Student wins national engineering accolade

Published by Oakham School on Tuesday 16th of April 2013

A student from Oakham School has been judged as being one of the top young engineers in the country.

Fred Warburton, aged 18, won the accolade at the final of the National Science & Engineering Competition held at The Big Bang Fair, at Excel in London. He won the 'Young Engineers for Britain Craftsmanship Award' and was highly commended in the 'Engineering and Technology competition'. Overall he was judged to be in the top 5 in the competition. As well as this great recognition of his talent, he was also awarded £150 from entrepreneur and holder of the world land-speed record, Richard Noble. In addition, he received £250 and an ipod as part of his craftsmanship award.

Fred, who had won the regional heat at the Think Tank in Birmingham, presented his unique highchair at the national final in front of thousands of visitors, including Prince Andrew.

The competition was a gruelling mixture of discussions with judges as well as a 'Dragon's Den' style pitch to a panel of celebrity judges including Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock MBE (renowned space scientist and BBC presenter), Kate Bellingham (engineer and BBC presenter) and Mark Champkins (Inventor in Residence at the London Science Museum).

Fred 'wanted to design something safe that would fit into a modern well-designed kitchen' and he 'thought the egg-shape was symbolic as well as being stylish.' When asked how he'd be an ambassador for engineering, Fred said he'd 'like others to think that they don't just need to study Physics and Maths to be an engineer. I chose subjects that I really enjoyed for A Level; including Design, Sports Science and Politics and have an offer of a place at Brunel University to study Product Design.'

Head of Design Technology, Tim Weston, commented that; 'Fred was praised by the judges for having a commercially viable product. This was a result of the considerable hard work he had put into the design and manufacturing of the prototype. It was a hugely ambitious project for an AS Level and he certainly deserved his A Grade and this award.'

This is the 4th year in a row that Oakham pupils have been successful in achieving a place at the national final. This year the School was particularly delighted to have won two places. The Engineering Education Scheme team, sponsored by Oakham based company Meccalte, also won a place in the final. Angus Inman, Joseph Burgin, Tom Cheer and Florian Gunnewigk, impressed the judges with a great display and knowledge of how to improve rotor impregnation during the manufacture of alternators.