The Auckland leg of a national schools engineering competition has been won for the first time by an all-girl team from Churchill Park School. 

Oblivious Oreos, named in recognition of the team’s shared love of the biscuit, took out top spot amongst more than 300 other teams in the years 5-6 category from 137 Auckland schools. 

Vector EPro8 Event Manager Kevin Thiele said while they often see girls teams win in other parts of the country, this was the first time since the Challenge came to Auckland three years ago that the result had been seen in the region. 

“We’ve run over 600 of these events all over the country and seeing girls do well is just what we expect,” said Mr Thiele.

“It is about 40 per cent girls taking part in the Vector EPro8 Challenge, which is very impressive given the traditional male dominance of engineering,” said Mr Thiele.

The Vector EPro8 Challenge gives creative and practical students a chance to demonstrate problem solving, team work and engineering skills in a hands-on, competitive environment.

Vector Chief Risk Officer Kate Beddoe says the company is proud to support the Auckland leg of the competition to encourage creativity and problem solving skills. 

“I’d like to congratulate Oblivious Oreos on their achievements and I hope their win will inspire more students to keep being inquisitive and passionate about technology and engineering,” Ms Beddoe said. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing some of these students again in a few more years as our future engineers and technology specialists”.

ENDS