Local schools win big at national engineering competition at The University of Edinburgh

On Tuesday May 28th pupils from schools across the East of Scotland visited the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering to receive awards and recognition for their engineering ideas. 

These pupils had taken part in a national competition, run by Primary Engineer, where they answered the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. Pupils get to interview an engineer and are then tasked with identifying a problem in the world around them and coming up with a creative solution to that problem 

This national competition saw over 71,000 pupils from across the UK take part, entries are then graded by industry professionals before going to regional judging panels with two winners and two highly commended in each year group. 

This week the highly commended and winning pupils were awarded trophies and framed certificates of their ideas, with 32 pupils from schools in Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and the Borders being celebrated. 

Maria Laine, president of Boeing in the UK, Ireland and Nordic region and a national partner of the competition, presented the awards on the night: 

“We know how important it is to nurture the next generation of scientists, engineers and aviators and our charitable partnerships, such as Primary Engineer, embody our commitment to shaping a brighter future for young people as well as supporting our talent pipeline”, said Maria Laine. “The ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do’ programme is pertinent but vitally, it is fun, and as a new national partner, Boeing’s 200+ STEM Ambassadors up and down the UK are enjoying every phase of this inspiring competition.” 

Every year University and Industry Partners of Primary Engineer select an idea to turn into a working Prototype, and “The Glowbot” prototype was unveiled at the ceremony. Based on the idea of a Primary 1 student from Linlithgow Primary School, the Glowbot is designed to help children who are afraid of the dark find their way to the bathroom at night. 

Professor Gareth Harrison, Head of School at the University of Edinburgh School of Engineering, opened the event: 

“We were delighted to host this event with our long-standing partners Primary Engineer. Today’s celebration event brought the pupils, teachers and engineers back together for an awards ceremony and to view the exhibition of over 200 winning and highly commended entries for the South East Scotland region. It has been fantastic to see how the children have been able to identify problems and come up with such inventive solutions. It was also great to unveil the prototype for ‘The Glowbot’, of one of the winning entries from last year’s competition, built by our technical staff in conjunction with it’s primary school creator.” 

Primary Engineer are hosting Public Exhibitions and Award Ceremonies being hosted all over the UK from May to July, with thousands of pupils engineering ideas being displayed for all to see, and you can find events near you on their website: https://leadersaward.com/exhibitions-and-events/ 

The full photo album from the event can also be found on the Leaders Award Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/leadersaward/