A team from St. Michael’s College, sponsored by Quinn Industrial Holdings, recently secured a place in the UK finals of the Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge. As a winner in the Northern Ireland regional heat, they competed with teams from across the U.K. at The Engineering and Technology Big Bang Fair on Friday 16th March in the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham. Narrowly missing out on the top spot in the finals. The team represented their school, and Northern Ireland, excellently in a very close fought competition.
The sponsorship of the team is part of Quinn’s ongoing partnership to support the learning and development of skills in the STEM sector for the school’s students.
“The school is delighted to have Quinn Industrial Holdings as a partner for this competition and our teams’ attendance at the Finals would not have been possible without their generous sponsorship,” said Sean Carlin, Head of Careers at St. Michael’s College.
Speaking of the achievement, Kevin Lunney of Quinn Industrial Holdings commented,
“We’re delighted to see the students of St. Michael’s College achieve such success in this competition. It’s testimony to the sterling work in the area of STEM subjects being done locally, and we’re very proud to play a part in this development. It’s very important that we as a large organisation support our future engineers, and help them gain practical skills and experience in this field. Congratulations to all involved in the recent success.”
The Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge, run by Engineering UK, introduces student teams to real-world engineering, technology, robotics and computing challenges and aims to help students put their school learning into context and discover exciting new engineering careers vital to the future of the economy.
In the NI Regional heat, the winning St. Michael’s team of 10 students built, programmed and controlled LEGO robots for a series of ‘aviation missions’. Students also had to research, design and present their own solution to a contemporary engineering problem faced by STEM professionals in the aviation industry.
The students in the St. Michaels College team are Niall Carron, Odhran Harbinson, Dominic Perrett, Ruairi Flanagan, Shay Mc Govern, Eoghan Hoy, Joseph Ferguson, Oisin Grainger, Markus Davis – Kunze, Cathal Smyth.
Engineering UK’s Chief Executive, Mark Titterington, said: “In order to meet the country’s demand for engineers we need to inspire more young people to consider a career in the industry.
“Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge aims to help young people from all backgrounds understand the variety, excitement and opportunity presented by an engineering career.”
