Private School News

Big Bang Fair 2010

Students from Nottingham High School Design Technology Department have been celebrating following a victorious weekend at the Big Bang Fair in Manchester, which featured the finals of the National Science and Engineering competition and Young Engineer for Britain competition.
Adam Robbins (16) won the Integration and Application of Electronics prize in the Young Engineer for Britain competition. Adam won £500 for himself and £250 for the school after submitting his ‘Fishometer’ – an automatic environment monitoring and control system for fishkeepers. This controls the temperature, lighting and automatic feeding of an aquarium in an integrated hood. Continuing to innovate and develop his product, Adam has recently added a feature that allows fishkeepers to monitor and feed their pets remotely over the internet via an integrated webserver connected to an automated feeding system.
The school’s Young Engineer’s Club, led by Jack Westhoff (16) with support from Sam Wheelhouse (16), Simon Crowther (16) and Dylan Mistry (14), also won a special award for Project Management in the National Science and Engineering competition. The team showcased a number of projects they have been working on recently, including remote controlled cars designed and built by students for the Formula School’s competition, robot buggies built by club members and also automatic and solar powered boats. The £500 prize money will be used to fund club activity.
The team also showcased their recent collaborations with Arno Vale Junior School and Nottingham High Junior School where they have mentored students and helped them enter competitions at Silverstone and Nottingham Trent University.
“The boys performed fantastically at the competition and thoroughly deserve their awards,” said Paul Gray, head of design technology at Nottingham High School, who accompanied the boys to the competition. “The calibre of the projects entered in the competition were of an extremely high standard and these wins are testament to the boys engineering skills and knowledge. We are proud of them all.”
In addition, Anthony Brown (17) also exhibited his electronic home security system that allows the doors of a house to be opened and locked via a wireless system similar to a car’s central locking system.