Wick High pupil, Shona, wins top engineering prize

Wick High School second-year pupil, Shona Tait, has won her school £4,000 by coming tops in a national engineering competition.

Shona, from Reiss,  has won the 2013 Scottish Engineering Schools Competition sponsored by the Weir Group for submitting a research project based on the potential for tidal energy exploitation of the Pentland Firth.

Shona’s presentation included some of the great engineering achievements of the past as well as the potential opportunity for future renewable energy exploitation. This was followed by questions from the panel on her research work and how this had expanded her interest in studying engineering.

Following a review of the presentations, the panel were unanimous in awarding her first place, with a prize of £4,000 being awarded to her school.

Scottish Engineering, sponsored by the Weir Group, ran a competition for the 2012-2013 school year, open to all second year pupils in Scotland, based on the title, “The Importance of Engineering to Scotland”. This required a written report to be prepared, demonstrating a number of key elements including numeracy, literacy, covering a broad range of school subjects, and including a significant level of research. Wick High School pupil