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Five senior boys have won an early place in the global finals of a robotics event in the US, while other QE teams continue their onward march in competition by winning a string of accolades.

It is QE’s very first year of participation in the senior robotics competition, called VEX EDR. Last year, QE took part in the junior category, VEX IQ, for the first time and two teams from the School qualified for a place in the 2017 world championship, also held in the US.

The EDR team, HYBRID ALPHA, won their automatic place in the 2018 Vex Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, in April, by scooping the Excellence Award in the regional EDR event at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. QE’s ALPHA and BETA teams were pitted against teams from Coventry, Buckingham and Kent, as well as other London schools.

Alex Saika, judge for the award at Stowe and a member of the British university robotics team, praised ALPHA on the day: “This team has demonstrated excellence throughout the competition, and although they narrowly lost out in the teamwork final, we felt that they were the most consistent throughout, and have shown an overall excellent approach to solving engineering problems throughout their journey.”

The EDR competition featured a new game, The Zone, played on a 12ft x 12ft pitch, in which two alliances, comprising two teams each, competed in activities including stacking cones on goals and parking their robots.

Congratulating ALPHA, Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “Many of the other schools competing have been a part of this particular competition for a number of years, which makes this feat all the more impressive. The award made for an especially “sweet finish to the day.”

The ALPHA team are: Year 12’s Aadi Desai, together with Deshraam Ganeshamoorthy, Bhargab Ghoshal, James Tan and Ukendar Vadivel, all of Year 10.

“Not to be outdone by ALPHA, BETA achieved an accolade of their own, winning the Design Award,” Mr Noonan said. “This award is usually given to the team which finishes second in the standings for the Excellence award, and, had it not been for some earlier malfunctions, they might have had seats on the plane to the US.”

The BETA boys still have the opportunity to progress further when they compete in the National Championships in Telford in March.

The awards won at Stowe are the fourth and fifth awards accrued by the EDR teams in regional rounds so far this year, with ALPHA also winning the Judges Award at the Welwyn regional event and the Teamwork Champion and Design awards at the event hosted by Greig City Academy in Hornsey.

At IQ junior level, the QE participants, who are drawn from Years 8 and 9, have also performed strongly as they aim to emulate the achievements of last year’s teams. Against a backdrop of stiff competition from a record number of teams – and with more qualifying events still to come – three Year 9 teams, Gear Squad, Snake Byte and ECHO, have now won places in their national finals, which take place in Telford the day before the EDR finals.

“Their most challenging competition to date was undoubtedly The Henrietta Barnett School regional event, where Gear Squad were named Teamwork Champions and narrowly missed out on the automatic World Championship-qualifying Excellence Award,” said Mr Noonan. “On the same day, Gear Squad also picked up the Design Award, Snake Byte won the STEM Research award, and – our surprise package of the day – Year 8 team Technogear won the Judges Award.” Mr Noonan is hopeful that Technogear and fellow Year 8 competitors, Supercharge, will yet qualify.

“Other awards won already this year by teams include the Teamwork Champion and Judges awards won by Gear Squad at the Fortismere regional and the Judges Award won by Snake Byte at the Essex regional.”

IQ’s new game this year is called Ringmaster. It involves two robots working collaboratively in 60-second matches on a 4ft x 8ft rectangular surface to complete tasks including scoring goals with coloured rings.

The VEX robotics competitions are run to promote the use of Mathematics and Physics and to teach the basic principles of robotics through team-based design-and-make challenges. There are almost 3,000 teams worldwide across the IQ and EDR formats, with China and the US particularly prominent.

A team of QE boys has achieved the School’s best-ever result in the national final of the Senior Team Maths Challenge.

The four boys from Year 12 scored 197 points out of a possible 230 and were placed seventh out of 86 teams. Kiran Aberdeen, Bashmy Basheer, Aadi Desai and Niam Vaishnav were invited to the national final after achieving one of the highest second-place scores in the regional rounds in November 2017.

The final of the UK Mathematics Trust competition, which was held at the Royal Horticultural Halls in St James’s Park, London, was won by Ruthin School, an independent school in Denbighshire, who scored 223.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said “The boys performed very creditably against a very high-quality field of opponents.”

The challenge comprises four rounds, which test a wide range of mathematical skills. In the Group round, each team had 40 minutes in which to solve ten questions; they had to decide whether to work individually, in pairs or as a group. The Crossnumber round – crossnumbers are similar to a crossword but with numerical answers – the teams worked in pairs, with one pair taking the across clues and the other the down clues. The exercise required logic and deduction.

In the Shuttle round, the teams had to compete against the clock to answer a series of four questions, with questions 2, 3 and 4 all dependent on the answer from the previous question. In the final relay round, the teams were required to split into pairs, taking it in turns to solve problems – the round involved movement as well as Mathematics.

Kiran, the team captain, said: “It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. My favourite problem was about the number of possible routes between two vertices.”

Year 12 pupils Ibrahim Faruqi, Shaun Kapur, Ian Leung and Ankit Mehta were awarded maximum marks in their Engineering Education Scheme project.

The boys’ brief, set by Lovell Partnerships, was to design a solution to the problems of fire safety in the construction of timber frame housing. Colin Clifton, regional director for the EES praised the team on their project and acknowledged he had only seen a perfect score once before in the 10 years he has directed the scheme.

The panel was so impressed with the team’s proposals that their report is to be sent to the Health & Safety Executive for the findings to be assessed.

