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QE boys have been flexing their intellectual muscles in pupil-run publications tackling everything from the risks and opportunities presented by AI through to in-depth looks at the latest medical advances.

New editions of Artificial Times, Bioquest and The Political Times – all of them both written and edited by pupils – have just been published.

The first of these contains a wide range of perspectives on AI, examining its impact on education, society, industry, sustainability, and ethics. Its publication comes as industry experts speak out about the risk that AI could pose. They include Microsoft AI’s chief executive, Old Elizabethan Mustafa Suleyman (1995–2002), who warns that unless AI is properly controlled, it could lead to the emergence of a “silicon species” that would compete with humans for resources.

Mustafa co-founded DeepMind with his fellow OE, Sir Demis Hassabis (1988–1990), who in 2024 won a Nobel prize for Chemistry after deploying AI to predict complex protein structures. Demis has also spoken of the risks posed by AI.

Assistant Head Crispin Bonham-Carter said: “With the public discourse on artificial intelligence reaching new levels of intensity, it is good to see current pupils engaging in the debate. Our current School Plan, Boundless, prioritises our pupils becoming ‘deep thinkers and compelling communicators’ who are ‘future-ready’.

“Artificial Times, Bioquest and Political Times – and other regular pupil-run magazines, such as the Economics journal, The Econobethan, and The Arabella, covering the arts – are great examples of free-thinking scholarship in action.

“The boys’ writing in these publications demonstrates not only that our students follow the big issues of our day, but that they are also ready to grapple with them on their own initiative.

“Furthermore, through writing their articles and taking part in the publications’ editorial teams, they not only develop their written communication skills, but also show that they are well on the way to becoming ‘leaders of influence and valued collaborators’ – another of our Boundless priorities.”

Artificial Times was founded last year by Olic Fan and Hussain Hashmi, who are now in Year 13. This term’s edition – the third – features an introduction from Trudi Barrow, a specialist in design education named as AI Specialist Edufuturist of the Year 2026. It includes pupils’ detailed examinations of various aspects of AI and its implications, from Year 13 pupil Dev Malde’s The Hidden Environmental Cost of Artificial Intelligence to Year 11’s Arihaant Venuraju take on Bias in AI: How it Occurs, How it’s Dangerous, and How it can be Avoided. Separately, the risks of AI inspired one Year 11 pupil, Aaryan Prabhaker, to spend part of his summer penning a work of fiction on the subject: he has now presented the book to Headmaster Neil Enright.

The theme and title of the new Bioquest QE pupil publication is Sports, Driven By Biology, a set of articles highlighting biological issues across a range of different sports.

The topics covered include: How are Injuries Caused and How Do They Heal? by Year 13’s Samir Cheema; ADHD: A Curse or a Blessing, by Savya Gupta, of Year 12; Fast and Slow: The Biology of Athletics, by Zoheb Haq, of Year 13; and The Biology and Biomechanics of Mouthguards in Sport, by Taha Sebbar, of Year 13. Sushan Naresh led its eight-strong editorial team, all drawn from Year 13

In its 19 pages, The Political Times reflects on this year’s change of Prime Minister, with Year 8’s Praanaj Rai tracking Andy Burnham’s Road to PM and Adam Ahmed, of Year 9, asking the question, King of the North, or Political Chameleon?

It tackles wider topics, too. In The Political Times‘ biggest section, entitled Westminster Watch, Ehan Rattani, of Year 9, writes about The Politics of Decline and Year 11’s Sri Koustubh Yallambhatla asks How Short-Termism is Plaguing Britain. 

And while most of the publication engages with domestic politics, Year 13’s Vu-Lam Le-Nguyen looks at How Washington Lost Iran, while Year 9’s Hridhaan Joshi explores political aspects of the FIFA World Cup.

A QE team’s hi-tech solution to the global problem of food waste won them second prize in an international competition. 

Inspired by sixth-former Ishan Jakkulwar’s experiences of seeing illegal food waste-dumping in India, Team Flux tackled the challenge by developing an autonomous drone that uses machine-learning to detect emissions from supermarkets’ food waste.   

The team won medals and a certificate after taking the runner-up spot in the British International Education Association STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Youth Innovation Competition. 

Congratulating the team, Head of Technology Bilaal Khan said: “Their success demonstrates how creativity, collaboration and STEM knowledge can be combined to develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges. “ 

Alongside team leader Ishan, Team Flux comprised his fellow Year 12 pupils, Vivaan Shah and Aditya Shah, together with Dhruva Bhardwaj, who left QE this summer after completing Year 11.  

The four enthusiastically tackled the competition theme of How can we reduce waste in the food chain? by training their drone using machine-learning.    

An Arkwright Engineering Scholar, Ishan had recognised that using autonomous technology could reduce the time, cost and manpower needed to identify and address food waste. The competition provided an opportunity to develop his interest in engineering and hardware, while securing the prize reinforced his ambition to become an engineer.   

“Winning second prize was a nice surprise, especially, as it was the first time I have experimented with hardware,” he said. Ishan also believes that participating in the competition helped him secure work experience in robotics at UCL over the summer. 

Aditya’s focus was on the design process, on selecting and sourcing materials for the hardware, and on conducting research around the process of patenting the product.

The team hope to develop their model into a working prototype, while also exploring its potential value as intellectual property.

“It felt like a big achievement that people realised that our project had a lot of potential and could be used to create positive change in the future,” Aditya said. 

For his part, Vivaan took responsibility for project-management, keeping the team on track with timings and deadlines.

He also modelled aspects of the prototype using OnShape and Fusion 360, carrying out virtual stress and thermal testing, as well as contributing to the original design through detailed sketches and exploded diagrams. 

Year 10’s Aaryan Prabhaker entry to a Cambridge-based international essay competition saw him placed in the top 10% out of more 15,000 submissions worldwide.

He has now been invited to the Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition’s awards ceremony at King’s College, Cambridge, where the speaker will be Physics Nobel Laureate Dr Barry Barish.

Aaryan’s Honourable Mention for his essay comes just weeks after it was announced that he had won another global competition, the 2026 World Math Hackathon.

Head of Digital Teaching & Learning, Michael Noonan said: “It’s proving to be quite a year for Aaryan! Our congratulations go to him on this latest success.”

Aaryan’s entry in the 14-17 senior division of the competition explored the question Should AI systems be granted legal personhood, or are they tools that must always remain under human accountability?

There were prompts to help answer all the questions. For Aaryan’s chosen topic, these came from Dr Biswadeep Khan, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the US’s Stanford University. A recommended reading list was provided.

Mr Noonan added: “As AI continues to reshape society, this question sits at the heart of important ethical, legal, and technological debates. Aaryan’s essay is, thus, a very good and pertinent example of the free-thinking scholarship that we seek to encourage among our pupils.”

The competition is run by the Cambridge Centre for International Research, which was founded by a group of Cambridge graduates committed to making academic research more accessible to the public. Entries this year came from more than 50 countries.

The awarding of Aaryan’s Honourable mention followed four rigorous rounds of blind review conducted by scholars from Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, MIT, and several Ivy League universities.

Aaryan, who has received a digital certificate, balances the time he spends on competition entries with his studies at QE and his love of cricket. He plays the piano and is a member of QE’s strings orchestra. He said: “You have to be organised and you have to have schedule to fit in the things that you are interested in.”

QE AI supremo Paarth Aggarwal is celebrating after his latest app won plaudits in a competition linked to the world’s top-ranked university.

His SafeEat smartphone scanner for elderly and visually impaired users was one of just seven out of 2,176 entries in the Global Appathon to receive ‘honourable mentions’ alongside the winners.

The competition, which drew entries from more than 140 countries and regions, required participants to link their apps to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Year 12 pupil Paarth, who has been invited to attend next month’s MIT App Inventor Global Education Summit at the MIT Stata Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has enjoyed a string of AI competition successes, including taking first prize for his age category among UK entrants in Intel’s AI Global Impact Festival in both 2024 and 2025.

QE’s Head of Technology, Bilaal Khan, said: “It is exciting to see our pupils at the forefront of technological development: my congratulations go to Paarth on another noteworthy achievement.”

SafeEat is an AI-powered food ingredient list scanner designed to help elderly and visually impaired users make informed food choices based on their personal allergies, intolerances, and dietary restrictions.

The app makes ingredient labels easier to understand, and helps users determine whether a product is safe to eat.

To build their apps, competition entrants had to use the MIT App Inventor – a free tool developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently ranked number one in the QS world university rankings.

Paarth submitted a three-minute video about the app, in which he not only explained what it could do, but also demonstrated it live to a potential user in a local supermarket.

His commendation certificate was signed by Professor Hal Abelson, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and Dr Natalie Lao, Executive Director of the App Inventor Foundation.

Paarth said: “A single mistake on a food label can trigger a life-threatening allergic reaction, but technology has the power to change that. I am incredibly honoured that my app, SafeEat, won the honourable mention for accessibility.”

Sixth-former Devansh Jha has won first prize in his age group in Samsung’s Solve for Tomorrow technology competition.

His concept, The Green Cross, is a handheld medical device that scans wounds to monitor their healing. As well as featuring on national radio, Devansh’s winning idea will be showcased on the iconic Piccadilly Circus screens. His prizes include an exclusive London work experience placement from Samsung, and some of the technology giant’s own products.

Competing alongside him was fellow finalist Sparsh Shrivastava, of Year 8. Year 11’s Ishan Jakkulwar reached the semi-finals.

The competition challenges young people to create ‘tech for good’ – solutions that benefit society by addressing real-world issues.

