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QE boys have been flexing their intellectual muscles in pupil-run publications tackling everything from the risks and opportunities presented by AI through to in-depth looks at the latest medical advances.

New editions of Artificial Times, Bioquest and The Political Times – all of them both written and edited by pupils – have just been published.

The first of these contains a wide range of perspectives on AI, examining its impact on education, society, industry, sustainability, and ethics. Its publication comes as industry experts speak out about the risk that AI could pose. They include Microsoft AI’s chief executive, Old Elizabethan Mustafa Suleyman (1995–2002), who warns that unless AI is properly controlled, it could lead to the emergence of a “silicon species” that would compete with humans for resources.

Mustafa co-founded DeepMind with his fellow OE, Sir Demis Hassabis (1988–1990), who in 2024 won a Nobel prize for Chemistry after deploying AI to predict complex protein structures. Demis has also spoken of the risks posed by AI.

Assistant Head Crispin Bonham-Carter said: “With the public discourse on artificial intelligence reaching new levels of intensity, it is good to see current pupils engaging in the debate. Our current School Plan, Boundless, prioritises our pupils becoming ‘deep thinkers and compelling communicators’ who are ‘future-ready’.

“Artificial Times, Bioquest and Political Times – and other regular pupil-run magazines, such as the Economics journal, The Econobethan, and The Arabella, covering the arts – are great examples of free-thinking scholarship in action.

“The boys’ writing in these publications demonstrates not only that our students follow the big issues of our day, but that they are also ready to grapple with them on their own initiative.

“Furthermore, through writing their articles and taking part in the publications’ editorial teams, they not only develop their written communication skills, but also show that they are well on the way to becoming ‘leaders of influence and valued collaborators’ – another of our Boundless priorities.”

Artificial Times was founded last year by Olic Fan and Hussain Hashmi, who are now in Year 13. This term’s edition – the third – features an introduction from Trudi Barrow, a specialist in design education named as AI Specialist Edufuturist of the Year 2026. It includes pupils’ detailed examinations of various aspects of AI and its implications, from Year 13 pupil Dev Malde’s The Hidden Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence to Year 11’s Arihaant Venuraju take on Bias in AI: How it Occurs, How it’s Dangerous, and How it can be Avoided. Separately, the risks of AI inspired one Year 11 pupil, Aaryan Prabhaker, to spend part of his summer penning a work of fiction on the subject: he has now presented the book to Headmaster Neil Enright.

The theme and title of the new Bioquest QE pupil publication is Sports, Driven By Biology, a set of articles highlighting biological issues across a range of different sports.

The topics covered include: How are Injuries Caused and How Do They Heal? by Year 13’s Samir Cheema; ADHD: A Curse or a Blessing, by Savya Gupta, of Year 12; Fast and Slow: The Biology of Athletics, by Zoheb Haq, of Year 13; and The Biology and Biomechanics of Mouthguards in Sport, by Taha Sebbar, of Year 13. Sushan Naresh led its eight-strong editorial team, all drawn from Year 13

In its 19 pages, The Political Times reflects on this year’s change of Prime Minister, with Year 8’s Praanaj Rai tracking Andy Burnham’s Road to PM and Adam Ahmed, of Year 9, asking the question, King of the North, or Political Chameleon?

It tackles wider topics, too. In The Political Times‘ biggest section, entitled Westminster Watch, Ehan Rattani, of Year 9, writes about The Politics of Decline and Year 11’s Sri Koustubh Yallambhatla asks How Short-Termism is Plaguing Britain. 

And while most of the publication engages with domestic politics, Year 13’s Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen looks at How Washington Lost Iran, while Year 9’s Hridhaan Joshi explores political aspects of the FIFA World Cup.

Head of Chemistry Amy Irvine was picked from among hundreds of teachers at competing schools to win the only award of its kind in a global competition.

Dr Irvine picked up the sole Teacher Award for Most Final Round Participants from the organisers of the International Chemistry Competition, which attracted schools from 190 countries.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We are very proud of Dr Irvine’s success – a just reward for all that she does to encourage enriching co-curricular activities and to promote a love of her subject.”

The award honours teachers who have shown outstanding dedication in supporting their students and in fostering a strong engagement with Chemistry and Science.

Fifty QE pupils from across the year groups took part, with 36 passing the final round. They included silver medal-winner Raihan Ahmed, who has just entered Year 13, as well as 20 boys who took bronze.

