South Devon College marked International Women in Engineering Day 2024 with a Girls in STEM / Engineering event, to inspire, engage and support a passion for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
Five local schools were invited into the innovative Hi Tech & Digital Centre to participate in a unique opportunity that aims to promote careers within the STEM fields, targeted especially at young women.
Hosted as a Dragon’s Den-style event, students teamed up with visiting companies to pitch a challenge of their choice to a panel of judges, aka ‘the Dragons’. The three challenges were to create a sustainable propulsion vehicle; create a microplastics clean up system, or come up with an offshore renewable power design.
The partner businesses who came in to support the event were Pennon Group (paired with Torquay Academy); Bay Photonics (paired with KEVICC); ABB (paired with SDHS); Torbay Pharmaceuticals (working with Dawlish College); and CSS/TCS Technical Composite Systems (collaborating with Paignton Academy).
Florenie Ermeje, a former South Devon College student who now works for Unity5, attended the day as an ambassador for women in STEM, helping the students to brainstorm and design their ideas.
The teams had planned their project in the weeks leading up to the event, so on the day they had a challenging three hours to prepare their proposals before presenting the idea to the panel of judges.
The College was pleased to welcome industry leaders who judged the projects on the day. Judges were Professor Kelly Pickard-Smith, Founder and Director of Lighthouse Insights Ltd and (PhD) Hon Professor of Professional Learning and Social Justice at the University of Kent; Jacqueline Hobson, Enterprise Coordinator (Torbay, South Hams and Newton Abbot) Devon, for Plymouth & Torbay Careers Hub; Adrian Bevin, Head of Curriculum for Technology, South Devon College; Connor Conneely, Senior Economic Development Officer for Torbay Council; and Charlie Yabsley, from Glo Renewables.
Connor Conneely said: “It was such an inspiring morning seeing the girls work in teams and then come up with such creative and innovative ideas in a short period of time!”
The visiting schools thoroughly enjoyed the chance to learn more about STEM and the career opportunities available. A teacher from KEVICC said: ”Our students really enjoyed the day and returned to school absolutely buzzing!“
The standard of proposals was very high on the day, and the judges deemed it a ‘very close call’, but the overall winner of the Girls in STEM 2024 award was Dawlish College!
The winning team completed the ‘Microplastics Clean Up Project’ challenge, with their ‘Sheila the Shark’ idea, a waste clean-up propelled shark that vacuumed and filtered microplastics, storing them in a waste compartment, powered by solar and tidal energy. Sheila would skim just above the sea bed, where the highest concentration of microplastics are. Once the storage compartment is full, the shark would automatically return to the main storage facility to offload and head back out to sea.
Jacqueline Hobson, who was on the judging board, commented: “The STEM event by South Devon College was enriching for students in so many ways. They were introduced to current environmental challenges and experienced excellent mentoring from employers engaged in the sectors.
“The employers have a wealth of experience and knowledge and supported students to become fully immersed in problem solving within teams, developing their communication skills and knowledge.
“Students from a variety of local schools were also introduced to potential career options, informing their own future choices. It was a magical day and I felt honoured to be involved.”
Staff at South Devon College would like to thank everyone for their involvement and for giving up their time so generously to inspire a new generation of young people and to highlight the opportunities available within the STEM industries.
Charlotte Bounsall, Events & Projects Coordinator at South Devon College, said: “We are very much hoping to host this event again next year and look forward to welcoming more girls to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day 2025!”
