A former army brigadier and UK Director General of the Institute of Civil of Engineering Nick Baveystock and 3 WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) women arrive in the small town of Barcelos in Portugal to take part in The Little Scientists Network designed to encourage the study of STEM subjects by school children. Professor Tara Moore, WISE HERO award winner 2014, has made tremendous impact on people’s health, well-being and safety through her contributions to science while her 2 co-nominees Dr. Ceri Lewis and Dr. Renata Gomes bring curriculum relevant work of real scientists, an Arctic expedition no less, to the classroom respectively and mend broken hearts with stem cells, respectively.
The competition ‘A Little Scientist’ now in its 7th year invites 6-17 year olds from across Portugal and some of Spain and surrounding Islands to submit their innovative scientific ideas. Previous inventions from the competition include a device, which can identify blood type in ambulances within 3 minutes. This and other ideas have been patented and used by companies such as Tesla Motors. From 30 shortlisted finalists of 500 applications, winners were chosen and prizes presented by Nick Baveystock and the WISE Girls on Saturday after they each delivered guest lectures in their own STEM subject areas.. So why was this event important to them I asked.
“Science is all about networks” says Professor Moore. “Scientists travel globally and depend upon each other for sharing expertise and knowledge and collaboration underpins success in science. Without such mobility discoveries cannot be shared and translated to the patient as quickly. The UK’s involvement in projects across Europe, is particularly important now for securing large pots of H2020 monies available to fund excellent research globally.”
Nick Baveystock has worked to encourage more children to follow career paths in engineering and believes this is essential in solving many of the world’s current problems. “Implementing this on a global level will have additional benefits in strengthening global relations looking to the future.” He says.
British Heart Foundation Scientist Dr. Renata Gomes, the Godmother of A Little Scientist event itself explains that the event has been growing in size over the past years and it hopes to extend even further across Europe by next year.
A great day of learning was enjoyed by all the kids and the prize winning teams designed a novel urine filtration system, laser radiation sound transmission systems, novel environmentally friendly pest control agents and a new 3D printer combined scanner. The research scholarship was awarded for a research project into the environment on Mars in preparation for future human colonization of this neighbor planet. These young scientists dream one day of attending Oxford or Cambridge University to study, so watch this space, all the WISE girls and Nick Baveystock are assured that we have a few brilliant young scientists in the making in Portugal today.
Innovative Scientific Idea – Drunken Vision