Y12 students take part in Dyson Design Challenge

On Wednesday 14th May, a group of ten Y12 students visited Eton School for an engineering design challenge run by Dyson. We had a great day as we enjoyed the opportunity to see the environment at Eton and then put our engineering skills to use. We were notably impressed by the prestige of Eton’s school uniform – yet we were glad we don’t have to wear suits to school!

Despite a delayed arrival, we got straight into designing projects to meet the brief: design an item that uses air to solve a problem in the household. We were separated into teams, so that we got the opportunity to work with students we’d never met before. The team we (Emma and Evie) were a part of chose to focus on a parasol for the garden, which also functions as an air conditioning unit. We were up against pupils from a range of other schools, including Sixth Form students from Eton.

After about twenty minutes of designing our project, we went to Eton’s impressive design labs to start prototyping. Whilst we weren’t expected to make a functioning machine, Dyson provided us with an array of components from their vacuums and other products, so that we could design models. We utilised the tube of a vacuum as our shaft, and then built a base and the canopy out of cardboard, tape and lots of glue. Ultimately, we ended up with a prototype that matched the essence of the product we had designed. After a nice lunch in the courtyard, we put the finishing touches to our products, ready to present our ideas.

We presented our projects to the other groups and a panel of Dyson engineers. Many interesting ideas were presented, from sock drying machines to wall mounted dish dryers and bug-catching lamps. Overall, a decision had to be made on the winning idea, which was a range of bug-catching suction guns to catch any unwanted creepy crawlies. There were some concerns voiced over the wellbeing and safety of these bugs, however we were assured that the Dyson-based suction devices would be bug friendly. Well done to our own Donea for being part of this winning team!

Thank you to Mr Bowes for organising the trip and to Ms Lord and Ms Chrysanthou for supporting us on the long journey there.

Report written by Emma and Evie (Y12)