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Robotics at QE went international as never before this summer, with no fewer than nine teams heading to the VEX World Championships in Texas and then, in the last week of term, a visit from the reigning senior Australian champions.

The six IQ (Year 8 and 9) and three VRC (Year 10) teams picked up a string of trophies in Dallas, while also taking time to sample the sights of the city.

Back in Barnet, the Australians’ visit was a meeting of champions, since the Australian VRC winners among the party from Barker College, Sydney, had the chance to rub shoulders with QE’s Team Nova, crowned at this year’s UK’s VRC national finals in Telford.

Head of Digital Teaching & Learning Michael Noonan said: “A last-minute opportunity arose to host the Australians, which gave talented robotics students from different sides of the world an opportunity to share ideas and best practice, and to plan for the season ahead in a symposium-style event.

“It was a great way to end a year which has seen large numbers of our boys take part in regional, national and international events, enjoying great experiences and achieving some notable triumphs, including Team Nova winning the UK tournament championship.

“2022–2023 was also a year of firsts: it included a visit in the spring to the inaugural VEX Robotics Signature Event in Las Vegas (attended by our Year 12 squads unable to attend the World Championships because of their Summer Term public examinations), and our teams being named winners or runners-up in nine separate VEX Robotics Online Challenges – which made QE the most successful organisation in the world in this format.”

The 60-strong group of 15–17 year-old Australians called in during their trip to London and Paris. Their school, Barker College, is a large, high-achieving independent school on the North Shore of Sydney.

In a message to the School before the visit, Barker College Design & Technology teacher Kevin Jones wrote: “Our teachers and students can’t get their heads around the fact you were founded in 1573!” This, he pointed out, was fully 200 years before Captain James Cook became the first European to sail along the Eastern coast of Australia.

At the World Championships in Dallas, the younger QE boys’ trophy haul included a trio of awards for Team Gearsquad and a Create Award for Year 8’s TechnoGear.

At the senior level, the 19 VRC competitors collectively came away with six awards, including an Inspire Award and the Promote Video Online Challenge Award.  Two of the three teams – Nova and Shattersquad – battled through tough early competition and successfully made it through to their divisional knockout stages.

During their time in Dallas, QE pupils: visited attractions including the Illusion Museum and Dallas Aquarium; paid their respects at the John F Kennedy memorial site (the US President was assassinated in Dallas in 1963), and enjoyed the spectacular views from the top of the iconic Reunion Tower.

3D printing entrepreneur Arian Aghababaie, co-founder of California-based Holo, shared insights into the latest developments in additive manufacturing and gave advice on engineering careers when he led two inspirational events at QE during a visit to the UK.

After working for global software firm Autodesk, based in San Francisco, Arian (OE 1998–2003) raised venture capital and successfully spun out its additive manufacturing team to form Holo, while also transitioning its technology from the 3D printing of polymers to metals. Six-and-a-half years later, Holo is at the forefront of innovation, using its proprietary digital platform to enable the manufacturing at scale of high-performance parts across a range of materials, including metals, ceramics and composites. Holo is supported by top-tier Silicon Valley investors and strategic partners.

Arian’s morning at QE began with a tour of the School, before he led a Sixth Form additive manufacturing workshop, with five of QE’s own 3D printers on hand. Later, he delivered a lunchtime talk, giving his take on careers in engineering and 3D printing.

Head of Technology Michael Noonan said: “Arian provided Year 12 with a workshop which firstly covered his professional journey to date, from his early days post PhD working on founding his own company (The Invention Works) through to his position as Senior Principal Engineer at Autodesk. Most of the workshop, however, focussed on his current company, Holo. He explained that he and the other co-founders could see the enormous potential to create a viable business in this area and so pursued it as an opportunity.”

Arian went on to explain the details around the scale of production, the materials used and the fidelity of the products which Holo’s machines can make through its own PureForm Technology.

“His technologies have a unique advantage over competitors, and he works with many major companies in the healthcare, consumer electronics, robotics, and automotive sectors, to name a few,” said Mr Noonan.

He even set the Year 12 boys a challenge to develop a product using QE’s own 3D printers. They should design (and perhaps build) a scaled-up, minimally invasive surgical instrument. His requirements were that:

• The instrument should have six degrees of freedom
• It should be able to be cable or gear-driven
• The boys’ work should include the design of at least two custom end-effectors (the devices at the end of a robotic arm, designed to interact with the environment)
• They should determine its size and features based on the capabilities of their own printers.

Bonus points were offered for the designs with the fewest components and if the end-effectors could be easily changed within the same clevis pin (part of a fastener system)!

Two examples of the boys’ work in response to the challenge are shown here.

In the lunchtime talk to Year 10, Arian took a more personal look at his story, beginning with his time at QE, when he was in Stapylton House and was a musician and prefect.

After first presenting a version of his life which had him gliding seamlessly from his first engineering degree at Bristol to gaining his doctorate, also at Bristol, moving to San Francisco in 2016 and then founding Holo the following year, he next spoke about “what it’s actually been like” – a narrative that includes leaving QE early, dropping out of university, the financial crash and the huge impact of Covid.

The lessons he learned included “stay true to your authentic self” and “don’t fear failure”.

The visit came about after Headmaster Neil Enright struck up a conversation with Arian on LinkedIn.

Mr Noonan said: “It really was a tremendous day. One of the boys involved said to me afterwards: ‘Sir, are you aware that Arian is working in the job we all dream to have one day?’ I am immensely grateful to Arian for taking the time to give back to his School and for giving our students something amazing to aspire to.”

QE’s chess team achieved third place – the School’s highest-ever finish – and won the Plate trophy at the game’s national UK school finals.

Propelled by a string of strong mid-tournament performances over the two days of the English Chess Federation National Schools’ Championship, the six-strong team secured the Plate – QE’s first trophy at the finals – with a last-round victory over number one seeds, King’s College Wimbledon.

Teacher in charge of chess, Geoff Roberts, said: “This competition is the one which every school has aspirations to win, so for Queen Elizabeth’s to come through a very strong regional group to qualify for the finals was a good achievement in itself.

“However, the team far surpassed this at the finals. Considering the calibre of the schools there, many of whom offer chess scholarships, to finish in third place was a truly outstanding achievement.”

The team had qualified for the national finals at the University of Nottingham after emerging as zonal winners following a hard-fought 3.5–2.5 victory in the North London final against The Latymer School, Edmonton.

In the first round of the nationals, QE were pitted against the second seeds, and eventual winners, Hampton School. They lost by the narrowest of margins – 3.5 to 2.5.

They quickly recovered and went on to record good results against other leading chess schools: firstly, a 5–1 victory over King Edward’s School, Birmingham, then a 3–3 draw against Westminster School, and thirdly a 4.5-1.5 victory against the Royal Grammar School, Guildford.

This set up a final-round showdown with King’s College Wimbledon. In what Mr Roberts described as his “particular highlight”, the QE six performed “superbly” to achieve a 3.5–2.5 victory and take both third place and the Plate – awarded to the highest-placed first-round losers.

The following pupils represented QE in Nottingham: Yash Mahajan, Year 13: Jason Tao, Year 11; Andreas Angelopoulos Year 11; Nishchal Thatte, Year 9; Rithwik Gururaj, Year 9, and Year 8’s Callistus Bhattacharya. In addition, Joshua John, of Year 11, and Daiwik Solanki, Year 10, represented the School in the zonal stages.

Each member of the team contributed at least 2.5 points from their five games at the national finals. Callistus finished unbeaten with 4.5 points out of 5; Nischal Thatte took 4 points out of 5 against some of the country’s top chess players playing on board 1, and team captain Yash finished with 3 points out of 5 on board 2.

“My congratulations to all the boys who have represented the School in this competition,” said Mr Roberts. He gave a particular mention to Yash “for captaining the team superbly” and “for his commitment to, and excellence in, chess throughout his seven years at Queen Elizabeth’s: this trophy is a fitting reward for his dedication.”

Mr Roberts also thanked Mathematics teacher Kirtan Shah for his support with the trip.

Almost 120 prizes were awarded to boys in the first three years of the School at Junior Awards.

