A Model Team effort

A broad range of people rose to the Challenge, says a thankful Dr Bernie Rolfe.

Deakin University’s win in the Ford Global Challenge was a model team effort, according to Project Leader Dr Bernard Rolfe.

“It can be a bit of cliché to call something a team effort but that genuinely was the case with our involvement in the Ford Global Challenge,” Dr Rolfe said.

“Right from the moment when we first received the information to take part, we had input from a wide range of people, not just from the members of our engineering school at Deakin.

“As sure as you try to list everyone, you know you will leave someone out, but I will try anyway.
“We were very lucky that one of our visiting Professors to Deakin was Professor John Duncan.

“His family has been involved in the production of horse drawn and motorised vehicles in Australia for more than a century and he has just written a history of the Model T called “Any Colour – So Long As It’s Black”.

“John was able to give us a real insight into the production values of the original Model T which was very helpful when we came to getting right the concepts we needed for the 21st Century.

“Dr John Rollo, Dr Ian Burston and Dr Tim Hilditch all worked in various ways to ensure we kept on track.

“I would like to especially thank Dr Chee Jin Yap who not only organised the Finance students involved in the project, but made the trip down from Burwood for our meetings at the Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds.

“Dr Yap and Dr Burston, along with Bronwyn Kirby and Yolanda Esteban, acted as mentors for students working on individual projects.

“I was fortunate to receive a lot of excellent advice from Professor Kate Smith-Miles on how to go about managing a major project like this

" I and the rest of the group also benefited from some pep talks from Professor Peter Hodgson.

“Amazing enthusiasm was shown by the full scale size prototype team of Ross De Rango, Russell Jorgensen, Paul Salcombe, Robert Crittenden, Sean Nettleton, Isaac Winter, Todd Matthews, Scott Wade and Rod Seiffert. They built a prototype overnight, and found an airport to do the speed test.

“Thanks to the five selected engineers who produced quality reports and/or CAD designs: Harry Chen, Scott Hunter, Matt Jennings, Nelson Thomas and Deepak-Paul Arotha. Ford liked our final engineering report.

“Thanks to the Finance team of Lauren O'Donovan, Dong Hai Trieuv Doan, (Mandy) Sin Man Yam and Murphy Jun Jie Lee. Their business case for the car also impressed the judges.

“Also thank you to the Urban Context team - Jessica Dover and Adam Berkley – who broadened our report to show the impact our vehicle may have on the city. It fitted perfectly with William Clay Ford Junior’s vision of putting a human face to the automotive industry.

“We need to specially thank Michael Sharman for making the structural model’s stand, and for his exceptional spelling that saved us some embarrassment.

“When the time came to publicise our work we also had the benefit of a pretty good PR team in Andrew Kilsby, Mandi O'Garretty, Warwick Hadfield and Sophie Torrens, so thanks to them.

“My main thanks though must go to the core design team which included students from the School of Architecture and Building, the Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation (CMFI) and Intelligent Systems Research (ISR).
“Those people included Tim de Souza, Stuart Hanafin, Greg Pitts, Ben Adamson, Steve Agius, Michael Pereira and Tim Black.

“In the end, this project happened because Tim de Souza, Stuart Hanafin and Greg Pitts put in the long hours.

“Special thanks, too, to Noel Miller, whose long involvement with Deakin and Ford proved invaluable.

“Noel organised committee meetings when I couldn’t be there and played a vital role in liaising with Angelo di Pietro from EngineAir.
“In the end, we got a great result, one that I think was highly deserved when you look at the level of dedication and team work that went into getting our submission to Dearborn on time.

“My thanks to everyone!”

The full team:

Team list:
Team Coordinator – Dr. Bernard Rolfe
Deputy Coordinator/Ford Liaison – Noel Miller
Finance team Coordinator – Dr. Chee Jin Yap
Chief Design Engineer – Tim de Souza
Chief Stylist – Greg Pitts
Project Coordinator – Stuart Hanafin
Electrics – Tim Black
Vehicle Structure – Steve Agius
Vehicle Structure – Michael Pereira
Power train – Ben Adamson
Interior – Chris Hurren
Full-scale initial prototype – Ross de Rango
Public Relations Leader – Sophie Torrens
Urban Context Coordinator – Yolanda Estaban
Styling / Graphic Designer – Dorothy Nguyen
Steering Committee Member – Dr. Tim Hilditch
Steering Committee Member – Dr. Ian Burston
Steering Committee Member – Emeritus Prof. John Duncan
Engineering Design Team Member – Scott Hunter
Engineering Design Team Member – Matthew Jennings
Engineering Design Team Member – Minlei Chen
Engineering Design Team Member – Deepak Paul Arotha
Engineering Design Team Member – Nelson Thomas
Technical Support – Des Walters
Technical Support – Phil Todd
Finance Team Member – Lauren O'Donovan
Finance Team Member – Dong Hai Trieuv Doan
Finance Team Member – Sin Man Yam
Finance Team Member – Murphy Jun Jie Lee
Urban Context Team Member – Jessica Dover
Urban Context Team Member – Adam Berkley
Urban Context Team Member – Anna James
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Russell Jorgensen
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Paul Salcombe
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Robert Crittenden
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Sean Nettleton
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Issac Winter
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Todd Matthews
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Scott Wade
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Frank de Rango
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Brian Roche
Full-scale Prototype Team Member – Rod Seiffert
Styling Team Member - Michael Sharman

Deakin Mentors:
Andrew Kilsby
Warwick Hadfield
Bronwyn Kirby
John Stabb
Dr. Sambit Datta
Dr. Tim Hilditch
Dr. Ian Burston
Dr. John Rollo
Assoc. Prof. Eric Hu
Prof. Kate Smith-Miles
Prof. Peter Hodgson
Emeritus Prof. John Duncan

Ford Australia Mentors:
Brian Williamson
Dominic Raimondo
Nova McNamara
Matthew Harrison
Colin Wilkins

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