Isle of Man Pupil Tackles Winter Roads with New Prototype
Martha, a pupil at Henry Bloom Noble, submitted her engineering idea to Primary Engineer’s annual UK STEM competition which asks pupils aged 3 –19 the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?” in 2025.
She was recognised as one of the winner in her year group at the Isle of Man award ceremony, one of 25 regional UK events, in 2025.
Her solution was a spray a gritting system that can be retro-fitted to any road vehicle. The system allows the driver to deploy salt and grit in icy conditions directly in front of the driving wheels of the vehicle. Martha submitted this idea because of personal experience in trying to get to school in the mornings during snowy/icy weather.
Each year Industry and University partners of Primary Engineer choose a pupil’s idea to build into a Prototype and to be revealed a year later at the regional awards ceremony.
Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce selected Martha’s idea to bring to life during the 2025-2026 academic year. One of the primary reasons this design was chosen for prototyping, is the opportunity of upscaling the model to a full size car and its potential real world application. If one car uses this system, then, at that time, one stuck vehicle can move but the grit will stay on the road, which will help subsequent vehicles from becoming stuck in the same location. If many vehicles employ this system, then the compound effect on the road surface will become very significant. Gritted, safer roads means less accidents, less injuries, less insurance claims, less dependence on the limited number of council gritters and reduced costs for the councils or governments.
On the 22nd June 2026, the prototeam invited Martha’s class for a STEM orientated learning session on the different types of engineering and gave the class a tour of the Swagelok factory. The STEM lesson included building Balloon powered cars with a competition to see who’s travelled the furthest and we also built mini torches that students could take home. After the tour of the factory, they showed the class Martha’s spray idea with a presentation – outlining the design and build process, and then also demonstrated the prototype design for the class to see.
The finished prototype was officially unveiled on 8th July at the Isle of Man regional award ceremony hosted at University College Isle of Man.
The 2026/27 Competition is Officially OPEN so get involved to experience the fun! Register for full competition access and resources here: https://leadersaward.com/resource-area-registration/