FIRST PLACE FOR REPTON TECH TEAM IN PRESTIGIOUS ENGINEERING COMPETITION

A group of four Reptonians have been announced as the winners of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) CityZen Award - a competition 'designed to inspire young people to follow a civil engineering career path'.

Last term, Lower Sixth pupils Seb Raper, Jacob Ingleston-Orme, Louis Cholerton and William Morrison took part in the competition, completing 4 weeks of online competition against other schools and putting together a creative video project on how civil engineering could be used to improve our local area.

Working with an engineer from Jacobs, a Fortune 500 engineering company employing more than 80,000 employees globally, the Reptech team created the below video on their idea to transform the disused Willington cooling towers into a biogas generator that would recycle waste food from local supermarkets and businesses to produce clean, green energy.

Following their success in the prestigious and highly competitive contest, the team were invited down to the ICE HQ in London to enjoy lunch with the President of the ICE, Professor Anusha Shah, and Clare Mulley, daughter of late ICE member David Butler who helped fund the award.

In addition to a cash prize, the boys received an interactive learning session for Repton School provided by the JBA Trust, and a communications workshop for 100 pupils from Loud Speaker, who supported the video-creation element of the competition.

Speaking about their experiences, the boys stated that:

"This competition allowed us to feel and think like civil engineers, and to explore in detail this area of engineering. We are now all seriously exploring civil engineering at university, which in truth is solely due to this wonderful competition.

The game aspect of the competition was great fun. Alongside the teamwork and collaboration needed, it introduced us to new concepts from the world of civil engineering and gave us a real insight into the considerations and decisions we needed to make.

Working on the video allowed us to apply what we learnt in the game to a real situation, in our case the Willington power station and the generation of a novel source of renewable energy.

Our inspirational mentor Alyx Murdock really helped us through the entire competition, and we would like to thank her and especially ICE for giving us this incredible opportunity to explore the world of civil engineering.

It was thought-provoking, challenging, and great fun from start to finish – and we highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking of civil engineering as a potential degree. It really has opened our eyes to the opportunities and rewards this career would bring."

Repton's Head of Science, Dr Stuart Ingleston-Orme, supported the boys throughout the competition and comments that:

"The team got to appreciate how real-world STEM is truly multidimensional and not confined by the traditional constraints imposed by exam specifications or programmes of study.

It gave genuine insight into the roles of a civil engineer, and the issues and wider considerations that need to be made as part of their job.

The students got far more from the competition than I had ever imagined, and winning the Gold Award has very much been the icing on the cake!"