The official launch event for the 2019 edition of the “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” Leaders Award competition from Primary Engineer has taken place to Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal.
By asking the question, “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”, the competition encourages school students across the UK to design inventions that solve real problems. UWE Bristol supports the Leaders Award in the Southwest, including hosting grading days at which all entries are graded by engineering professionals. Winning designs from around the country are built by university and industry-led teams, including one from UWE.
You can watch the original Facebook Live broadcast of Primary Engineer director Chris Rochester opening the event, alongside Dr. Susan Scurlock MBE (founder of Primary Engineer) and representatives from the three national sponsors, Gatwick Airport, National Rail and Facebook.
Can you spot our winning build design from this year, Philippa Griffiths’ Red Line Braking System built by our UWE student engineers?
We are very excited to bring you the official launch event for the 2019 edition of the “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” competition from Primary Engineer. This competition encourages 50,000 students aged 3 to 19 from across the UK to submit ideas for inventions that solve real problems in their communities; all entries are graded by engineering professionals and the winning designs are built by university and industry-led teams. The initiative aims to address the shortage of engineering professionals in the workforce: the UK Government says that over 200,000 new engineers are required per year to meet the demands of modern society. Delivering the opening remarks is Dr. Susan Scurlock MBE, founder of Primary Engineer, accompanied by representatives from the three national sponsors:Stewart Wingate (CEO of Gatwick Airport), Andy Doherty (CTO of Network Rail), and Rachel Burton (HR director of EMEA engineering, Facebook).
The Leaders Award sets this challenge to encourage children to identify a problem that engineering could solve, and devise a solution. Philippa’s invention was picked as a winning design for the South West, and then selected to be turned into a working prototype by a team of UWE Bristol engineers. Philippa’s design displays variable red lights on the back of a vehicle to alert other drivers of the severity of the braking and levels of attention needed.
The prototype was unveiled at the South West Leaders Award exhibition at UWE Bristol on Friday 14th June 2019 by Philippa, Katy and Miriam. The prototype, along with this year’s shortlisted entries, was also on display on Saturday 15th June at the University’s Exhibition and Conference Centre (ECC). Hundreds of visitors of all ages were able to try it out, as well as taking part in exciting STEM activities provided by the MOD, Aerospace Bristol, and UWE. The displays included having a go with drones, Lego Mindstorm, and a virtual reality tour of the new Engineering Building.
Congratulations to Philippa and the team for designing and creating a fantastic new engineering solution!
The winners of the 2019 Leaders Award gathered at UWE Bristol for the South
West awards ceremony on Friday 14th June.
The
competition challenged children to answer the question: ‘If you were an
engineer, what would you do?’ by identifying a problem that engineering could
solve, and devising a solution.
From magnet wielding helicopters that tow broken down cars skyward, to
surveillance parrots that alert wildlife trusts to hunters – the children’s
designs tackled a great diversity of problems in modern society.
Minister
for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Chris Skidmore joined UWE
Bristol Vice-Chancellor Steve West and MOD DE&S Air Marshall Julian Young to
congratulate those who entered the competition. While the competition launches
by using online interviews with real-life engineers to inspire the
children, they all agreed that in the end it’s the children’s designs that inspire
engineers!
Throughout
this year, engineers in EDM have been supporting the competition, by grading 4385 entries, and taking part in the
final judging panel. UWE Bristol is the
South West regional supporter alongside Defence Equipment and Support
(DE&S) – the Ministry of Defence’s procurement organisation.
The ceremony finished with a flourish, with student engineers Katy O’Hara
Nash and Miriam Cristofoletti from the EDM WISE
society, presenting the prototype they have made based on the
winning design from last year’s competition. The system, designed by Year 8 pupil
Philippa Griffiths, displays variable red lights on the back of a vehicle to
alert other drivers of the severity of the braking and levels of attention
needed.
Year 8 pupil Philippa Griffiths who designed the Red Line Braking System in 2018.
Dr Lisa Brodie, Head of Department for Engineering Design and Mathematics said:
“We are always inspired by the children’s designs for the Leaders Awards. This year our female engineering students have gone one step further by actually taking a design, and building a prototype. It shows the passion and ingenuity in our region, both from local children, but also our own students. Through these public events we want to demonstrate our commitment to developing STEM technologies and a highly-skilled workforce which can enhance our future together.”
