Community & Business
8 March, 2023
Alumnus returns to high school with UQ Racing Team
Oakey State High 2017 graduate Riley Ireland came home with members of his UQ Racing Team to give tips to students participating in the Hydrogen Horizon program.

Tertiary students from the UQ Racing Team visited Oakey State High School to pass on their wisdom to the school’s secondary students preparing for the Hydrogen Horizon Challenge.
The students were taught about the many applications of STEM in a world where “problem solving will take twice as much time at work in the future”, in the words of Queensland’s Department of Education.
Students were taught about how tertiary-level STEM enabled students to push at the brink of innovation, and directly apply their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
However the comparisons weren’t completely stream-lined - UQ’s Racing Team builds full-size electric racing vehicles, whereas Oakey’s students are building a hydrogen-powered remote-control car.
The trip was organised thanks to an Oakey connection within the team - outgoing UQ Racing executive member Riley Ireland was a past student at the school, and told students of his experiences as a high school student sitting in the same classroom.
Students in Mr Pepper’s class were interested to know about what challenged the team the most, whether they were able to balance their study with the project, and the techniques they used to make the car more efficient.
After class, the students with Mr Keenan, and Ms Edhouse followed the team outside to have a look at the car.
They were then allowed to sit in it and take photos.