Eastbourne student through to final of UK-wide engineering competition

A student from St Catherine’s College in Eastbourne has been selected to compete at the UK finals of a science and engineering competition after her project caught the eye of judges.
Ludovica Knight from St Catherines College, Eastbourne is through to the finals of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition SUS-210623-113624001Ludovica Knight from St Catherines College, Eastbourne is through to the finals of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition SUS-210623-113624001
Ludovica Knight from St Catherines College, Eastbourne is through to the finals of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition SUS-210623-113624001

Ludovica Knight in Year 10 will now take her place in this year’s finals of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Competition.

Ludovica is a finalist for The Big Bang Competition, with the project entitled Mechanical Energy Storage for African Village.

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Her project was to make a model demonstration of a mechanical energy storage system.

As part of the project, she used a model wind turbine, an old clock spring and gearbox connected to a DC alternator to show that wind energy can be collected in the spring and stored for later use.

After building the model, she learnt that energy can be collected in the high-powered clock spring, but many gears were required to make the winding of the stiff spring as easy as possible.

If this can be scaled up, it would make energy storage available to remote windy places, such as the mountain villages of Chad, where energy is required to pump water wells.

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Dr Hilary Leevers, chief executive at EngineeringUK said: “Ludovica from St Catherine’s College really impressed the judges with her project and we’re excited to see how she does at the UK finals.

“It is a huge achievement to progress to this stage of the competition and Ludovica should be incredibly proud to take up her place and compete this year.”

Ludovica will find out if she is a successful winner at Big Bang Digital: Redefine the future.

Aimed at 11 to 14 year olds, the three-day event (Wedsnesday June 23 to Friday June 25) will be packed full of inspiring and interactive sessions, opening young people’s eyes to future developments they could be part of.

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Here, they will vie for top prizes including the coveted title of GSK UK Young Engineer and GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year.

This year’s Big Bang Competition is running a little differently to normal due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For more information about The Big Bang Competition and Big Bang Digital visit here: www.thebigbang.org.uk

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