Former QE First XI cricket captain and First XV rugby player Sunil Tailor (OE 1996–2006) was the guest of honour, telling the boys that he had now united his love for sport with his career in accountancy: he is the Head of Commercial Finance at reigning Premiership champions Saracens.

He even brought along the huge Premiership trophy to show the audience in the Main School Hall, where VIPs took their places, together with prize-winners, their families and staff for the afternoon ceremony.

Headmaster Neil Enright said afterwards: “Junior Awards is always one of the highlights of the end of our School year – an opportunity publicly to recognise the achievement of those who have stood out even in such a high-achieving context as Queen Elizabeth’s School.

“Gaining an award here is thus a considerable honour, and doubly so this year because the prize-winners achieved their success in our 450th anniversary year.”

The afternoon saw musical interludes played by the three year groups’ Music prize-winners. Year 7’s Eshaan Anil performed Fauré’s Elegie Op. 24 on the cello; violinist Joseph Donovan, of Year 8, played Nikki Iles’ Hay Barn Blues, and Year 9’s Shreyas Iyengar performed Beethoven’s Sonata No.8 in C minor Op.13 Pathétique Movement I Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio.

In addition to prizes for curriculum subjects, there are House awards, prizes for overall commitment and awards for extra-curricular.

In additional to congratulating the prize-winners and their families, Sunil spoke about topics including values in sport and organisational culture.

Sunil read Economics at UCL, graduating in 2009, and was a cricket coach at Middlesex from 2007–2011. He worked for more than ten years for accountancy firm MHA MacIntyre Hudson before joining Saracens in November 2022.

He chairs the newly formed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group at Saracens and last year, following the racism scandal in English cricket, he was consulted about his own experiences by Middlesex CCC.

After Sunil’s address, the winner of the Year 7 award for debating & public speaking, Afraz Khan, gave a vote of thanks.

Following the ceremony, guests and staff enjoyed refreshments on Stapylton Field.

A Year 12 pupil took up a coveted place on a prestigious summer residential at Cambridge after securing a top-50 place in the Senior Physics Challenge.

Ranvir Sinha completed 586 questions up to the deadline in the online challenge run by Isaac Physics, a Department of Education project at the university. Many of the questions involved concepts usually introduced only at undergraduate level.

He joined other top-performing students at the four-day residential placement, where they were able to conduct experiments at the world-famous Cavendish Laboratory. The residential aims to give young people an idea of what it would be like to study quantum mechanics as an undergraduate.

Assistant Head (Pupil Destinations) James Kane said: “We are delighted for Ranvir – not only for his success in qualifying, but also for the opportunity he had to experience lectures which really engaged and stretched him.”

Ranvir, who won a Diamond Certificate for his élite performance, said: “I enjoyed tackling the challenges, especially the problems relating to moments of inertia, and learning the tricks that could be used to simplify them.”

Ranvir was fulsome in his praise of the residential, where he was taught by eminent lecturers such as Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright OBE (the director of Isaac Physics and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge), Dr Anton Machacek (a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge), Dr Nicki Humphry-Baker (a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge), who sped the cohort through advanced concepts in Physics. “My favourite was the derivation of Schrödinger’s time-independent equation; it was immensely satisfying being able to prove such a fundamental part of the quantum world,” he said.

In addition to the lectures, the visiting students worked together on groups in the Cavendish Laboratory.

Ranvir was impressed with the facilities there: “It was equipped with brilliant apparatus! My group and I conducted tests for diffraction gratings, depending on the number and shape of slits that a laser would shine through – the lasers were so impressive, as were the vibrant patterns formed on our pieces of paper.”

The competition is run annually by Isaac Physics, an Open Platform for Active Learning. It aims to offer support and resources to students transitioning from GCSE to Sixth Form and through to university. Students work through the challenges at their own pace, but to a deadline.

The website states that usually the top-performing students complete in the region of 300-350 challenges in order to qualify, with weighting giving in the rankings on the higher-level challenges that they successfully complete.

Mr Kane said: “By completing well over 500 of the challenges, some at second-year undergraduate level, Ranvir demonstrated his commitment to the subject. He certainly deserved his reward – and I am glad that he enjoyed it, too.”