other technologies REA is implementing in schools please contact us by email or phone.

contact@rea.org.au