STEM the Flow participants meet their mentors

More than ten teams of pupils from schools across the West Partnership taking part in the STEM the Flow engineering challenge had the opportunity to meet the industry mentors who will support them to design a solution to tackle source to sea litter around the River Clyde.  

Over the next eight weeks the STEM the Flow industry partners will support participants, as part of our wider Upstream Battle campaign, by offering professional advice throughout the challenge. Teams will have the opportunity to work with an industry mentor, who will be able to answer questions from participants and offer advice at different stages of the project via online meetings. 

As part of the virtual ‘meet and greet’ webinar, STEM ambassadors from the three industry partners supporting the project – BAE Systems, Jacobs Engineering and Scottish Water – shared why they had volunteered to mentor as part of STEM the Flow.  

Fiona Bond, Contracts Analyst, Scottish Water said, "I volunteered for this challenge as I wanted to give back to the young people, to inspire and influence them. Young people are the future after all and have the imagination to see problems and solutions that us grown-ups just don’t have any more.” 

Nikesh Mistry, Graduate Civil/Structural Engineer, Jacobs commented, "I volunteered to inspire young people to get them excited about the world of STEM and consider it as a potential career prospect. I feel that STEM subjects and skills are important in inspiring young people to challenge the world and think of new ground-breaking solutions to keep up and improve the changing world around us. I hope to support my team in developing a solution to aid the Upstream Battle on litter!”  

During the session the mentors explained their favourite inventions, with answers ranging everything from Pringle crisps to electric cars! Here is the rationale behind Dan Lamont, Graduate Civil/Structural Engineer with Jabobs chosing Pringles as the height of modern engineering. 

He said, “My favourite invention/innovation are Pringles – or a hyperbolic paraboloid – they are a mathematical and structural design phenomenon. The geometry allows for superior stacking ability, minimises the possibility for broken crisps, even when excessively stacked, AND there’s no predictable way of how the crisp will crack, which means there is the bonus of extra crunch!”  

Who knew there was an equation for Pringles?! We will be sharing more introductions to the STEM the Flow mentors during the challenge, so keep an eye on our social media to find out more about them. 

Check out the STEM the Flow challenge and find out more about the wider Upstream Battle project on our website.