Viewing archives for Technology

Year 13’s Muhammad Shah has won The Big Bang UK Young Technologist of the Year title for 2025.

His winning project, Icarus, is a decentralised telecommunication system designed for low-cost and effective emergency communications in remote areas: it was inspired by his love of the outdoors and of trekking.

Muhammad was one of 11 QE pupils to reach the finals of The Big Bang Competition.

Mark Wood, Social Sustainability Lead at sponsor Siemens GB&I, said: “Muhammad stood out with his decentralised communication system, which avoids reliance on cellular or satellite networks and has great opportunities for search and rescue, leisure and other business uses.

“Muhammad demonstrated independent learning and great communication and presentation skills and is a worthy winner of the prize!”

The Big Bang Competition, run by the EngineeringUK charity,  is open to young people in the UK aged 11-18 who are in state-funded education, are home-educated or who enter as part of a community group.

The Big Bang UK Young Technologist of the Year award recognises innovation in digital and sustainable technology. It highlights the importance of technology in various sectors, including search and rescue, leisure, and business.

Muhammad describes himself as an aspiring engineer who enjoys 3D printing, CAD modelling, printed circuit board (PCB) design and other electronics.

His project was inspired by the communication difficulties people experience in remote areas, and particularly by the need for better communication when people out trekking get into difficulty. Its decentralised approach avoids reliance on cellular or satellite networks.

With Muhammad unable to attend the Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s NEC because of an A-level examination, the prize was instead presented at the School’s Technology Design Showcase by EngineeringUK’s Director of Communications, Beth Elgood, and Siemens’ General Manager and UK Country Lead, Hannah Winstanley. The two also agreed to serve on the judging panel at the QE event.

Tech spec: how Muhammad solved the problem

Icarus uses a custom Meshtastic PCB based on ESP32-S3 N8R8, L76K GPS and LoRa RA-01SH, designed to be fully assembled by the online PCB service provider, JLCPCB.

Meshtastic is a decentralised, off-grid network that lets users send and receive messages using affordable, low-power devices. Icarus also makes use of LoRa, a long-range radio protocol, which is widely accessible in most regions without the need for additional licences or certifications (unlike HAM radio). These radios are designed to rebroadcast messages they receive, forming a network. This setup ensures that every group member, including those at the furthest distance, can receive messages.

All four QE teams competing at the VEX World Robotics Championships in Texas won divisional awards, with three securing the top divisional prize of a Design Award.

The teams excelled at both the V5RC competition for older pupils and at the VIQRC event for the younger competitors.

Head of Digital Teaching & Learning Michael Noonan said: “The week in Dallas began with our Year 10 teams Rogue and Nova delivering exceptional performances. When both were honoured with the Design Award – the highest judged divisional award – it was a moment of immense pride.

“In the VIQRC competition, too, our Year 9 teams, Omega and Constellation, shone very brightly. Omega secured the Build Award, recognising their robot’s outstanding construction and reliability, and Team Constellation added to QE’s growing trophy cabinet with another Design Award.”

Overseen by Mr Noonan and Technology Assistant Claudia Cunha, both V5RC teams advanced to the elimination rounds in their respective divisions, finishing 39th and 19th in qualification rankings, before being narrowly defeated in the round of 16. It was, said Mr Noonan “an impressive feat among over 80 teams per division.

“Their Design Awards celebrate not only engineering excellence, but also the meticulous documentation and innovation that went into their robot design.”

Head of Technology Bilaal Khan and Technology teacher Chantel Sinclair led QE’s teams in the VIQRC competition. Both achieved top-50 finishes in the teamwork rankings, with Omega also securing a top-50 placement in the Skills Challenge, out of more than 300 teams.

“But the best was yet to come,” said Mr Noonan. “Team Omega’s Build Award and Constellation’s Design Awards were fantastic achievements. As if that was not enough, both teams dazzled with their themed pit displays and costumes, winning the Costume Competition – a celebration of creativity and team spirit announced during the final rounds.”

Mr Noonan thanked the boys’ dedicated coaches, and their staff and student mentors for their support throughout the season.  He also thanked QE’s robotics sponsor, Kingston Technology, and the company’s ESG and Compliance Specialist, Antonia Pata.

Following his success in an international artificial intelligence competition, Year 11’s Paarth Aggarwal has now spoken at a globally acclaimed education technology exhibition and show.

Technology giant Intel asked Paarth to speak at the 2025 BETT UK after he took the national title in his age category in last year’s Intel AI Global Impact Festival. He won after impressing judges with his multi-lingual Navigate Ninja app, which uses storytelling and animated video to offer personalised learning to children with autism.

