A team of talented young engineers showcased their skills as part of a national robotics competition, building and programming robots to take part in a series of aviation aid mission scenarios.

The 10-strong team of KS3 students competed against other teams from the West Midlands as part of the Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge.

They are all part of Highfields’ STEM club, led by Miss L Prosser.

The challenge is a curriculum-linked national programme that aims to engage 11-14 year-olds in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects by giving them the chance to learn how to build, program and control autonomous LEGO robots to complete a series of ‘missions’ using LEGO MINDSTORMS® Education EV3 sets. This year the challenge was designed around the distribution of aid, in conjunction with the RAF. The aviation-based missions included collecting and deploying aircraft and personnel, distributing aid and speed racing.

The team organised themselves into sub-teams, each with their own role to play. They designed and presented their robots to engineers from both industry and the military, explaining their designs and how they developed over time into the final robot.

They also researched, planned and presented their own response to a contemporary scientific problem developed by LEGO Education and the RAF.

Miss Prosser said: “Our research sub-team chose to look at how prosthetics and limb replacement has developed over time and how engineers support humanitarian aid in their design.

“All students were praised for their presentation skills, clearly impressing the judges with their response to questions, clarity of explanations and perseverance when things did not go quite the way they planned.”