The boys also achieved the prestigious CREST gold award for engineering excellence.

QE has emerged strongly from the two follow-on rounds of the annual Intermediate Maths Challenge, with increased numbers of boys participating and many very strong performances.

Nineteen boys from Years 9 to 11 competed against some 1,700 students in the UK Mathematics Trust’s 2017 Intermediate Olympiad. All were invited to take part after performing very well in the first round of the challenge.

Year 9 boys James Tan and Tanishq Mehta, together with Kiran Aberdeen, of Year 11, were among the Olympiad front-runners, with scores of 56, 51 and 47 out of 60 respectively. They won distinction certificates, a medal and a book prize (awarded to the top 50). Year 11 pupils Bashmy Basheer and Nico Puthu also won distinction certificates and a medal (which is given to the top 100), while Edward Hu, of Year 10, was awarded a distinction certificate (awarded to the top 25%). Eleven more were awarded merit certificates.

A further 132 boys from Years 9–11 took part in the European Kangaroo – open to the next highest-performing entrants from round 1 across more than 30 countries. The QE contingent represented an increase of nearly 50% on last year (89) which was already double the number of qualifiers in 2015 (46).

Forty-two boys were among the top 25% internationally and thus received merit certificates – more than double last year’s QE total (20). The top scorers in each year group were: Niam Vaishnav, of Year 11, with 118; Jamie Watkin-Rees of Year 10, with 107, and Joshua Wong, of Year 9, with 124, all out of a potential maximum score of 135.

The competition is run by Kangourou sans Frontières (KSF), an independent association: its name reflects the fact that it was originated by the Australian Mathematics Trust.

Assistant Head of Mathematics, Wendy Fung, congratulated the boys on their performance in 2017 – the 15th year that the UKMT has run the Mathematical Olympiad and Kangaroo contests.  “To solve just one of the problems set is an achievement, so those who did more than that deserve corresponding praise.”

Afterwards, the boys reflected on their experiences. Tanishq found the questions “really interesting”, Kiran said that he simply had fun and Jamie added: “I really liked the questions – they use what we learn in class in a different way.”

QE has maintained its strong record of success in a national team competition that challenges young people to devise innovative ways of powering the cities of the future.

Having won the Shell Bright Ideas Challenge last year – the first time QE had entered – the School took second place in the 2017 competition, winning prize money of £4,000. In addition, the boys each received a tablet computer.

Technology teacher Shane Ryan said: “This represents a great achievement for the School and I congratulate all five boys in our team. The prize money will be invested into teaching resources for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths – the STEM subjects.”

Competition entrants were given the task of using their STEM skills to devise creative solutions to the energy challenges that cities will face in 2050.

The QE team, called TRACESE, came up with the idea of bacteria generators stored under every home that would break down food waste. This process would allow electrons to be extracted, which would, in turn, power households.

As competition prize-winners, they were treated to a VIP experience at Make the Future Live, a four-day festival of ideas and innovation, hosted by Shell at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which featured science shows, hands-on activities, interactive exhibits and careers experiences. They received wristbands allowing them to queue-jump at the exhibits and were given a free lunch, while also enjoying the opportunity to talk to Mathematics expert and TV celebrity Rachel Riley.

The team, all from Year 9, were, Gabriel Bednarkiewicz, Kaustubh Bhatnagar, Agsathan Ilamurugan, Janujan Satchi and Rukshaan Selvendira.

Having built a successful career in geology, Nicholas Holgate is now devoting himself to spreading the word about the subject among the rising generations.

Since April 2016, Nicholas (OE 1995–2002) has been volunteering as a STEM Ambassador, working with schools, colleges and employers to encourage young people to enjoy and pursue the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Four months later, he became a member of the Young Professionals Committee of PESGB – the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain – for which he co-ordinates the society’s Young Professionals Mentoring Scheme.

And during the 2016 Autumn Term, Nicholas returned to QE as one of 15 old boys who gave an overview of their careers at QE’s annual Careers Convention, which is for Year 11 boys and their parents.

His fascination for geology first took root while he was studying it as part of his Geography GCSE. “Whilst I was studying for my A-levels, I discussed this interest with a number of teachers, who helped me identify ways of exploring the discipline further outside of QE. I took it upon myself, with help from others, to go to local geological societies to explore more about the subject.”

He paid tribute to teacher Malcolm Russell (Head of Chemistry and Head of Science): “Without his guidance and support, I would not be where I am today, and I owe Dr Russell in particular a huge debt of gratitude for everything that he did.”

After leaving School, Nicholas went to Bristol University, where he took an MSci in Geology, graduating in 2006. He also served as secretary to the university’s Geological Society.

He then worked for a coal-mining company based in Australia for a year, before taking an internship with Statoil in Norway. In 2009, Nicholas returned to education to study for a PhD at Imperial College London, which he completed four years later.

Since April 2014, he has been with Shell and is currently working as a London-based Exploration Geoscientist with the energy giant’s Global New Ventures operation. His work for Shell involves conducting exploration through regional geological and geophysical studies to identify new petroleum-bearing territory and guide future investment.

He explained that it is partly because of the support he received from QE teachers and partly because of the efforts he had to make as a teenager to find out about geology beyond the School walls that he is now so keen to help young professionals and students discover more about the discipline and its attendant career options. “I try to highlight and publicise the subject when I can, just in case there is a budding geologist who is fascinated by the subject and wants to know how to get into it as a profession.”