Winners of student engineering challenge announced

The 10-week Go4SET project, organised in partnership with the Engineering Development Trust (EDT), saw eight teams of six students from across the east of England present their visions and prototypes of future technologies. The challenge is part of a UK-wide initiative to raise awareness of the electronics industry, which is under threat from an 11-year, 26% decline in students undertaking the subject at university. The winners were Chelmsford County High School for Girls (overall winner) and Cambridge's Stephen Perse Foundation (pupil's vote) for a queue meter to cut down waiting times and an 'e-plate' to aid portion control and monitor food waste. During the 10-week project, students were invited to learn about electronics from 50 years ago, investigate the role electronics plays in everyday school life and devise smart electronic solutions to problems identified by their schools, before predicting what might be possible five years into the future. Gennie Franklin, EDT regional director, said: "It's important to get students engaged as early as possible to attract more into GCSE and A-level subjects that give them access to rewarding, well-paid careers in an industry that's crying out for talented people. "And to do this, programmes need to stimulate and intrigue them. The ideas that the teams came up with for this pilot just show that this new project succeeds in doing that."