Budding engineers and designers from primary and secondary schools across the East of England flaunted their innovative creations at an exhibition and awards ceremony at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).
The pupils participated in a UK-wide annual competition run by Primary Engineer, which asks school pupils aged between 3-19: "If you were an engineer, what would you do?". The competition aims to inspire children and make them aware of the power and breadth of opportunities within engineering.
The event celebrated the ingenuity of children from across the region. A range of designs, from magnetic coast fastening to a microchip to stop world pollution, were displayed at the exhibition at ARU’s Chelmsford campus.
The judges’ special award went to Year 6 student Elliot, who designed Machine Learning Street Lights. This project collected data to determine the amounts of cars travelling through the area each night. Based on this data, the streetlights would then learn whether they were required to switch on. This idea stood out to the judges as a way of saving electricity and minimising light pollution.
As part of the event, ARU unveiled the ‘Roller Rider’ prototype, inspired by a design submitted to the competition last year by Elsie at Buttsbury Junior School in Billericay. The Roller Rider design reinvented the function of a wheelchair to be so much more than a chair. Elsie’s design included a cup holder, lights, a retractable roof and many other insightful and innovative features. It was brought to life by the ARU prototype team, Dr Peter Marshall, Mark Tree and Dr Ahad Ramezanpour.
Dr Marshall, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at ARU, said: “When I first saw the Roller Rider it was instantly memorable, and like all the best engineering, Elsie’s design showed a ‘clarity of line’ showing both simplicity of form as well as complex function.
“The Roller Rider had a thoughtful purpose, to help Elsie’s good friend who was a wheelchair user, with functionality that she did not have on her current wheelchair.
“Some of the first-year undergraduate students worked on the forces involved in operating the retractable hood, as well as considering the ‘one-pager’ document that we had for the project. Our Skills Tutor, Dom Martyn did a lot of the structural work, and final year student Jack Sullivan worked very hard to pull everything together.”
Andrew Norris, Primary Engineer’s Head of Partnerships for Central and East England, said "Seeing the joy on the winners faces as they received their certificates with their parents and carers proudly looking on was fantastic.
“The unveiling of the ‘roller rider’ prototype was a highlight of the evening, the young lady who submitted the entry last year was invited to the stage to reveal the wheelchair with special features. Elsie was able to able to see her entry come to life and I’ll never forget her smile when she switched on the lights!”.
For more details about the competition, which saw around 50,000 entrants across the UK, visit https://leadersaward.com/about/
