Congratulations to Beth and Sophie who were awarded major prizes in a national competition yesterday for Engineer of the Year.
Award-winning Engineering Designs
Beth Mottram in College I and Sophie Search, who is now a university student and finished Sixth Form at The Mount last summer, both won the Runner Up Engineer of the Year award in their respective age divisions at the national Big Bang Competition at the NEC in Birmingham yesterday (Thursday). Beth won runner up in the Intermediate division and Sophie took the award in the Senior division. The girls had qualified for the national competition having won top awards at NYBEP’s (North Yorkshire Business Enterprise Partnership) Design Inspirations 2017 competition.
Sophie’s Pony Helps Children With Autism
Sophie, who won NYBEP’s prestigious George Cayley Cup in 2017, had designed and built a dimensionally correct wooden pony for children to practice correctly putting on a bridle and saddle. The piece was designed specifically to allow children with autism to be able to be practice this to fluidity before coming in contact with a live animal. Research show that children with autism benefit enormously from spending time with animals such as horses and ponies, and Sophie saw this as an opportunity to make a significant impact for those children. The wooden pony also has discreet internal storage space for the tack.
Beth’s Chair Saves Space
Beth Mottram’s design, of a fold-away dining chair, was inspired by a train journey. She said, “The train was full and people had nowhere to sit. This is when the idea of a portable folding chair came to me, a chair which could be carried around like a briefcase. I found inventive new ways and features to design such as a storage unit within the chair and mechanisms to help the function of the folding legs.” Beth created her final design out of sustainable pine board and plywood in the school’s workshop.
Design Insights
Rachel Milton, Head of DT at the all-girl Quaker senior school, said, “I am thrilled for Beth and Sophie for this amazing achievement on the national stage against school students from across the UK. They worked incredibly hard on their projects and their wins are well-deserved. Mount girls consistently do extremely well in these competitions; they use incredibly sophisticated and independent thought processes in their concepts, they articulate these beautifully and the polish they imbue into the finished product is very impressive.”