Institution news
In this nationwide contest, primary schools across the UK were challenged to design a fitness gadget using a micro:bit to enhance the performance of a gladiator. Our Lady of Lourdes stood out among hundreds of entries with their inventive and well-executed design.
A call to IMechE members to volunteer as judges in the competition attracted a remarkable response, with over 250 members offering to review the submissions. These engineers, from across the globe, helped narrow down the entries to a shortlist of 50.
Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal FREng CEng, who was head judge and part of the BBC’s celebrity panel to decide the winner, shared his thoughts on the experience:
“This inspiring competition has been an exciting way to introduce young people into engineering and how it can make a difference in any walk of life. It was wonderful for the 250+ IMechE member judges to see the imagination and inventiveness of the 7- to 11-year-old students and it gave us a real challenge in selecting the final group from which the BBC could chose the winners. We hope that many of these young people will themselves be inspired by their involvement and now go on to join us in the engineering profession.”
A huge thank you goes to all IMechE members who contributed their time and expertise to make this competition a success—especially the judging leads: Tom Allen, Alex Bond, John Butler, Timothy Carew, Tom Crick, Emelia Funnel, Katy Griggs, Brad Harris, Adil Imam, and Aimee Mears.
The BBC micro:bit, a pocket-sized programmable computer, has been introducing students to coding and computer science since its launch in 2015. Competitions like this one highlight its potential to spark creativity and interest in STEM among the next generation.
Find out more about IMechE's education programme: