This year I was invited to be part of the judging panel for the Tournament of Minds (TOM) 2017 organized in Thailand. Along with two other judges, we were in charge of evaluating the Secondary and Primary Engineering Mathematics Challenges. Teams from various countries in South East Asia came to represent their schools in the largest TOM Competition hosted at the International School Bangkok.
Introduction to the Challenge
The Lord High Council has decreed that all parcels, packages and letters transported around the empire must be Golden Rectangles. The Innovation Company has been charged with designing a simple testing device that will enable the size of items to be quickly checked and accepted or rejected, before the beam transponder sends acceptable items to a new location in the galaxy and any non-conforming items are destroyed.
The Challenge
Teams have to design and build the simple testing device, known as the Gold Standard Tester, which can quickly and accurately test, with as little operator assistance as possible, whether items conform (within 1%) to the Golden Ratio. The Tester will need to be able to accommodate items between paper sizes A7 to A4, from as thin as photocopy paper to 3 mm in thickness, and of any opaque color.
The Presentation
During the presentation teams must:
- Demonstrate the Tester and explain how it aids rapid testing with little assistance.
- Use the Tester to quickly test three items (supplied by the judges in an envelope for each team). Timing will start from when the envelope is opened and finish when the last item has been tested. One or more of the items may be non-conforming.
- Explain the reasons why the Golden Ratio was chosen (incorporating an appreciation of why it is considered special).
- Explain, including three reasons, why the Lord High Council made the decree.
Overall, it was one of the toughest Engineering Mathematics Challenges that I have seen at a TOM Competition. However, we were able to witness great creativity, problem solving and teamwork in most of the teams. They effectively and creatively used recycled materials to create their Testers. Many performances displayed students' excitement, flair, and impact that was related to the challenge solution.
Yes it was a long day on a Sunday judging 15 presentations from 8 AM - 5 PM, but I was completely invigorated by seeing the excitement and joy during the closing ceremony. I will have to give kudos to Dr. Selena Gallagher (follow her on Twitter @SelenaGa11agher) for organizing this amazing event. She is the mastermind of this competition and has successfully managed to complete another successful TOM Tournament. This is her last year in Thailand as she will be heading to the Middle East next year and organizing competitions there. Well done and all the best Selena!
