Queen Elizabeth’s student scoops prize with food storage design

Big bang Award winners on stage, obscured by falling confetti

A Year 11 student from Barnet has scooped a top award in The Big Bang Competition for his smart food storage idea.

Akhilesh Karthikeyan, a year 11 student at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, conducted interviews with environmental health officers at his local authority as well as a local shopkeeper before embarking on his project.

He explained, “The product encourages customers in retail environments to purchase food close to expiry, to reduce the amount thrown out and wasted due to expiring. The container stores perishable produce and then constantly monitors temperature to adjust a prediction for the time the produce will expire and encouraging customers to purchase and consume to reduce the amount of food unnecessarily wasted.”

The award is part of The Big Bang Competition, a nationwide competition for young engineers, scientists and technologists. The Technology stream was introduced to The Competition this year, supported by Siemens.

The judges said Akhilesh should be very proud of his project and facing head-on some of the challenges he encountered.

The Big Bang Intermediate Technology Award, supported by Siemens was presented to Akhilesh by conservationist and TV presenter Megan McCubbin.

Mark Wood, Social Sustainability Lead, Great Britain & Ireland, at Siemens commented: “The Big Bang is a great competition to inspire creative ideas to real life problems. This mirrors what we do every day as a business. Inspiring the next generation of technologists is vital for our economy, our business and to solve the challenges we face across the world every day and in the future. A huge well done to this year’s winners.”

The winners of The Competition, which recognises and rewards talented young innovators, were announced at The Big Bang Fair, the UK’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people held at Birmingham’s NEC over 19 June to 21 June. Run by EngineeringUK, The Fair is supported by organisations across the education and STEM sector including Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, and new supporters Accenture, Zoolab, JCB, Johnson & Johnson and easyJet.

Dr Hilary Leevers, EngineeringUK Chief Executive said: “Huge congratulations on a well-designed project which has great future potential! Well done!”

To find out more and discover all the winners of The Big Bang Competition 2024 visit: www.thebigbang.org.uk/competition-winners

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.