| The EESW Big Bang is an annual event supported by the North Wales Area of the Merseyside and North Wales Region. The event has grown over recent years to include both the Sixth Form project awards, as well as FI for schools aimed at younger students. Opportunities are given for companies and Institutions to showcase their organisations and to provide interactive activities for young people. This year 23 local secondary schools and colleges participated in the EESW projects which are conducted in cooperation with local companies to provide a ‘real’ solution to an engineering problem. Seven sponsored awards are given out for a number of criteria including Energy Appreciation, Innovation, Application of Engineering & Technology. Our own IMechE award is given for the Best Use of Mechanical Engineering Principles. This year we offered a prize of a fully functional Gyroscope in a display case for the school and a cash award for the team. Other sponsors include Airbus, IET, Horizon, Siemens, WJEC and First Hydro. The IMechE award was presented by Rowland Lewis, the NWA Chair, to the winning team from Coleg Meirion Dwyfor who designed a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to inspect the 1 metre Afon y Bala culvert tunnels connecting Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris on the Dinorwic pumped storage scheme. The overall winning school for the EESW projects will be invited to go to the National Big Bang Challenge in Birmingham. Supporting this event requires a number of volunteers to help with assessments of both the EESW projects and the FI challenge. Also manning a stand and engaging with young visitors. The response from our Regional membership base is always excellent. This year was no exception with 16 of our members involved in various roles during the day. We are extremely grateful to the team for giving us their time in support of such an important event in our calendar. Apologies to those who volunteered but due to the numbers we were unable to accommodate this year. Please do not let this deter you from volunteering next year! A total of 11 schools participated in the F1 for schools competition. The F1 First Place school overall will have the opportunity to represent Wales at the National competition with the possibility of going to Texas for the International finals. Our stand used the LEGO Mindstorm kits with a wind turbine simulation and a robotic colour sorter. A particular thanks to Jessica Lewis, Dennis Ubido and Edi Ubido for manning the stand for us and setting up the activities. Attendance this year was about 640 people which included over 200 students taking part in the competitions. As in previous years, this was a full day of activities for our volunteers but an extremely rewarding experience in the engagement with and encouragement of the next generation of engineers and scientists. Any members who would like to volunteer for 2017 should register their interest on: nwaleschair@imechenetwork.org |