with dystonic cerebral palsy, and
the development of Wizzybug, a
powered wheelchair for children
younger than ve years old.
Hanson also played an important
part in Designability’s ‘Design
Together, Live Better’ project, in
which it works with the public to
understand the challenges of living
with disability and to design products
which overcome these problems.
In one of these focus groups,
Hanson heard from a young mother
who had a stroke which left her weak
on one side. Her wish was to be able
to place her two young children in
their car seats and to fasten their
seat belts. His solution was a unique
mechanism that allowed seat belts to
be fastened with one hand.
Alongside these projects, Hanson
has worked with students at Bath
College, to develop products that
solve real life challenges, including
using a guide dog, deafness, and
cycling with osteoarthritis. Following
this course, three of the seven
students began engineering and
design related degrees. He has also
been involved in the Smallpeice
biomedical engineering summer
course at Southampton University,
and helping to prepare
schools for the Primary
Engineer Leaders
Awards. Alongside these,
Motoc has been involved
with summer schools and
science extravaganzas.
As if that weren’t enough,
she has been doing outreach
work at an international level
through the IEEE and was part of the
organising committee for the 2016
Teacher In Service Program week,
which saw more than 600 teachers
from 15 countries being trained to
deliver hands on activities in the
classroom.
Motoc’s ambassadorial activities
took place alongside work on a PhD
based on robotics at the University of
Kent, including developing grasping
and walking algorithms for bipedal
robots. She is now a research
associate at the University.
We will be covering the 2018
Awards in the October issue. Entries
for the ‘10th anniversary’ awards
have now closed, and judging will
take place shortly, so why not visit
www.beeas.co.uk to have a look at
the shortlist including the Design
Engineer of the Decade category. !
Above: The winners
of the 2017 BEEAs.
Inset: Dan Hanson,
winner of Young
Design Engineer of
the Year 2017.
aimed at 16- to 18-
year olds, delivering
a ‘design and make’
course targeted at
products for people with
a disability.
The UK still faces an
engineering skills crisis,
with the number of people
leaving the profession exceeds
the number preparing to follow a
career in engineering.
Around the country, companies
are working with local schools to
promote engineering, by sponsoring
them to enter STEM related
competitions or by providing work
experience opportunities.
Iulia Motoc, who won Engineering
Ambassador of the Year, has been
involved in more than 30 local and
national outreach activities. She was
an Academic Ambassador and STEM
Ambassador for the University of Kent
and was appointed an Ambassador
for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for
Engineering, in 2017.
Amongst the activities in which
she has been involved are judging
the First Lego League, presenting
at the Big Bang Fair, participating in
‘I’m an engineer; get me out of here!’
HEADLINE SPONSOR GALLERY SPONSOR CATEGORY SPONSORS ORGANISED BY
SEPTEMBER 2019 | WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK 47
/www.beeas.co.uk
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK