Aberdeenshire school, Banchory Academy, has scooped the top award at Techfest’s STEM in the Pipeline oil and gas challenge.
Held at the BP’s North Sea offices in Dyce, 15 schools were set an oil field challenge to solve using their knowledge of STEM subjects.
Banchory were awarded first prize for their innovative North Sea coding solution and presentation of their findings.
Banchory student, Lauren Liversidge said: “We were hoping for top three, so this is a great result. It took a lot of work both as a group and individually.”
Ben Strachan added: “We probably worked about 38 hours each – so that’s about 180 man hours right there.”
Techfest’s STEM in the Pipeline and BP were also celebrating their 12th year of working together to bring the event to young people.
BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips once again provided sponsorship, while supported by the University of Aberdeen, the Energy Institute, the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, the Project Management Institute and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
Mark Thomas, BP North Sea regional president, said: “Some of the projects that the [pupils] have worked on are as close to real life as you can get. We want to support them and we want to show them that the oil and gas industry is actually a worthwhile cause and career for them.
“I think this is just part of our job, part of our commitment to the community. We’ll only be as good as what the future brings us and all of these kids are the future for our industry.”
Alies Bartels, acting managing director of TechFest, added: “We want to inspire the younger generation to get involved and embrace science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). We want to show them that’s all around them in day to day life”
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