Children's engineering designs celebrated during event and public exhibition this week

Young aspiring engineers will attend a ceremony at UWE Bristol's exhibition centre on 14 June, where judges are to announce the South West regional winners of the Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards. Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation Chris Skidmore will join Vice-Chancellor Steve West to congratulate those who entered the competition. On 15 June, an exhibition open to the public will showcase hundreds of the shortlisted and winning designs ideas.

The competition challenged children to answer the question: 'If you were an engineer, what would you do?' by identifying a problem in society that engineering could solve, and devising a solution.

Throughout this year the University, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) - the Ministry of Defence's procurement organisation - and Primary Engineers Programmes have teamed up to deliver the South West England Region's Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards.

Earlier this year, students from the EngWest Enterprise studio at UWE Bristol built a prototype based on one of the winning designs from last year. The system, designed by Year 7 pupil Philippa Griffiths (pictured), 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, along with this year's entries, will be on display on Saturday 15 June at the University's Exhibition and Conference Centre (ECC) on its Frenchay campus, where visitors of all ages will be able to try it out, as well as take part in other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activities.

Dr Lisa Brodie, one of the coordinators of the event and who is Head of Department: 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.”

UWE Bristol is in the process of building a new purpose-built engineering building opening in September 2020 on its Frenchay campus.

For more information on Saturday's free event, visit Engineering our Future.