Pupils had to read challenging research papers and then combine their knowledge with problem-solving skills to answer the questions.

News of the International Chemistry Competition results came after a year of Chemistry competition participation.

This has included:

• Sixty-eight sixth-formers competing in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) UK Chemistry Olympiad winning a silver (46) or gold (22) medal, putting them in the top 8.5% of more than 17,000 competitors nationally. The paper involved tackling questions on henna tattoos, urine and chlorine in swimming pools, and malodorous isocyanide chemicals. The gold winners are listed below;
• Thirty Year 12 (now Year 13) students taking on the role of crime-busting analytical chemists helping the police in the RSC’s Schools Analyst Competition. First place in the QE round was awarded to Team Chemystery Club (Ishan Nakadi, Tuhin Mitra, Rahul Wimalendran). They were tasked with investigating a mysterious illness that had struck a person working in a local pharmacy. This involved completing challenging practical analytical techniques such as gravimetric analysis, titrations, and thin-layer chromatography;
• Fifty-two Year 12 pupils winning an award in the Cambridge C3L6 competition, with 31 of them gaining a gold award. Alex Kronabetter, Nayan Santheepan and Param Patel achieved very high scores, putting them near the top of the 15,000-plus pupils who took part nationally. The questions tested their knowledge of topics such as rates and isomerism that went far beyond their classroom syllabus.

“I am very proud of every student who has taken part in chemistry competitions and enrichment activities in the department in the past few months. They are fantastic role models who show a love of learning beyond the taught school curriculum!” said Dr Irvine.

UK Chemistry Olympiad gold medal-winners:

Year 12 (now Year 13 – pictured here)

Ashaj Vyas, Shashank Pothuganti, Adib Asfi, Mohith Sigirisetti, Ishan Nakadi, Wilson Xu, Ayaan Amin, Ishaan Mishra, Vihaan Salunke, Tuhin Mitra and Siddhant Pochalwar.

Year 13 (this summer’s leavers)

Shreyas Chandrasekar, Pranay Chawla, Ram Chockalingam, Ayan Hirani, Rohan Iranganti, Krithin Jaichandran, Hisham Khan, Robert Kotwinski, Ranajay Mehta, Timothy Mok and Zayn Phoplankar.

As they already start looking ahead to next summer’s GCSEs, three new Year 11s are celebrating their AI-powered revision app winning a top award.

The Blertly app developed by Abhiram Kakarla, Dhrishiv Panjabi and Eshwara Masina took first prize in the Best Use of AI category at this year’s TeenTech Awards.

Another QE team, whose project was also among those selected to go through to the  awards finals, won an Honourable Mention in the Next Gen Home Innovation category with their smart alarm clock.

The School’s Head of Technology, Bilaal Khan, said: “My congratulations go to these pupils, who showed a great deal of initiative and talent in using technology to provide solutions to real-world problems.”

In their promotional video for the competition, Abhiram explained what problem their app aimed to solve: “We realised that students spend far too long figuring out how to revise – [more] than actually revising. Notes in one place, flashcards in another, and AI somewhere else. So, we built Blertly to bring everything we know together into one unified platform.”

Dhrishiv added: “It plans your revision, connects with apps you already use, and adapts around your schedule. And instead of just giving answers, it actually helps you learn through personalised lessons, active recall, and exam practice.”

The TeenTech Awards were first run by the charity in 2012–2013. This year’s finals were held at the Institution of Engineering and Technology at Savoy Place, London, hosted by TeenTech’s CEO, Maggie Philbin, the veteran technology broadcaster.

The charity announced that the Best Use of AI category had been especially popular this year.

The award, which went jointly to the QE team and a team from Merchant Taylors’, was announced by Andy Kiln, Chief Technology Officer from sponsor SSCL, a large UK public sector-support company. He thanked entrants “for the huge dose of positivity” and asked that “they continue to dream big and shape the world”.

As well as individually receiving gift cards and a goody bag, the trio’s success secured a £1,000 award for the QE Technology department.

Aarav Abhijit Pathak and Adyansh Sahai, both of Year 11, entered the Next Gen Home Innovation category with their AquaLux Alarm Clock – an innovative Internet of Things (IoT) project. The awards programme summarised the problem it aimed to solve: “We’ve all been there. The alarm screams. You hit snooze and wake up forty minutes late, groggy and dehydrated.”