Paarth spoke in a session in the arena at the Docklands ExCel convention centre entitled Getting real about AI. “Intel requested me to talk about my project, passion, challenges encountered, value delivered, and the next steps I am taking in scaling up this solution on to the global stage,” he said.

After preparing heavily for his talk, he began by introducing himself as a QE student and then said: “I am extremely passionate about technology as I strongly believe that it has the potential to solve almost any problem that humanity ever faces.”

Reflecting afterwards, he said it had been “an overwhelming and once-in-a-lifetime experience. Speaking in front of such a large audience was an incredible opportunity to share my passion for leveraging the new-age technology, such as AI, GenAI [Generative AI], NLP [Natural Language Processing], cloud computing etc. to transform education. I talked about how my GenAI-powered app could empower millions of people around the world through personalised learning.”

It was, he added, a “golden opportunity to exchange thoughts, ideas and suggestions with my fellow Intel presenters, technocrats, industry leaders, and renowned organisations”.

Paarth explained that people with autism and with similar disabilities often struggle with the processing of information, making correct inferences, developing reading skills, and understanding information. He realised that existing methods of learning offer insufficiently peronalised learning. “Therefore, I developed an app which allows autistic individuals to have 24/7 access to personalised learning, multilingual learning in the language of choice, wider subject choices, and animations for enhanced comprehension and retention.”

With a basic form of his app now available on the Google play store, Paarth is working on connecting with investors and technology partners. “My next step is to refine the app and release it to a wider audience to allow millions of people from all over the world to have access to personalised and improved learning for free.”

Year 11 pupil Paarth Aggarwal has been named the UK winner in a global artificial intelligence competition run by technology giant Intel.

Parth took the national title in the AI Changemakers ages 13–18 category after impressing judges in the Intel AI Global Impact Festival 2024 with his multilingual GenAI-powered NavigateNinja app.

The app harnesses storytelling in a natural voice and animated video to offer personalised learning to children with autism and related conditions.

His victory, which brings prizes worth £1,000, is his second major competition success of the year: in the Summer Term, he won the European Space Agency’s Climate Detectives challenge with his AI-driven study into tackling electronic waste in Barnet.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My sincere congratulations go to Paarth on this latest success – a splendid achievement. I am encouraged not only to see his obvious mastery of AI, but also to recognise that, in line with our School ethos, he has put this exciting technology to use in ways that seek to make the world a better place.”

The competition drew thousands of entries from across the world, with Paarth’s entry being one of 111 projects to reach the global stages.

He spent many hours researching, developing, and refining the project. His app provides unique content across different subjects, based on skill level; it aims to enhance comprehension and information retention.

“Children with autism and several other similar conditions may have trouble with learning through conventional methods,” he said. “…My vision is to empower autistic children by globally launching this app and keep on adding new features like personalised avatars, voices, scenes, ‘gamification’ etc. to make learning fun, engaging and rewarding.”

Paarth used Intel Core Ultra Processor for its strong graphics and fast rendering times for complex animations. He also deployed the OpenVINO toolkit running on Intel Dev Cloud to execute AI models at scale.

His proud dad, Saurabh Aggarwal, said: “This victory is a testament to the excellent education and continuous support Paarth has been receiving from the School and his teachers.” News of Paarth’s success would, he hoped “encourage more and more students to explore the world of AI, inspire them to become the next generation of AI innovators, and realise the limitless possibilities it holds for their careers”.

• Discover further details of Paarth’s competition entry here.

Year 12’s Technology students saw for themselves how start-up Batch.Works is using 3D printing as a true manufacturing technology by focusing on specialist design techniques and by automating its array of printers.

They learned how the company is pioneering a truly sustainable approach by recycling already-recycled materials to produce the plastic filament used by the printers.

And the 17-strong group had the chance to present their own design projects to Batch.Works’s Chief Industrial Designer, Liam Hwang.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “This visit provided the Year 12 cohort with unique and exciting insights into a company that is at the leading edge of sustainable design and manufacture, using heavily recycled materials to help its customers reduce their carbon footprint, and thus making the circular economy a reality.”

Now operating out of London Fields, Hackney, and from Amsterdam (and with plans to open a base in Rotterdam soon), Batch.Works was founded by designer Milo Mcloughlin-Greening and digital fabrication specialist Julien Vaissieres.

It first made waves in its sector during the pandemic when producing PPE for East London hospitals from its then-home in Bethnal Green.

Recently awarded an innovation grant of £1.8m to create a network of manufacturing hubs that will use local recycled materials, Batch.Works is now investigating ‘urban mining’, the notion of turning waste streams into new products. It launched an equity crowdfunding campaign in September.

