Can my hamster power a light bulb? Young Bognor engineer wins award in national competition

Aston Hossack, a year eight student from The Regis School, was awarded £250 in prize money to continue his STEM journey, as well as a trophy and certificate.

He bagged second place in the junior engineering category in the finals of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Competition.

Aston reached the UK finals of the competition having won a place in the regional Big Bang Fair heats at the South of England showground in Ardingly last year.

More than 300 young people from across the country were selected to be finalists of The Big Bang Competition, an annual contest designed to recognise and reward young people’s achievements in all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), as well as helping them build skills and confidence in project-based work.

The finals usually take place at The Big Bang Fair each March, but this year finalists were asked to submit a video presentation after the fair was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

A judging panel of 50 STEM professionals with specialisms across a range of areas – including astronomy, antimicrobials, health monitoring, underwater acoustics and toxicology – then chose the winners.

Hilary Leevers, chief executive of EngineeringUK, which organises The Big Bang Competition, said: “Huge congratulations to Aston whose innovative project has seen him awarded as the junior runner up in the engineering category of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Competition.

“The judges have been blown away by the quality of entries from all the finalists – not only for their brilliant new ideas but for how eloquently they spoke about them in their videos that were submitted.

“We’ve also been really impressed with all of the students for their passion and resilience in taking part this year in spite of the hugely challenging circumstances, including some students being in self-isolation during the process.

“It certainly bodes well for the future that the scientists, engineers and inventors of tomorrow are already producing such astute and creative project work – congratulations to all those involved.”

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