‘FUTUREMAKERS’ PRESENT WINNING VISION FOR ENGINEERS

Added: (Thu Oct 04 2001)

Pressbox (Press Release) - The Girvan Academy in South Ayrshire, Scotland won top prize in the EPSRC Schools’ Science Race 2001 website-building competition.

Girvan was one of five schools selected as finalists in the popular contest organised by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which invited schools to design and build websites highlighting the changing face of engineering in the 21st century. An additional challenge was to invent a new name for ‘engineering’ to reflect its modern high tech and traditional elements. Girvan’s winning proposal was to rename engineers as ‘FutureMakers’.

Each school had around ten minutes to present their website to a panel of judges at the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London. The judges included Professor Brian Johnson (Cambridge University), Dr Peter Radley (Chairman of Alcatel UK, the competition sponsors), David Dowle (Head of External Relations, Institution of Electrical Engineers), Jill Durdin (Head of Copyright Enquiries, Patent Office), Julia Barfield (partner with Barfield Marks, architects of The London Eye) and Dr Kerry Leslie, (Deputy Head of Public Awareness of EPSRC).

In awarding the trophy and prize of an Alcatel web touch phone to Girvan Academy, Dr Peter Radley praised the high quality of ideas from all contestants, saying that selection of an overall winner was difficult. He commended the imagination and technical skill demonstrated by the other finalists, who were:

Fairlands Middle School Cheddar, Somerset
Harton South Shields, Tyne and Wear
Queen Anne High School Dunfermline, Fife
Ysgol Y Gwendraeth Carmarthenshire


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For further information
Peter Prowse Prowse & Co, 01372 363386, email peter@prowse.co.uk
Simon Goldsworthy Project Co-ordinator, 020 8994 2093, email epsrcquiz@aol.com
Geoff Moore EPSRC, 01793 444241, email geoffrey.moore@epsrc.ac.uk

Note to editors
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) promotes and supports research and skills development in engineering and the physical sciences, for the benefit of industry in the UK and the research base. It also has the role of promoting public awareness of science, engineering and technology. It is the largest of the Government funded UK research councils, with an annual budget of around £400 million. The Schools' Science Race has become one of the major highlights of its programme of activities for schools.

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 110,000 employees and sales of EURO 31 billion in 2000, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet http://www.alcatel.com/

News release is available online at http://www.prowse.co.uk/newsf.html


04 October 2001