Columba College recently completed the EPro8 Challenge for 2025. This challenge encourages students to engage in engineering, problem-solving, and innovation by designing and building machines to complete specific objectives, showcasing their creativity and technical skills.

This year’s event began with a practice activity in which students constructed an exoskeleton for an “Ironing-man Suit”. Following this, the competition featured three difficult challenges: building a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box, a launcher capable of throwing tennis balls across the classroom, or a calibrated set of shoe-throwing scales.

The ingenuity and teamwork displayed by all participants were truly commendable. However, we would like to extend special congratulations to our top-performing teams.

Year 7 Winners:

• 3rd Place (170 points): The Croissants: Lily S., Ella S., Hadeel S., and Florence W.

• 2nd Place (190 points): The Lucky Trio: Yeva C., Lexi L., and Charlotte H.

• 1st Place (200 points): Columba Doves: Katelyn C., Elodie C., Jasmine J., and Maia H.

Year 8 Winners:

• 3rd Place (190 points): The Zebras: Georgia C., Myla D., Nina S., and Florence S.

• 2nd Place (200 points): EProGreat: Gemma B., Lydia B., Lucia H., Miya H., and Cate S.

• 1st Place (210 points): Hyperpigmentation - Pretty in Pink: Rosie H., Alexis K., Lilly N., and Méabh R.

A huge congratulations to all teams for their outstanding efforts!

Next up, the ‘Columba Doves’ and ‘Hyperpigmentation - Pretty in Pink’ team will go on to represent Columba College at the Dunedin interschools competition on April 9th. We wish them the best of luck and look forward to updating you on their progress!

Well done to all participants for making this year’s EPro8 Challenge a memorable and inspiring event.