The alarm clock used some creative ways to encourage users to get out of bed and start their day on time – including checking whether a bedroom light is on and only stopping if the user has consumed his or her morning bedside drink. Their fully functional prototype was built from salvaged components.

The School’s younger pupils amassed a remarkable tally of 16 medals in this year’s Junior Maths Olympiad – 8% of all the prizes issued throughout the whole of the UK.

The five gold, seven silver and four bronze medals went to boys from Years 7 and 8 (entering Years 8 and 9 respectively in September) who were among the 62 QE pupils to sit the Olympiad. They qualified for it by achieving a strong score in the earlier Junior Maths Challenge (JMC) round.

Kirtan Shah, Assistant Head of Mathematics, said: “To have 16 of our students achieve medals in the Olympiad is an exceptional milestone so early in their mathematical journeys. Given that the UK Maths Trust only awards medals to the top 200 scorers across the entire country – the top 40 gold, the next 60 silver and the next 100 bronze –this is a phenomenal, élite achievement.”

He added: “We are incredibly proud of our entire Year 7 and 8 cohorts, who recently sat the Junior Maths Challenge. This competition is a wonderful opportunity to stretch our pupils and encourage them to embrace complex problem-solving.

“Whether securing a national medal or tackling the very first round, every single pupil demonstrated tremendous perseverance, enthusiasm, and a willingness to embrace a challenge. Congratulations to everyone involved!”

QE pupils qualified in some numbers for both follow-on rounds of the JMC – the Junior Mathematical Olympiad and the Junior Kangaroo. QE’s 62 Olympiad qualifiers had to fight off competition from around 1,140 pupils qualifying nationally from the JMC each year.

The Olympiad consisted of a two-hour challenge comprising six questions.

The medal-winners also received a certificate and a book, A Problem Solver’s Handbook by Andrew Jobbings, which provides guidance for those entering the UKMT’s competitions for slightly older pupils, including the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad.

The medal-winners were:

• Gold (pictured top): Year 7 – Giritrah Ghosh, Sasha Karunaratne and Adhruth Parlattaya; Year 8 – Noah Bai and Huy Bui
• Silver (middle image): Year 7 – Siddhant Sharma; Year 8 – Ehan Islam, Anirvinn Lakshmipuram Sudarshan, Arjun Mulamalla, Duc Ta, Arthur Wang and Xuen Wu
• Bronze; Year 7 – Hercules Li, Ekansh Ponnaganti and Harry Xuan; Year 8’s Dhruv Srinath.

The junior boys’ successes follows strong QE performances in both the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad and in the British Mathematical Olympiad itself, which is considered the UK’s hardest youth Maths competition. Two of this summer’s leavers, Hisham Khan and Joshua Wilkinson, reached the second round of the BMO, with Hisham named among the top 25% of the élite competitors in that final round. In the Intermediate Maths Olympiad, Year 10’s Liam Chen won a gold medal, which placed him in the top 20 nationally.

Three sixth-formers won first place in an international economics competition with their exploration of why some life-saving medicines in the US can cost more than a car – and what should be done about that.

Keshav Aggarwal, Yash Mehta and Jasmaan Sahota, who entered Year 13 this month, took the top spot in the Youth Economics Initiative’s (YEI) EconOlympiad.

As a result, they received YEI’s backing to enter the International Economics Olympiad – an élite competition which requires an organisational endorsement for each team taking part.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to Keshav, Yash and Jasmaan on this impressive achievement. Their entry not only represents a great deal of hard work, but is also an excellent example of the free-thinking scholarship we seek to nurture here at QE.”

Yash said: “US drug pricing is one of the clearest examples of economics directly affecting people’s lives. Behind every graph, market failure, patent, and policy debate are patients who may be forced to choose between financial stability and essential medication. That made this challenge especially meaningful for me.”

The QE team, Veblen Goods*, and 52 other teams entering from around the world spent ten weeks researching a complex real-world economic issue and delivering a ten-minute policy presentation. Entrants were challenged to act as policy advisers to the US Department of Health and Human Services, developing innovative solutions to address the growing crisis of soaring prescription drug prices.

