Winners of national Robotics Challenge competition announced

Jul 13, 2023

Students from Torquay Academy in Devon have been named as the 2023 UK winners of the EEP Robotics Challenge.

The winning team includes year 7 pupils Matthew, Poppy, Ivan, Riain, Benjamin, Emily, Oliver and Alfie. They competed against hundreds of other students across the country in a bid for the top prize. The team also scooped an award for the speed and control challenge.

This year’s finals and award ceremony took place at The Big Bang Fair at the NEC in Birmingham. Student teams from Emmanuel College, St Paul’s RC Academy and The Crypt School were awarded a Highly Commended from the judges. Teams from Mercia School, The Rochester Grammar School and South Craven School also won awards in the categories of project presentation, teamwork challenge, and robot design respectively.  

Exploring engineering through robotics  

The student teams completed a series of missions to discover what engineers can do to create a cleaner, sustainable world. They learnt to build a variety of LEGO® robotics kits and program it to complete a speed and control test and perform a set of environmentally themed tasks such as planting a tree.

Kim Biddulph, Engagement Projects Manager, at EngineeringUK, said:

“Congratulations to all the students who took part in this year's EEP Robotics Challenge. Their commitment and passion were plain to see during the heats and the finals. It was wonderful to see teams working together to overcome issues, work through problems and come back and try again. But what was even more moving was when teams kindly helped each other out, even though they were rivals.

“Huge congratulations to all our winners, who performed astoundingly well at the finals. We hope all the students who took part have enjoyed the experience and feel inspired by the variety, excitement and opportunity presented by a career in engineering.”  

Kevin Hadley, teacher and Head of Enterprise at Torquay Academy, commented:

“It was a real honour to be involved in such a prestigious competition and to see our students flourish in the challenges set. I am so proud of what they have achieved through teamwork, problem solving, resilience, creativity and above all seeing the confidence this experience has given these potential engineers of the future."

The EEP Robotics Challenge introduces student teams to real-world engineering through technology, robotics and computing tasks. The engagement programme aims to help students put their school learning into context and discover exciting new careers.

Meet the 2023 winners

The EEP Robotics Challenge is led by EngineeringUK and Helsington Foundation in partnership with the Royal Air Force and Network Rail.

Find out more about the Robotics Challenge on the website.