STEM students ensure Science Fair goes off with a '˜Big Bang'

Young science enthusiasts from schools in Ballymena and the wider Northern Ireland attended the '˜Sentinus Big Bang' exhibition at the Braid recently to showcase their solutions for real world business problems, developed in partnership with a range of local businesses.
Students from Ballymena Academy with their STEM project developed in partnership with Wrightbus. Pictured are Charis Hanna, Owen Kavanagh, Andrew Heaney and Matthew Petticrew.Students from Ballymena Academy with their STEM project developed in partnership with Wrightbus. Pictured are Charis Hanna, Owen Kavanagh, Andrew Heaney and Matthew Petticrew.
Students from Ballymena Academy with their STEM project developed in partnership with Wrightbus. Pictured are Charis Hanna, Owen Kavanagh, Andrew Heaney and Matthew Petticrew.

Students came together to showcase their innovative projects in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). Incorporating the Sentinus Team R&D and Go4SET programmes, the exhibition of innovative and exciting project work was the result of student research carried out alongside industry partners to deliver state-of-the-art solutions to current real-world problems the businesses currently face.

They included an interactive model to allow NIE to demonstrate their role in the distribution of electricity, a wheelchair ramp measurement system for Wrightbus and a drone with video and photo taking capabilities for Sensata Technologies.

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Sentinus is an educational charity working with schools and colleges across Northern Ireland to deliver programmes that promote engagement in STEM and currently support the development of over 60,000 young people a year by enhancing their life skills.

On the day projects were presented to and assessed by a panel of industry experts, with the science fair acting as a warm up to the ‘Young Innovators’ event in June and helping to promote interest and engagement in STEM subjects.

The event, supported by the Department of Education and Mid and East Antrim Borough Council was part of the UK wide ‘Big Bang Near Me’ programme – the largest celebration of STEM for young people in the UK with events showing young people how exciting a career in STEM can be.