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QE engineering students so impressed industry leaders with their innovative plans for improving crane safety that they have been offered sponsorship to develop their ideas.

After their success at the Tower Crane Interest Group’s quarterly safety meeting, the Year 13 team could now go on to present their ideas to major crane manufacturers in Europe.

Burhan Ashraf, Karan Dewnani, Christopher Wong and Sachin Leelasena participated in the Engineering Education Scheme whilst in Year 12 and had to develop methods for rescuing incapacitated operators trapped in a crane seat. The challenge, over six months, was to create proposals for improving the safety of tower crane operators, using the best available technology, while also ensuring the ideas remained economically viable.

Their solution and engineering report greatly impressed the scheme’s assessors and, as a result, the team were invited to present their concepts to the crane industry leaders at their quarterly safety meeting (pictured below).

The team’s solution focused on a fundamental change to the method of removing the operator, greatly improving access and speed of the rescue. 

“It is different from anything implemented before and yet is elegant in its simplicity; they have created a system that dramatically reduces rescue times, which, ultimately, would save lives,” said QE’s Head of Technology, Simon Vincent. “The boys impressed the collected leaders of the UK tower crane industry and members of the Government’s Health and Safety Executive with their first-rate presentation and underlying concept.”

“The great advantage of this scheme to engineering companies is that the students are not held back by previous solutions and often solve problems in unexpected and innovative ways,” added Mr Vincent.

Syd Appleyard, Chairman of the Tower Crane Interest Group, has since received a number of offers of sponsorship from group members to help the pupils develop their idea further.

Three QE pupils who completed a project on biofuels for a prestigious national award have been praised as a shining example by the judges.

Ankeet Tanna, Madhi Elango and Aniruddh Raghu (pictured below, left to right) are now in Year 12, but were in Year 11 when they applied for the British Science Association CREST award in the Silver category – the category open for pupils of their age. “The boys successfully completed the award and the judges were so impressed with their project that they suggested upgrading the award to Gold!” said Dr Sarah Westcott, Chemistry teacher and Head of Pupil Progression.

The association established the CREST awards to stretch students and enrich their studies. The Silver award is aimed at 14-16 year olds and requires around 30 hours of project work. Pupils can either ask for a project to be set, or chose a topic of their own.  Aniruddh, Madhi and Ankeet worked on extracting ethanol from plant material as a possible biofuel. “The boys worked with considerable focus and dedication, although my lab did smell like a bootlegger’s for a brief period!” said Dr Westcott.

The boys chose to look at biofuel as it was a topic that interested them all and linked many areas of science together. “We wanted to see if we could help to solve a contemporary scientific issue that affects the whole planet,” said Ankeet. “Firstly we looked at the existing methods of making biofuel, then experimented with different ways of breaking down grass to give the highest yield.”

Dr Westcott added: “The CREST award is unusual in that it is not an annual event that runs to a deadline, but a rolling award that students can apply for at any time during the school year. It is then up to the pupils to invest the time and effort required to successfully complete their project.”

Four Year 12 boys will be among 1,300 pupils from across the country taking part in a prestigious annual engineering competition this year.

Ife Adepegba, Rushab Badiani, Saad Hamid and Michael Zhao (pictured below, left to right) are being sponsored in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) by local housing specialist Lovell.

QE has a history of success in the EES, which is run annually by the Engineering Development Trust. It introduces Sixth-Formers to the world of engineering and promotes links between participating schools and sponsoring local companies. The scheme also aims to attract more young people into the industry, which faces a chronic skills shortage and needs to double its graduate population by 2020.

Lovell engineers have given the QE team the task of designing a system or product that reduces the amount of ambient noise generated by metal cutting blades and sawing equipment on a construction site. The design brief stipulates that the solution should reduce noise on the construction site to safe levels, while still allowing all sizes of building materials to be cut.

The team has already been on a three-day residential workshop at Cambridge University, where they attended engineering lectures and worked with Lovell engineers and the university’s technical team to clarify their concepts and test their design.

The boys have a tough act to follow: last year’s QE team of Burhan Ashraf, Karan Dewnani, Christopher Wong and Sachin Leelasena were awarded the highest score ever recorded by the EES in the scheme’s 12-year history for their ideas for rescuing incapacitated operators trapped in the seat of a tower crane. Three of the four went on to present their ideas to some of the UK’s leading construction industry organisations, crane operators and health and safety groups, who have expressed an interest in taking their idea to the production stage and sponsoring the students’ university studies.

Six QE boys joined a congregation of former and current pupils from their primary school to celebrate its 200th anniversary at a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Omar Tamani of Year 7, Year 9s Hamza Bharmal and Jason Chen, Reuben Chacko of Year 11 and Year 13 students Adam Bharmal and Nayan Patel were all pupils at St Mary’s Primary School in Finchley. QE Senior Year Head Alexandra Pearson accompanied them to the special bicentenary service of thanksgiving in Wren’s English Baroque masterpiece.

The service included hymns, readings, prayers and a procession of current St Mary’s pupils bearing banners. The children then outlined the history of the school from its founding as a parish school in 1812, in a private house in Hendon Lane with just 15 pupils. Over 200 years the school has grown to 420 pupils with a nursery unit and is situated in specially designed buildings in Dollis Park.

“It was great seeing all my old teachers and hearing about how the school has progressed since I left,” said Reuben Chacko. “We were given reserved seats, almost directly beneath the dome and close to all the action. I enjoyed watching the St Mary’s pupils acting out Bible stories and singing in the choir. There’s no doubt the education I received there provided a solid foundation on which I have subsequently been able to build.”

Highly respected former Government Minister Lord Sassoon gave his views on the current economic situation when he spoke at a formal luncheon for QE’s Year 12 students.

Lord Sassoon, who was Commercial Secretary to the Treasury from May 2010 to January 2013, reflected on his time as a Treasury Minister under Labour and on the period working with David Cameron and George Osborne in the run-up to the last General Election.
He also gave a clear, reasoned case in support of university tuition and top-up fees.

“We very much enjoyed the talk by Lord Sassoon. He engaged in a frank question-and-answer session after his talk, which was thoroughly appreciated by the students,” said QE’s Head of Politics, Liam Hargadon. “He openly expressed controversial views about university funding – controversial in the context of 180 students about to go to university – but this served to challenge thinking amongst the audience.”

The annual luncheon, which was attended by the Headmaster and other teachers, is organised by the School to familiarise senior pupils with the format of a formal dining occasion, while also inspiring them with an interesting speaker.

Ennobled by the Coalition Government, Sir James Sassoon was previously a senior UBS banker and, from 2002-2008 one of Labour's economic advisers, with various roles in the Treasury. He left the Government earlier this year, having expressed a wish to return to the business world.

Lord Sassoon is a member of the famous Sassoon family: his father was the first cousin of the World War I poet, Siegfried Sassoon.