Write a commentA St Colman's College pupil has beat over 2000 other entrants to be crowned UK Young Engineer of the Year 2015 with his Agri-Hammer invention in the finals of the prestigious National Science and Engineering Competition held last week at the NEC in Birmingham.
Eighteen year old Colum McNally won the top award with a brilliant project that hopes to make farming safer.
Colum designed and built an extremely safe and low-cost hydraulically operated agricultural machine, which combines the functions of both log splitting and fence building. Typically these tasks require two machines, which are extremely dangerous to operate (In Northern Ireland alone, one farmer dies every month from agricultural related injuries). Colum’s Agri-Hammer aims to become an economically viable product that “takes the safety off the farmers’ hands rather than taking the hands off the farmers”.
The results were announced today at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair (the launch day, of which, was visited by the Prime Minister) – the UK’s largest celebration of science and engineering for young people, at The NEC, Birmingham. Colum impressed his way to the top honours after coming face-to-face with top celebrity judges and showcasing their projects to over 75,000 visitors at the science and engineering extravaganza. This year’s Competition was the most competitive to date, with over 2,000 entrants whittled down to the 202 projects that were invited to the Fair to vie for the coveted prizes.
After a thorough selection process, five talented engineering finalists were invited to present their projects to the top panel of celebrity judges, including Jason Bradbury, Roma Agrawal and Mark Miodownik, who were impressed by the level of projects in the final round.
As the winner of UK Young Engineer of the Year, Colum will win £2,000, a trophy and an experience prize.
Colum said: “I’m very happy to have won, it’s a fantastic feeling. I’m really proud of all the work that’s gone into my project over the last year and it’s brilliant to have that recognised. I’ve been involved in engineering from a young age on the farm, just building bits and pieces as we needed them, and it’s amazing to think it’s taken me this far. Being part of this year’s National Science + Engineering Competition has been incredible and I hope I’ve inspired others to take part in next year’s Competition.”
Kate Bellingham, chair of the Engineering and technology judging panel said: "It is such an honour to be a part of the National Science + Engineering Competition. To see so many young people, with such different backgrounds and experiences, is a real pleasure as a judge. They have such passion for engineering and what you can do with it.”
"Colum is just brilliant. His project will make his work so much better, more accessible and really it is making the world a better place! Winning the Competition is a wonderful opportunity for him and I am convinced he will be a great ambassador for science and engineering in the future."
Imran Khan, Chief Executive of the British Science Association, which runs the National Science + Engineering Competition, commented: “We’re thrilled that Colum’s project has been awarded this prestigious honour at The Big Bang Fair this year. His project really caught our imagination and we hope that he will inspire other young people to enter the National Science + Engineering Competition. “Now in its eighth year, our contest has become renowned for recognising, rewarding and inspiring thousands of talented youngsters in all areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We need to nurture a new generation of bright sparks, and the Competition offers a great incentive to get youngsters experimenting and having fun with science and engineering.”
