Innovative Swansea sixth-formers have been recognised for their
hard work on a range of creative – and potentially life-changing –
projects as part of the STEM Cymru initiative.
During the past five months youngsters from across Swansea Bay
schools and colleges have been designing, engineering and testing
products and projects they have been working on in collaboration with
local industry and business. And their success was marked at an awards
ceremony at Swansea University Bay Campus on Thursday 24th March.
Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe’s collaboration with Power & Water
was picked out as the winner in the Most Innovative Application of an
Existing Technology category on Thursday.
STEM Cymru (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) events
are organised by the Engineering Education Scheme Wales, with one of the
main sponsors of Thursday’s event being Power & Water.
Power & Water’s Technical Manager, Simon Conway, said: “We have
been so impressed by the technical nous, the creativity and the
dedication to the task in hand which has been displayed by Bryn Tawe
students throughout this project.
“Here at Power & Water we pride ourselves on thinking outside the
box when it comes to problem solving – we approach every new project
and innovation in a wholly unique way – and I have to say, our way of
working has been matched by these youngsters.
“Not only did they come up with the concept of a compact,
self-contained treatment unit which we believe could change lives and
save lives, but they designed it themselves.
“The unit can, in just one day, process enough water for 200 people,
it is solar powered, completely sustainable and it needs no external
power supply. This is something we would happily include among our
catalogue of sustainable water purifying products as we can see that it
is commercially viable.
“Collaborations like this between industry and education are so
valuable and we are pleased to help Ysgol Bryn Tawe students gain real
hands-on experience.
“They have excelled themselves throughout the process, putting in
about 80 hours of hard work in the last five months and it is clear we
have some future stars of engineering and invention on our hands.”