Competition details

Young Engineer for Britain 2010-2011

The competition aims to encourage and reward creative, innovative and unique marketable projects.

Today, it is true to say that virtually every aspect of our daily lives is enabled or aided in some way by engineers. Engineers make things happen, they turn ideas into real products and they provide the solutions to life’s everyday practical problems.

What makes engineering so exciting is that you can apply it to all of  the things that interest you most – these might include healthcare, the environment, sport and leisure, transport, entertainment, information technology or anything you care to name – because they all rely on engineers to a lesser or greater extent.

If you are creative, innovative and enterprising – then you have the potential to be an engineer and to help change the world for the better.

Who Can Enter

 
Students aged from 12 to 19, who attend secondary schools or colleges in the United Kingdom, are eligible. This competiton is not open to primary school students.  Entries are accepted from individuals or teams of up to four and the age of the oldest member will determine the age group in which the team is judged.

The age groups are:

Group 3. 12 – 14 Years old (year groups 7, 8 and 9 or equivalent)
Group 2. 14 -16 Years old (year groups 10 and 11 or equivalent)
Group 1. 16 -19 Years old (year groups 12 & 13 or equivalent)

Projects can be from any branch of engineering: civil, design, electronic, electrical, mechanical, IT – if its engineering then its eligible.

What To Do Next
  • Come up with a bright idea, this could be an everyday task, a social need or a brilliant innovation. However your project must contain an engineering, technology or design element!
  • Dream up a creative solution to address your bright idea.
  • Read all of the competition information located on this website, especially the terms and conditions!
  • Register your entry with Young Engineers.
  • Carry out market research.
  • Design and develop your project and consumer test your idea for user reaction.
  • Consider protecting your project or idea with intellectual property rights and patenting.
  • Create a design portfolio and photograph your project either complete or nearing completion, you may use your GCSE/ A-level or equivalent course work (a copy is fine); PowerPoint or video is also acceptable.
  • Demonstrate and display your project at a regional final starting with a short presentation followed by a question and answer session with the judges.
Awards and Prizes
 

Students that enter YEB can showcase their projects at a regional event and compete for awards, each age group overall winner will be considered for the national final, in addition other projects of merit will also be considered for the final. Students that are selected for the national final will be able to compete for cash prizes, special awards and upto three projects will be selected to attend the Intel ISEF in the USA.

Awards at Regional and National Finals (per age group)
Design, Innovation and Presentation
Product Develoment and Marketability
Manufacture and Finsh
Overall Young Engineer for Britain Age Group Winner

In addition all students that enter receive certificates of achievement, national finalists receive amazing goodies whether they win or not. The Young Engineer for Britain National Final is part of the Young Engineers Annual Celebration of Engineering which is held at The Big Bang Fair in March.

 
Judging
 
Students and their projects will be judged using the new combined criteria developed by Young Engineers and the British Science Association.  These judging sheets will be used for YEB, CREST Awards and the National Science and Engineering Competition (listed on Other Competitions),as these three activities share regional and national events. The shared critieria makes it easier for students to be judged fairly and ensures a standardisation of results. However, each activity still recognises the individual criteria that it is looking for and these have been incorporated into the judging system. A copy of the judging sheet is available upon request.
Under YEB rules students must give a short rehearsed verbal presentation to the judges about their project. This will be followed by a question and answer session.
Students must display their projects on the stand provided to them at the event, details on this will be provided prior to their attendance. Projects are normally judged twice by two different judging teams. Projects should have supporting written material contained in a portfolio. Once a project has been registered with Young Engineers we provide useful guidance notes to assist the students in preparing their project for the regional events, such as competition guidance notes, how to display and present their project.
 
Regional Events
 
The regional events will be held around the UK in June and July. The dates of the events and Regional Organiser details will be listed on the YEB Regional Event page (currently under construction). Once you have registered an entry online an email will be sent to your regional organiser who will contact you shortly with details about your regional final.

You should then confirm with your regional organiser that you will attend the event with your project.

Projects at the regional final are also eligibible for the National Science and Engineering Competition and students can dual enter via our entry form. You may also wish to consider using your project to achieve a CREST Award.

If you are unable to make your government region final then please contact the regional organiser and us here at Young Engineers and we will try to find a more suitable event for you to attend.

In addition to receiving your invitaiton to the regional final you will be provided with the event schedule and informaiton on the display stands etc.

Entries received via the YEB brochure will be treated in the same manner as the online registrations. 

 
COMPETITION ENTRY CLOSING DATES

31st May

However, regional organisers may accept late entries up until a week prior to the event – please check out the dates for your regioanl final.