The QE boys’ ten-minute presentation video proposed a balanced policy package. They examined structural challenges within the American pharmaceutical market, including patent monopolies, information asymmetry and the influence of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). The team argued that while drug price caps may improve affordability in the short term, they risk significant adverse long-term consequences, including medicine shortages and substantial reductions in investment in early-stage medical research and development.

Instead, they proposed a sophisticated three-stage policy framework designed to reduce costs while preserving incentives for pharmaceutical innovation:

• Short term: expand Medicare price negotiations using existing legislation;
• Medium term: increase competition through reforms that encourage the production and uptake of generic medicines;
• Long term: introduce government patent buyouts with immediate generic licensing, based on the economic framework developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Kremer. This approach, they said, would eliminate monopoly power while fairly compensating pharmaceutical companies, ensuring continued investment in the development of new medicines.

You can see the team’s winning pitch here. 

 * Named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, Veblen goods are types of luxury items for which demand increases as the price rises, which contradicts the typical relationship between price and demand.

With drought continuing to hit London and the South East, Year 12 geographers braved soaring temperatures to hear from academics at University College London who specialise in disasters.

Their trip to UCL’s Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction was hosted by Dr Mohammad Shamsudduha, Professor of Water Crisis and Risk Reduction, who sent the sixth-formers on their way with a stark warning and a resounding appeal: “The world is facing multiple crises and needs people who can work across disciplines and in varied contexts, and who can think in new ways to help solve those problems. Business as usual cannot continue.”

The group also heard a taster lecture from Dr Ting Sun, Associate Professor in Climate and Meteorological Hazard Risks, while other members of the department each shared their own expertise on topics that included Middle Eastern migration and natural hazards across South Asia.

Deputy Head (Academic) Anne Macdonald said: “Dr Sun’s research interests include the impacts of climate extremes in cities – especially appropriate at the moment!”

Reflecting on the visit as a whole, she said: “The themes that were covered are central to our A-level Geography curriculum, particularly in the topics of Water Cycle and Water Insecurity, Carbon Cycle and Energy Security, and Health, Human Rights and Intervention, as well as through our enrichment programme.

“It is essential that students consider questions such as: ‘How do my actions impact the world? How will societies of the future function in the face of challenges such as climate change and inequality? How can I prepare to make a positive contribution?’”

“Experiences like this encourage our students to develop the confidence, ability and responsibility to shape a more sustainable future.”

The visit began with a tour of UCL’s main campus, led by a postgraduate Architecture student. The 13 sixth-formers were also joined by Old Elizabethan Hamza Mohamed (OE 2018–2025), who has just completed his first year studying Medicine at UCL. Hamza spoke to the QE boys about university applications, student life and his experiences at UCL, offering advice and encouragement as they begin considering their own higher education.

The group received a warm welcome at the Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction. (“The risk of heat stroke was averted due to their generosity in providing a full spread of afternoon refreshments!” said Mrs Macdonald.) They heard from:

• Dr Shamsudduha, whose research focuses on hydrogeology, water security, public health, sustainable development and climate resilience, particularly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa;
• Dr Estella Carpi, Associate Professor in Humanitarian Studies, a social anthropologist specialising in conflict, migration and humanitarian responses in the Middle East;
• Dr Dan Haines, Associate Professor in Disaster and Crisis Response, an environmental historian whose work explores the politics and culture of natural hazards across South Asia;
• Dr Sun, whose research investigates the impacts of weather and climate extremes in urban environments.

“Dr Sun delivered a fascinating taster lecture on urban heat islands, explaining how artificial intelligence and climate modelling can be used to evaluate strategies for reducing heat in cities,” said Mrs Macdonald. “Students also saw a demonstration of the Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS), an urban climate model that Dr Sun helped to develop.”

Dr Shamsudduha then introduced the boys to one of today’s most pressing global challenges: freshwater salinisation. Using Bangladesh as a case study, he explained how a country with abundant monsoon rainfall can still experience severe water insecurity due to drought, flooding and climate change-induced sea level rise.

The Year 12s also took part in a practical demonstration, using conductivity meters to compare the salinity of a bottle of drinking water with seawater collected from Brighton earlier that day.

Throughout the afternoon, staff highlighted UCL’s BSc in Global Humanitarian Studies, an interdisciplinary degree launched in 2021. The course equips students with the knowledge and skills needed to address complex global challenges. Graduates progress to careers in organisations including the United Nations, governments, NGOs and international charities.