Students excel in 'Bright Ideas' Competition

Five students from Stamford High School have won the East Midlands 'Shell Bright Ideas' competition 2020, winning £2500 for the School's science department.The team, comprising Sophie Farr, Anna Barsham, Olga Kryl, Millie Hindmarch and Ruby Sumner are now in Year 10, however entered the competition last academic year. Their task was to come up with an idea to power sustainable cities of the future, with the girls choosing to design an app that would measure wasted energy.Sophie Farr reflects on their experience of the competition: "We thoroughly enjoyed every part of the process required to enter the 'Bright Ideas Challenge'. Our team is very passionate about science and love to prove others wrong by representing women achieving in STEM."Initially, we began by brainstorming ideas and bouncing off each others' enthusiasm. Eventually, we came across our idea: creating an app to measure wasted heat energy collected by a thermo electric generator and repurposed for use throughout a household. Then we had to fill out a project report, create an video and then anxiously anticipate the result. We were over the moon when Mrs Millinson told us that we had won; it is a reputable national competition and we were honoured to have been recognised."Olga Kryl added: "'Bright Ideas Challange' was a great opportunity for us to apply our learned knowledge into solving some of the most current and constantly evolving problems. Having attended many other competitions in the past, nothing held back our enthusiasm and passion from giving it our best chance. We instantly put all of our best thoughts and ideas into making, as a result we devised the final outcome of a domestic machine TEG, which will be able to gather excess thermal energy and transport it to other household sources needing power through an app."We have worked great as a team, supporting each other and elaborating on each other's ideas, nothing could stop us, not even lockdown through which we still managed to complete many innovative projects. After all, it is great to take part in such various competitions, as they expand and broaden our understanding of the surrounding environment and allow us to discover the intricate relationship between the people and our planet."We were thrilled to find out about our win, which we felt recognized our work at a high and professional level."This win marks one of many for the team, who have also achieved highly in the 'Super Physics 2020', 'Engineers in the Making' and 'Save Our Shores' competitions, as well as being visited by local MP, Gareth Davies, to discuss their successful entry to the 'Youth Industrial Strategy Competition'. Follow more of their work through their online magazine and blog 'Cellfie' here.