York St John University supports young designers at Big Bang!

Design students from across the region will be showcasing over 200 projects at this year’s The Big Bang Yorkshire and Humber – making this one of the largest Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) celebrations of young talent in the country.  

Representatives from York St John University’s BA Design programme, one of the event’s showcase sponsors, will be attending with a panel of judges to search for the most innovative and marketable ideas, and presenting two York St John Design Awards at the event. 

Alongside the Design Awards, students will also be competing in 12 categories with over 50 awards on offer sponsored by local businesses and organizations such as The Merchant Adventurers, Barratt Wilson Homes, Nestlé, YORhub, Shepherd Group and many more. 15 finalists will be selected to represent the region at the National Science and Engineering Competition in March 2014 with a chance to be crowned UK Young Scientist and Engineer of the year and win prizes of up to £2,000.

The event is taking place at Yorkshire Air Museum on 27 June 2013 and will be officially opened by TV presenter Jan Leeming, winner of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

The Big Bang Yorkshire & Humber, organised by North Yorkshire Business Education Partnership (NYBEP) with support from Science City York and the Yorkshire Air Museum, is one of a series of events held annually across the UK designed to enthuse young people and celebrate their achievements in STEM subject areas, ultimately inspiring them to follow careers in these rewarding fields.

Local student Alex Youden of Hymers College, Hull, was Overall Winner of the George Cayley Cup at the regional event in 2012 and a finalist and winner at this year’s national Big Bang Fair in London. Alex, who won the Intermediate Engineering and Technology with his Golf Swing Training Aid, said:
"This event represents an exciting opportunity for young people to showcase their creativity and emerging enterprise talent to business. The support received from business is invaluable, both at the events and after. I am looking forward to sharing my experience with this year’s entrants and handing over the George Cayley Cup to the next worthy winner."

Yvonne Emerson, event organiser from NYBEP, explains:
"Young people have spent hours preparing their project entries, either as part of GCSE and A Level coursework or outside of school and college, in readiness for the event. This event provides a great opportunity for students to showcase their work to business and other young people. This is their chance to shine - the event could provide an important launch pad to help them fulfill their future ambitions."

Warren Fearn, Head of Programme for the York St John University BA in Product Design, adds:
“Our focus is on helping young people develop the skills and experience to be innovative and creative and many of our graduates go on to achieve great things. Having seen and been very impressed by the calibre of work at previous Big Bang events, we are very much looking forward to seeing more work from talented young product designers in the region. I have no doubt that our judges will have some tough decisions to make!”