Epsilon Engineers Fly to Abu Dhabi

An all-girl team of students from Milton Keynes have reached the Land Rover Technology Challenge World Finals being held in Abu Dhabi.

Since September 2016, Niftylift has been helping to mentor the 'Epsilon Engineers', a team of Sixth Form students from Denbigh School in Milton Keynes.

The all-girl team has being competing in the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Technology Challenge, which involves working together to design and build a radio controlled four-wheel-drive (4x4) vehicle. The vehicle must be able to successfully negotiate a specially designed test track emulating real life and perform as a full scale 4x4 vehicle would do in an off-road situation. The teams not only have to track test their car, they also have to present their design portfolio, produce a 'pit display', give a verbal presentation to a panel of judges and attend an engineering interview. In addition, they also have to finance themselves by finding sponsors, which is another aspect of their assessment.

On their journey towards the top, the Epsilon Engineers first won a regional competition, before going on to the UK Nationals, held at Silverstone in March this year. Their impressive engineering skills lead again to victory, securing them a well-deserved place in the World Finals to be held in Abu Dhabi this week.

One of only four UK teams to travel to Abu Dhabi, the Denbigh students are also the only all-female team to reach the World Championships, where they will spend a week at the Yas Marina Grand Prix circuit while their work is judged against 24 teams from 17 other countries.

As well as Niftylift, other local businesses also came out in force to support the students with sponsorship; T King Associates, MK Marking, Silverstone Park, MK City Plumbing & Heating and Revolve are just some of the organisations who have helped the five students exceed their £10,000 target. The girls also received generous donations from friends and family, who contributed through the Epsilon Engineers' webpage.

Roz Bird, Commercial Director for Silverstone Park, said:

"The Epsilon Engineers are a real inspiration for women considering a career in science and engineering. Silverstone Park was therefore keen to sponsor them, when they made contact with us in the summer. Encouraging more women into engineering, electronics and software development will bring in that much needed talent over the coming years.

"The Epsilon team are not just ambassadors for young female engineers; they are ambassadors for the Silverstone Technology Cluster. It's a privilege to be involved with them and we wish them every success in Abu Dhabi."

Accompanying the students on this unique and exciting educational experience, Assistant Head teacher, Lesley Dale, said:

"It is a privilege to attend the finals with this impressive team of young women, who have drive, determination and the skill set to make themselves and Denbigh School proud. The judges will ask them to explain their thinking behind the car's design, demonstrate its capabilities and show how they promoted themselves and attracted funding.

"The students are very excited to be competing at this level and I am sure they will prove that, in such a male-dominated environment, they will go some way to break this mould."

The mentoring team at Niftylift has been very impressed by the Epsilon Engineers' professional attitude and hard work throughout the project.

Jane Harbige, Product Support Engineer for Niftylift and Epsilon Engineers mentor commented:

"It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the girls for the past 15 months. We have been able to see them grow and mature as they've progressed through the competition and we are very proud to see the level of success they've achieved so far!"

All at Niftylift wish the Epsilon Engineers every success this week and look forward to following their progress.

Good luck Epsilons!

To follow the girl's progress in Abu Dhabi, visit their social media pages at:

www.twitter.com/the_epsilons

www.facebook.com/EpsilonEngineers/