Burgess Hill girls Jessica Liu, Alicia Critchley, Bonnie Tse, Georgianna Kloos and Caroline Welford undertook an engineering education scheme (EES) assessment day at the University of Brighton recently, where they were awarded the national Gold CREST (creativity in science and technology) award by the British Science Association. The award, which is for ‘an outstanding contribution to research in engineering’, came at the end of a six-month engineering project with the school’s link company, Photek UK Ltd.
The girls’ project was to design and automate an ultraviolet spectrometer and was assessed by a panel of senior professional engineers. The girls were required to produce a display of their work, give a technical presentation, answer technical and problem-solving questions from the assessors and provide a formal written technical report. The project forms part of Photek’s continuing development of highly sensitive light detectors for applications such as space research and missile warning systems.