Oxford Innovation

Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge 2009 – Winners Announced

School students from The National School, Nottingham; Carlton Le Willows School, Nottingham; Caroline Chisholm School, Northampton; Wilmslow High School, Cheshire; Guilsborough Secondary School, Northampton and Allenbourn Middle School, Dorset are celebrating after scooping awards in the Grand Final of the Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge 2009, held recently at Silverstone Circuit.

The Design Challenge is open to school students who work in teams to design new products. This third year of the competition has proved more popular than ever attracting a record number of entries from 23 teams of school students.

At the Grand Final, held in the Jimmy Brown Suite at Silverstone Circuit, the shortlisted teams displayed their designs to invited guests before entering the Dragons Den to pitch their ideas to two judging panels consisting of Andy Howlett (F1 in Schools), Terry Mitchell (Bletchley Park), Adrian Norman (Scalextric) Steve Roberts (Fripp Design) and Nick Carpenter (Delta Motorsport) in Den 1, and David Thompson and Alex Goodfellow (Silverstone Circuits), Julie Furnival (Northamptonshire Enterprise) and Sarah Franklin (Sarah Franklin Racing) in Den 2.

The Overall Winner Award was taken by Team Air from Carlton Le Willows School, Nottingham, who also won the Vehicle 2020 Award category. Team Air developed a Formula 1 car which used a combination of magnets that allowed it to hover across the race track.

The winner of the Formula Fashion Award was Team Butterfly Productions from Guilsborough Secondary School in Northampton who developed and designed a tailor made t-shirt that will be added to the merchandise range from Silverstone Circuits.

The winner of the Engineering Excellence Award was Team Sole Imagination from Caroline Chisholm School in Northampton who developed the idea for a shoe-based museum in Northampton.

The winner of the What You Call It Award was Team Compact Kitchen Company from Wilmslow High School in Cheshire who developed a kitchen appliance aimed at university students which incorporated a toaster, kettle and fridge to save space.

The Best Team Image Award went to Team Quacky Quad from the National School in Nottingham who developed the idea of a four seasons domed theme park for the Engineering Excellence category. Their image was also based around the four seasons.

The Best Team Presentation Award went to Team Stealth Bee from Allenbourn Middle School in Dorset who developed a specialist range of outdoor clothing for the Formula Fashion category.

The Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge is organised by Darren Giles, a Design Technology teacher at The National School, Nottingham, and Dianne Wilson, Manager of Silverstone Innovation Centre.

Darren Giles said: “The students have really risen to the Challenge and it has brought the whole curriculum to life for them. The teams produced impressive displays and presentations that were admired by our guests and impressed the judges. It has been a great collaboration with Silverstone Innovation Centre, whose support has made the Design Challenge possible.”

Dianne Wilson said: “Silverstone Innovation Centre is delighted to support the Design Challenge, which encourages entrepreneurship skills relevant to engineering and design at an early age. The students produced imaginative and exciting entries that really used their design technology skills and wowed the judges. We would particularly like to thank the Judging Panel for their excellent feedback to the teams and to the supporters of the Challenge who have donated prizes and really help to make the Design Challenge something special.”

The winners collected prizes that included: tickets to the F1 in Schools Final held at Autosport in January, a day with Lunar Racing at the Britcar 6hr at Silverstone, HMV vouchers, a VIP visit to Bletchley Park, a day at a race meeting with Sarah Franklin and a special edition Scalextric car.

The winner of the Formula Fashion Award also got the opportunity to work on the winning t-shirt design with Silverstone Circuit and the finished item will be sold in the outlets at the Circuit. The overall winners will also get the opportunity to spend some time with Fripp Design to learn the process of taking their design from concept to market.

Pictures from the 2009 final. Clockwise from left:
Students exhibit their design ideas, timetrials on the 1 simulator; Team Sole (winners of Engineering Excellence Award); Team Quaky Quad presenting to the Dragons (winners of Best Team Image); Students showing off their Formula Fashion designs; Team Compact Kitchen Company (winners of ‘What You Call It’) with Dragon Terry Mitchell from Bletchley Park; Team Stealth Bee showing off their Formula Fashion idea (winners of Best Team Presentation); Guilsborough School Students collecting their medals and certificates; Darren Giles (Co-Founder) of the Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge speaking to the schools; Dragons conferring after a presentation; more students presenting their Formula Fashion ideas.
Centre:
Team Air from Carlton le Willows School, Winners of the Vehicle 2020 Award and overall Design Challenge Champions for 2009 with Co-Founders Dianne Wilson (Silverstone Innovation Centre) and Darren Giles (National School).

For more information about the Design Challenge, visit www.oxin.co.uk/designchallenge or contact Dianne Wilson at d.wilson@oxin.co.uk. Tel: 01327 856000