Head of Technology Bilaal Khan said: “We are tremendously proud of Devansh. He was up against 1,000 other ideas and 2,184 fellow competitors, so this is a very considerable achievement.

“By so successfully harnessing technology for the public good, he is amply demonstrating at least three of the six priorities in our Boundless School Plan: he is future-ready, community-orientated and a leader of influence & valued collaborator.”

Devansh’s idea, The Green Cross, supports more accurate remote wound assessment, helping clinicians make better treatment decisions, while reducing the need for follow-up appointments. He was mentored by Samsung Product Manager Jordan Roberts.

For his entry, Sparsh was supported by his Brilliant Bob 10 team – Dhruv Srinath and Aadit Shukla, who, like him, are in Year 8.  His idea is called GrowGuard – an adaptive operating system that ‘grows’ with young people to help keep them safer online as they get older.

Just nine finalists pitched their ideas in the final at Samsung’s King’s Cross HQ. The event, which was managed by educational agency Hark, featured speakers including Mete Coban, Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy, as well as Samsung UK’s President, Ben Yoon.

Speaking after he took the top prize in the 16–18 age category, Devansh said: “It was a really eye-opening experience – I got to talk to so many people about how I could design something to make their life better. I had no experience in med tech before, but, with the people around me, I really wanted to solve a problem that mattered. This experience reinforced something I’ve become increasingly passionate about: technology is most powerful when it’s used to solve real, human problems.

“I’ve learned how to present, how to sell an idea, and to put myself out there – things I hadn’t done before.

“My advice to anyone thinking of entering next year: just go for it. As long as you have a genuine passion for it, you are good enough. It’s a really fulfilling experience, and if it doesn’t work out, it’s okay – it’s a learning process.”

Ishan, with his Flux team, was one of 24 semi-finalists. He took part in a rapid prototyping workshop led by technology charity Tech She Can.

QE’s robotics competitors start the Summer Term fighting fit, with six teams qualifying for the Vex World Championships in the US later this month.

After battling it out at the national championships in Telford, three senior V5 teams won places at the ‘Worlds’ in St Louis, Missouri, with a further three making the grade in the junior IQ competition.

In a busy Spring Term for robotics, a Year 12 team also took their own trip across the Atlantic, travelling to Calgary, Canada, where they were the only team from outside North America among 81 teams competing at the Mecha Mayhem event.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “Qualification for the World Championships requires huge levels of preparation, skill, design flair and teamwork, so our teams deserve hearty congratulations: we wish them all the best in St Louis.”

The three qualifying senior teams all acquitted themselves well at Telford, with Team Nova taking an Innovate award and Rogue winning a Think award, while Zenith were fourth in the Skills competition and came fifth in their division.

Six VEX IQ teams from Years 8 and 9 travelled to the national championships, joining two days of competition with teams from all over the UK. Each team competed in 12 qualification matches, with the hope of gaining a spot in their division’s finals.

The competition involved frequent working in alliances with other teams. The QE competitors’ collaborative skills, resilience and problem-solving duly won them a clutch of awards.

Team Omega won the coveted overall Design Award and claimed their slot in Missouri.

The other Worlds places went to GearSquad and CircuitBreakers, whose clever solutions to the competition game devised for this year’s national championships won them both an Innovation Award.

In addition, there was a Think Award for Torque Titans – an independent team of QE pupils who had decided to compete in VEX outside of School – and an Amaze Award, with a place at the Worlds, for a mixed team comprising students from various schools, including QE.

Darsh Singh, of Year 8, said: “I found the Nationals an extremely joyful and unforgettable competition. We all made loads of friends and it was an experience like no other.”

This was a sentiment shared by Yaer 9’s Akshaj Mittal, who added: “VEX isn’t about just winning. It’s about teamwork, friendship, resilience and courage, and our team embodied just that…”

The Canada competition was attended by team HYBRID. In recent years, QE Year 12 teams, who are unable to go to the Worlds because of examination commitments in the Summer Term, have joined a series of special robotics events in North America.

At Mecha Mayhem, with HYBRID the only non-American team, its pit area rapidly became a favourite place for others to visit.

The team finished day 1 with a win in their practice match and one win and loss in their first two qualification matches. On day two, they ranked 42nd in a competitive field. Competing in the Skills competition on the final day, they came in 19th place out of 74, thus hitting their target of a top-20 finish.

They also found time to relax and explore a little. They enjoyed a thrilling game of NHL Ice Hockey, the final match for many players before the winter Olympic break, where the Calgary Flames upset the odds by beating the Edmonton Oilers 4-3. At Calgary Zoo, they saw native species including Canadian mountain goats, bison, musk oxen and wolves. They took a trip to the Calgary Tower, followed by a visit to an escape room where they not only beat the time limit but escaped only just short of the record time. They also enjoyed the Downtown Calgary district, with its picturesque Jack & Jean Leslie Riverwalk.

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