Year 5 Pupil designs Glasses to help people with Dyslexia read easier

Millie, from Light Oaks Junior School in Greater Manchester 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?”.

She was recognised as one of the winners in her year group at the Greater Manchester award ceremony, one of 25 regional UK events, in 2024.

Her creation, Rainbow Glasses, is a pair of glasses with interchangeable coloured lenses to help people with Dyslexia, like herself, read easily.

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. The finished prototype was officially unveiled on 15th July at the Greater Manchester award ceremony hosted at Rochdale Council.

Sam Hassan, Bid and Programme Management Graduate at Thales said “We had an amazing time working with her idea Rainbow Glasses, where the lenses can change colour to help those with Dyslexia with reading by reducing visual stress. Our team of 5 and eventually 7, which grew in order to manufacture the glasses, came up with several ideas (electrochromic, thermochromic, etc) but settled on an LED solution which would colour the lenses to either Red, Green, Blue which would help Millie & others with their Dyslexia during reading. Millie’s idea was brought to life over the last 7 months where we spent time researching, planning, building and testing the idea in order to come up with a prototype that met Millie’s expectations. Our journey included; weekly meetings, getting input from researchers from the University of Georgia, delivering STEM Lessons in Millie’s School and even a site visit from Millie and her friends where we showed the final prototype with a ceremony for final acceptance. This culminated in us unveiling our prototype to Millie and others including the Mayor of Rochdale. Following our unveiling and presentation we had attendees, including Millie, expressing their delight in the design and even a member of the NHS asking us if this would progress any further.”

Sarah, Millie’s mum, attended the event and said “Millie has loved every second of this experience and it has really motivated her. She has been really excited through the whole journey and she is so hopeful about the future. Her grandad was an Engineer and this is the sector she has always wanted to work in and her dreams have been made into a reality. Thank you so much for giving Millie this opportunity.”

Millie followed on to say “Since I heard about the prototype I have felt very proud. This has been a really good experience and I have loved being involved with every single stage and felt really involved. I feel this is such an achievement and I will always treasure this experience.”

“If you were an Engineer, what would you do” is an annual, national competition free to enter for all 3-19 school pupils. Entries are open now for 2025-2026 and schools can register now at www.leadersaward.com

Primary Engineer Public Exhibitions and Award Ceremonies continue all over the UK through to July, with a total of 18 prototypes being unveiled. Read more about the prototypes: https://leadersaward.com/prototeams/