The prototype, along with this year’s shortlisted entries, were on display on Saturday 15th June at the University’s Exhibition and Conference Centre (ECC). Hundreds of visitors of all ages were able to try it out, as well as taking part in exciting STEM activities provided by the MOD, Aerospace Bristol, and UWE. The displays included having a go with drones, Lego Mindstorm, and a virtual reality tour of the new Engineering Building.
Engineers from UWE Bristol took part in grading entries to the Leaders Award competition, which challenges children with the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”
UWE Bristol hosted the regional grading days on 1st and 2nd May with engineers judging the entries.
You can sign up to go the Leaders Award – Awards Day and private exhibition of competition designs hosted at UWE Bristol’s ECC on Friday 14th June (2-5pm). Or bring the family to check out the public open day on Saturday June 15th (10am – 3pm).
UWE Bristol’s Exhibition and Conference Centre, Frenchay Campus
Come and spot which inventions you think will be the tech of the future at the Leaders Award Exhibition day on Saturday 15th June.
You’ll be amazed by the ingenious inventions of local school children who set out to answer the question – “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” Shortlisted regional designs will be on display for the public to explore, alongside science and engineering demonstrations. Stir your curiosity with Lego Mindstorm robots, try out VR goggles, build a city, and have a go with drones.
Thousands of children from across the South West have taken
part in the Leaders
Award competition, answering the question “If you were an engineer, what
would you do?”. This free competition asks students to find a problem, invent a
solution, draw it, explain and send it in.
Our engineers from UWE Bristol and the MOD Defence Equipment and Support have been swamped with entries this year, with 4385 children entering in 2019 compared to 2712 in 2018. All the children’s designs are graded by practising engineers and given feedback for the future. The final Awards Ceremony will take place in June, with a public open day being held on Saturday June 15th at UWE Bristol (10am – 3pm).
To find out more about the event, you can register your interest here. The free event will take place in the Exhibition and Conference Centre on the Frenchay Campus, and will feature exciting science and engineering activities.
UWE Bristol is pleased to be supporting the Leaders Award, a competition which asks children the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” for another year.
This year, the grading days (in which entries that have come in for the competition are graded) will be held at UWE Bristol on 1st and 2nd May.
The Leaders Award team would like to invite engineers to grade the entries. Engineers can come for as long or as little as they like, and enjoy grading the entries that have come in from pupils aged between 3 – 19. Once registered, at https://2019southwestgrading.eventbrite.co.uk, further details about the day will be sent nearer the time.
The Leaders Awards are celebrating British Science Week 2019 by holding an Engineering Extravaganza in which they will hold two ‘Meet an Engineer’ interviews engineers every school day, starting from 8th March.
During British Science Week 2019 there will be two Live Online Engineer Events each day, available to all schools registered for the Scottish Engineering, Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards featuring:
Jenny Roberts a Mechatronic Engineer – Friday 8/3/19, 10.30 am-11.30 am
These events are expecting to very popular, so the Leaders Awards are recommending that schools who want to take part register their interest by emailing info@leadersaward.com as soon as possible citing the relevant engineer’s name and your school name in the subject line of the email.
Following a very successful online presentation for the Leaders Award in January by Rachel Kirkwood, graduate engineer at Peter Brett Associates and participant in our Women Like Me programme, she was invited back to deliver another! Rachel’s second presentation took place on Thursday 28th February 2019, reaching 1161 pupils in 10 schools across the UK.
Before the presentation, Rachel gave a taster of what she’d be talking about, and it sounds like she made a great impression on the students in her talk:
“We just wanted to say thank you very much for organising this event. Our pupils found Rachel’s talk very interesting and they were inspired by her passion for her job and for her enthusiastic responses to all of the questions. Thank you from all of us at Craigrothie Primary School.”
The Leaders Award is supported by UWE Bristol and asks children “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. This free competition asks students to find a problem, invent a solution, draw it, explain and send it in. Pupils are encouraged to both interview engineers and watch the online interviews. If you’d like to take part in the Leaders Award as an engineer or school, please get in touch with the team.
Engineers who would like to support Primary Engineer / The Leaders Award can find out more here. Schools which would like to participate in Meet an Engineer interviews can find more information here.
