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Studnets win the local round of the STEM challenge

15th March 2018

Young engineers from Helston have made a splash in a competition to build the best underwater robotic vehicle.

The team from Helston Community College triumphed in the south west STEM Challenge heats, which test skills in science, technology, engineering and maths.

Held at Falmouth Marine School, the regional heat saw Helston competing against five other teams including from Penryn College and Truro High School for girls.

The STEM Challenge, led by Subsea UK and supported by The Smallpeice Trust, is a new initiative aimed at encouraging school pupils to consider a career at sea.

Teams of year nine students compete in a design-and-make challenge for marine industries across the UK.

This time the students were tasked to design and build a remotely operated underwater vehicle using Lego Mindstorms,which produces programmable robots based on Lego building blocks.

The Helston team, with their robot named Marine Cable, were the victors of the challenge. Teacher James Allen said: "It was an inspirational day. The students threw themselves in to the challenge fully and from a personal point of view it was great to see so many young people work for nearly a whole day at a problem with very little direction."

As winners they received a Think Kit from The Smallpeice Trust, with all the tools needed to run an in-school challenge and build a floating wind turbine.

They will also travel to Aberdeen, a global centre of excellence for subsea development, for a morning of company visits before the Subsea UK STEM Challenge concludes with the final competition.

The team will have the opportunity to prove their model in a test tank and deliver a short presentation to a judging panel before the overall winner is announced.