Worthing students win national The Big Bang engineering prize

Two Worthing students have won the intermediate engineering prize at this year’s The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition.
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Kieran Malandain and Robert Vella were in year 11 at Chatsmore Catholic High School when they qualified for the competition last year and have now won the national prize for their project The Lost Box.

The finals usually take place at The Big Bang Fair in March but when this year’s event was cancelled in light of the coronavirus, the finalists were asked to submit a video presentation instead.

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

Kieran Malandain and Robert Vella with the recovered capsuleKieran Malandain and Robert Vella with the recovered capsule
Kieran Malandain and Robert Vella with the recovered capsule

Hilary Leevers, chief executive of EngineeringUK, which organises The Big Bang competition, said: “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.

“Huge congratulations to Kieran and Robert, whose innovative project has seen them awarded as the intermediate winner in the engineering category of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition.

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

Kieran and Robert made a capsule filled with cameras, computers and sensors, helped by Chatsmore head of physics Peter Clarke, and released it on June 28, 2019.

It was carried by a large helium-filled balloon to the edge of space, to take photographs of the curvature of Earth and film the journey.

Once it reached 100,000ft, the balloon expanded and popped, causing the parachute to deploy.

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Kieran, Robert and Peter lost contact with the capsule soon after it launched, due to technical issues, and as it to fell back to Earth in Flexham Park, two miles from the anticipated landing site, they were unable to find it, despite a wide search.

Luckily, five months later, it was discovered by Billingshurst dogwalker Simon Best and reunited with its creators.

The trio later found out their project had qualified for the Big Bang Competition and

Kieran and Robert win £750 in prize money to continue on their STEM journey, as well as a trophy and certificate.

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