The girls have been working with the local business Photek Limited on a real-world engineering project through the Engineering Education Scheme, England. On Wednesday 23 April 2014 they attended a Celebration & Assessment Day at Brighton University where they were assessed by panels of engineers. They were awarded a Gold Crest Award (equivalent to Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award but for Science and Engineering).
Dr Orla Kelly from Photek Limited has been working with the team – Sally Emerson, Rebecca Davess, Michelle Ngai, Valery Leung and Alexandra Wright – to develop a handheld device for measuring counts input from a photon counting camera. The team was presented with this brief in October 2013 and over the past seven months they have been challenged to develop computer software, create a graphical user interface and design and manufacture the casing for this device.
Dr Kelly, design engineer and STEM ambassador, said: “I can’t overstate how impressed I was by the standard of the projects and confidence of the students in this scheme. I was extra proud of the team from Burgess Hill School for Girls who all got the Gold Crest Award. Well done.”
