Engineering bright sparks of the future are right here in Oldham

If you were an engineer what would you do?

That was the question posed to children from across Greater Manchester in the Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards 2018.

Eighteen bright sparks were selected as winners from over 2,400 entries from across Greater Manchester at an event at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Oldham.

The competition, run in partnership with Siemens and with special thanks to Oldham Enterprise Trust, Oldham Council and the Stoller Charitable Trust, saw entries feature inventions like: Batman House, Rainbow Machine, Flippy Fruit and The Hair Grab.

Jahnavi Gorasia, a Year 4 pupil from Coppice Primary Academy, and Rayyan Idrees, a Year 4 pupil from Lyndhurst Primary School in Oldham, were awarded the Primary Engineer Leaders Award for their Shoe Cutter and Everlasting Shoe submissions.

The Primary and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards give children the opportunity to design a solution to a problem with an explanation of why their idea should be made into a working prototype.

The Siemens Award winner for Greater Manchester is Ollie Evans for his invention, The Ollie Cap.

This invention washes your hair for you and massages your scalp.

Oldham Enterprise Trust, Chair Dave Benstead, said: “The imagination and creativity shown by the school pupils has been an inspiration to all of our students and staff who have worked on making their designs a reality.

"At Kingston we are committed to nurturing potential where ever it exists and supporting these budding young engineers to grow in confidence has been a privilege.”

Brenda Yearsley, UK Schools & Education Manager at Siemens, said: “We are delighted to support the Greater Manchester Primary Engineer Leaders’ Awards, a growing programme which encourages children to tap into the inner-engineer.

"We are excited to be part of an inclusive initiative that encourages creativity, innovation and confidence”.

Thousands of entries were shortlisted and two winners per year group across Primary and Secondary school ages were presented with their awards by Liam Weatherill, Regional Director of Primary Engineer, Councillor Javed Iqbal, the Mayor of Oldham and Dr Michael Jeschke, Materials Expert Engineer from Siemens.

The competition is particularly relevant as 2018 is the Government’s ‘Year of Engineering’ with entries highlighting the enthusiasm amongst local schools and engineers for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) opportunities.

One overall winner will be chosen in September– their entry will also be brought to life by engineering students.

The competition, created and managed by Primary Engineer Programmes, is designed to provide an opportunity for children and pupils to interview engineers about their career paths and motivation.

The Primary Engineer & Secondary Engineer Leaders Award is a national competition showcasing creative problem solving and ingenuity and had over 37,000 pupils entered this year.

Dr. Susan Scurlock, CEO and founder of Primary Engineer, said: “Greater Manchester has really come up trumps. The inspiration and creativity shown by all the children is exceptional.

"With over 2,400 entries in this region alone we are seeing pupils being inspired by engineers from across the sectors, develop problem finding and problem-solving skills and design the future of engineering.” 

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