ARU celebrates the incredible engineers of the future
Published: 25 July 2024 at 15:00
Schools from across the East of England take part in Primary Engineer competition
Talented youngsters from schools across the East of England visited Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) to receive awards and recognition for their incredible engineering ideas.
The pupils had all taken part in a national competition, run by Primary Engineer, where they answered the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”.
As part of the competition the pupils interviewed an engineer, were tasked with identifying a problem in the world around them, and then had to come up with a creative solution.
This national competition, open to ages 3-19, saw over 71,000 pupils from across the UK take part, and entries are then graded by industry professionals before going to regional judging panels. Two winners and two highly commended in each year group received trophies and framed certificates during the ceremony at ARU in Chelmsford.
Also, each year the university and industry partners of Primary Engineer select an idea to turn into a working prototype. This year “The Power Saving Kettle” was unveiled at the ceremony at ARU. Designed by Lucas, who was a Year 3 pupil at Marleigh Primary School in Cambridge, the design helps prevent overfilling and therefore wasting electricity.
The “The Up and Down Bunk Bed” stood out to the judging panel this year. The idea, created by Year 1 pupil Poppy from Necton Primary School in Norfolk, won the Judges Award and the prototype will be on display at next year's event.
Mark Tree, Interim Head of School of ARU’s School of Engineering and the Built Environment said:
“It was a pleasure to once again host the East of England Primary Engineer awards at Anglia Ruskin University.
“Technical staff and students from the School of Engineering and the Built Environment have been hard at work developing a prototype based on last year’s winning entry, and this was unveiled in the presence of its designer, Lucas from Marleigh Primary Academy.
“The prototype is a kettle which records the amount of electricity used and the cost of each individual boiling. This was inspired by Lucas’ headteacher complaining about others overfilling kettles and the amount that this was costing; an issue which we are sure is discussed in most households!
“This year saw a variety of ingenious ideas in each year group and the overall winner from this year's competition was the “Up and Down Bunk Bed”, invented by Poppy from Necton Primary School. The invention is designed to make the bed easier to tidy and make, whilst still being a bunk bed. This will be developed by a team from Anglia Ruskin University and we await with interest to see the prototype at next year's awards ceremony.”