Queen’s University Belfast creating the Moving Solar panel Prototype
Queen’s University of Belfast, The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will turn P6 pupil Sam’s solar panel idea into reality for their first prototype build under a new partnership between Queen’s University Belfast and Primary Engineer.
Queens University Belfast are a University Prototyping Partner for Northern Ireland as part of our annual engineering competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 ‘If you were an engineer what would you do?’ and encourages pupils come up with creative solutions to real-world problems.
Sam, a Primary 6 pupil from St Patrick’s Primary School, was awarded a Highly Commended for his design of Moving Solar Panels which automatically adjusts based on the position of the sun. Sam was inspired to create this design after working on a bird house which featured solar panels.
The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have selected his design to turn into a prototype over the 2023/2024 academic year which will be unveiled at the next Northern Ireland Awards Ceremony and Public Exhibition during the Summer term.
Beginning the Prototype
Kevin Fitzsimons, a final-year BEng student at EEECS, has selected Sam’s design to incorporate into his final-year dissertation project under the supervision of Dr Robert Best.
Over the course of the year, Kevin will be investigating the feasibility of moving solar panels to solve the problem of placement on properties which do not have a south-facing side to mount panels on. This project will develop a solution to move the panels over the pitch of a roof as per the design that Sam has created.
Kevin selected Sam’s idea as he is passionate about energy efficiency and could see that the novel approach would make this an interesting project to work on. The project also poses some challenges to overcome, including the scope around how we might showcase the model solution. We are investigating several approaches, such as the use of VR, as a means of demonstrating to Sam how the solar panels might operate in reality.
Visiting St Patrick’s Primary School, Mullanaskea
On 6 December, a team from EEECS had the pleasure of visiting St Patrick’s Primary School to meet with Sam and his classmates, along with their teachers Mrs Toal and Mr Dolan and their principal Dr O’Neill. This gave us an opportunity to chat to Sam to learn more about how he came up with the design and to invite his class to come to EEECS next year to see the prototype.
Callum Smith, a PhD candidate at EEECS, brought a Meta Quest 3 to let the pupils test out some of the latest VR technology. This showcased to the pupils the potential for how this technology could help them view Sam’s creation if we use VR to simulate the final model.
The School of EEECS would like to thank everyone at St Patrick’s Primary School for the warm welcome and hospitality on our visit – and a very special thanks to Sam’s grandmother for the delicious lunch she prepared for us before we left.
The School of EEECS are very much looking forward to welcoming the pupils and their teachers to EEECS when they have finished working on Sam’s prototype. By transforming a child’s vision into an academic research project and prototype, we hope to inspire a future generation of engineers and showcase the innovative mindset of pupils across Northern Ireland.
The original news article can be found here with credits to Queen’s University Belfast.