The Depute Provost of Renfrewshire, Cathy McEwan, has welcomed Stephen Metcalfe, MP on his inaugural visit to Scotland as HM Government Envoy for Year of Engineering. The visit came on the final grading day of the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award 2018, an innovative award that attracted more than 15,000 entries from 262 Scottish Schools. – some of the inventions will go on to be built by local colleges and universities.

Mr Metcalf, witnessed first-hand the innovative solutions to everyday problems created by the children aged between 3 and 18, as he reviewed some of the paper entries. He also met a number of entrants. He said: “The Year of Engineering is all about showing young people that engineering careers are creative, innovative and a chance to make a real difference. That’s why we’re delighted that Primary Engineer is supporting the campaign with its Leaders Award, which shines a light on the ingenuity, imagination and curiosity that make children natural engineers”.

The Scottish Engineering Leaders Award challenged children to come up with creative engineering ideas in order to inspire young people and get them excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based projects – – by asking them: ‘If you were an engineer – what would you do?’

“And they certainly showed that they are not short of an idea or two!” said awards creator and founder of Primary Engineer Dr. Susan Scurlock who launched the annual competition five years ago, “The quality and number of entrants this year demonstrates that there is a resource of potential engineers in our schools who are ready to solve everyday problems right now, and able to learn the lifelong problem finding and solving skills that will meet the challenges of the future”.

Primary Engineer is an organisation which helps teachers and school children participate in relevant and engaging STEM projects as part of their syllabus. It trains more than 2,000 teachers each year across the UK.

The ‘world changing’ drawings of inventions were graded by over 150 engineers from local companies over three days from 24th – 26th April across three college sites: Glasgow Caledonian College, Fife College, and AFRC (Advanced Forming Research Centre). The winners, which will be decided by a panel of high profile engineers will be announced at a ceremony on June 8th at The Barony, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Supported by leading organisations from the engineering sector including: Scottish Engineering, the RAF, The University of Strathclyde, WEIR Group, Clyde Marine Training, Vascutek, Babcock International Group, Skills Development Scotland, Allied Vehicles, Cloch Solicitors and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award is engaging with the engineers of the future.

Paul Sheerin, CEO of Scottish Engineering said: ‘Whenever I meet Engineers and STEM professionals that have given their time to support events like these, I’m always struck by the way they describe the extra energy that they leave with, having absorbed the output of a group of young people whose ambitions are as wide as their imagination.  It underlines the broad value of the Primary Engineer programme, inspiring the young people taking part and also the Engineering professionals who return to their organisations with a spring in their step.’

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An innovative shopping trolley designed by an 11-year-old schoolboy is to be unveiled as Glasgow Science Centre’s latest exhibit.

The ‘Trolley for the Elderly’ lifts and lowers at the flip of a switch, and was designed as part of the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award by Aidan McCann, a then P7 pupil at Cromarty Primary in Inverness.

His inspiration for the design came from his 75-year-old, 4’11” granny, who struggled with conventional carts because of her age and height.

Aidan’s Trolley now joins a long and illustrious list of Scottish inventions, including James Watt’s steam engine, John Logie Baird’s television and Thomas Newcomen’s bicycle and, from Thursday 30th November, it will be on display at the Science Centre.

Aidan McCann’s ‘Trolley for the Elderly’ story from Primary Engineer

Aiden, who won top prize at the Scottish Engineering Leaders Award with the idea, saw his plans brought to life by Masters students at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Strathclyde.

Dr Susan Scurlock, Chief Executive and Founder of Primary Engineer, said, “The competition shows us the huge potential in young people to identify and solve problems in the world. What is wonderful is that now Aidan’s invention will go on to inspire future inventors, entrepreneurs and engineers visiting the Science Centre.”

But perhaps the biggest praise for the Trolley has come from Aidan’s grandmother. ‘When my gran saw it, she really loved it. It was designed for her,’ said Aidan, who now attends Fortrose Academy in the Highlands.

The Trolley has sparked huge interest in the free competition amongst Primary and Secondary schools, with nearly 12,000 entries from pupils in Scotland last year.  Registration for this year’s competition is now open and schools can sign up via www.leadersaward.com

Stephen Breslin, CEO of Glasgow Science Centre, welcomed the new addition to their galleries saying, “Scotland has a rich heritage of scientists, innovators and engineers whose discoveries have changed the way we live today. Scientists and engineers remain at centre of our changing world and we now find ourselves with a new set of challenges to face- climate change, food and water security, the depletion of Earth’s natural resources for example. In order to meet these challenges, we must continue to build upon and develop our science and engineering base and encourage the next generation to be innovative and play an active role in addressing them. Projects like Primary Engineer are a great example of inspiring our young people and helping them find the pleasure and relevance in STEM.”

Dr Andrew McLaren, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde, said: “The UK is currently estimated to be short of around 20,000 graduate engineers annually which creates a significant skills gap in the sector and a challenging future. The work of Primary Engineer is exactly the type of programme to help ignite a passion for engineering in young people, and will go a long way to inspiring future generations of inventors for our sector.

“Aidan’s trolley invention showed creativity, and ingenuity – two of the most important traits in an engineer’s inventory. He has identified a specific challenge, and proposed an innovative solution that really catches the imagination of the public.”

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