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Big Bang Fair prizes for student STEM projects

Thursday 12 July 2018

Three teams of up-and-coming engineers from The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) presented innovative projects at a major regional event for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

All three teams of Y12 students impressed the judges at the Regional Big Bang Fair Yorkshire and Humber at Doncaster Racecourse, with two coming home with prizes for the engineering projects they had been working on in school.

The ‘extraordinary idea’ prize went to Matthew Giles, Laura Memmott, Gurprit Assi and Luke Waddington, who looked at ways of speeding up transport between hospitals of human organs for transplant to reduce the number lost due to time in transit.

They investigated the feasibility of using a high speed technology called hyperloop (the idea of levitating fast) to connect hospitals, and built a model and created a simulation to present at the show.

James Edmundson, Saurav Prakeerth, Tayyab Haq, Frank Price and Arun Tekchandani won the prize for best project: creativity. They came up with their project ‘reinventing the wheel’ after seeing a Goodyear Tyres video concept of spherical wheels that allow movement in any direction.

The two main challenges were how to attach the wheel and how to turn it, so they made a model with a motor to turn the wheels, which would be controlled by electromagnets to increase manoeuvrability and control.

Arun said: “It was good to share ideas with visitors at the event, we’ve been working on the project for a few months and got positive feedback. It’s been a great experience of teamwork and learning to organise everyone.”

The Big Bang Fair Yorkshire and Humber is part of the major UK-wide programme led by Engineering UK The Big Bang programme celebrates and raises the profile of young people’s achievements in STEM through the Big Bang Competition.

As well as the showcase of student STEM projects, the day included a STEM careers zone and interactive shows and activities on topics such as F1 engineering, the solar system and forensic investigation.

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