“Our students were absolutely thrilled to be told about the history, current works and future plans for the company by Dean Pankhurst, Design Co-ordinator at Batch Works,” said Mr Noonan.

“The company engages in specialist design for 3D printing, using the skills of industrial designers and project managers to enable a faster design-to-print lead time than most companies. Liam spoke about optimisation in design – how they alter designs to use ‘vase design’ principles so that no unnecessary bodies are created. As a result, unlike in other companies, at Batch.Works 3D printing can be used as a manufacturing technique, rather than only for making prototypes.

“Most impressive of all was that the company have themselves closed the loop of all the PLA filament they use, using recycling techniques on already recycled plastic: they are proud to use only 100% recycled materials in their work.”

During a tour, the boys first visited the company’s co-working room, where they saw technologies, collaborative techniques and methodologies similar to those which they use in their own product design work.

“Next, they were shown into the wildly impressive plant room by Dean and Liam,” said Mr Noonan. “The room contained 40 3D printers, some of which could print items as large as 1 metre square. Many of these were stacked on server cabinets, and the designers had impressively ‘hacked’ the G code [the most commonly used 3D-printing programming language] which drives the printers to turn them into automated 3D printing machines that could work around the clock. This means the rate at which the designers can prototype and manufacture is unrivalled.”

The boys were given an overview of the company’s projects and clients, from commercial giants such as M&S, to smaller medical companies and furniture businesses seeking sustainable design solutions. They were able to peruse prototypes that Batch.Works had created, including medical devices, personal hygiene products and headphones.

“It was at this point that the students began to ready themselves for their own presentations, as Liam had kindly agreed to take in the students’ presentations on their own recent vacuum cleaner projects. These, in fact, utilised many of the prototyping techniques with which he was familiar from his own studies in Product Design at the RCA and Central St Martins.”

Each pupil had five minutes to present, followed by two or three minutes of questions and direct feedback from Liam on their designs.

During the presentations, all other students were linked into a scoresheet via MS Teams and could score their peers using a system of comparative assessment. Liam and Mr Noonan had casting votes.  “Aniththan Kugathasan, Kiaron Lad and Aadish Praveen were crowned champions, earning a hearty round of applause for their superb presentation and an especially well-finished prototype.”

Liam told Mr Noonan: “The skills these students have in terms of presentation and CAD certification is very impressive – much closer to what we see from interns and graduates than from A-level students.”

Three sixth-formers won a Cambridge University competition with their design project aimed at protecting construction workers’ hearing.

After being highly commended in the Homerton College Design Programme, Shivam Singh, Yash Patel and Om Patel were invited to a residential weekend, along with more than 200 other highly commended entrants of the design challenge and a parallel essay competition.

The group had spent their first day at the college creating visual aids for their presentations. They and other teams then presented their designs to a room of about 20–30 people.

It was only when they attended the programme’s awards ceremony – held as part of the residential – that they discovered they were the overall winners, with their project receiving the highest marks in the whole competition.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “Huge congratulations go to Shivam, Yash and Om, who demonstrated both creativity and considerable application in developing and presenting their design.”

The design programme’s theme was Building a Sustainable and Healthy World. It was open to Year 12 state school pupils from across the UK.

The QE trio, who are now in Year 13, designed a speaker to reduce noise pollution caused by machinery in the construction industry.

Om explained: “We implemented an active noise-cancelling solution which used principles of superposition and destructive interference to isolate noise to specific areas, keeping workers in the general vicinity safe, as well as reducing overall noise levels.”

In their feedback, the competition judges stated that it was an “excellent project, highly detailed and innovative [that] shows a dedication to making the world a better place”.

Shivam said: “We are proud to have won. The competition was tough: we saw some inspiring innovative projects that the other competitors entered.”

During the weekend, the boys attended an environmental sustainability conference, which included lectures and discussions on topics such as energy generation and how the media presents the climate crisis.

The weekend also featured a formal dinner and opportunities to talk to current Homerton College students and gain insight into life at Cambridge.

After returning to QE, the three reflected on their experiences:

• Shivam said: “We were able to see other fascinating designs, meet like-minded individuals and discuss our designs and compare our thought processes.”
• Yash said: “This experience opened our eyes to the environmental impacts engineers must consider when creating products; it’s added one more rigorous step to the design process for my future projects.” It had, he added, been “a fun taster of university life at Cambridge” where it was “great to be surrounded by like-minded individuals”.
• Om said: “Sustainability is a hot topic of discussion; with our future dependent on the state of the physical world, it is essential that we, as the next-generation engineers, take the necessary steps to reduce our impact on the environment.”