John is States-bound thanks to his award-winning invention

John is States-bound thanks to his award-winning invention

28 March 2012

A DOWN High School student is heading to Pittsburgh at the end of May to showcase his award-winning engineering creation.

John Neill recently won the junior category of the prestigious National Science & Engineering competition at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair.

John was one of 360 young stars recently chosen to showcase their work to a world-class panel of UK judges including renowned space scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt and the Science Museum’s inventor in residence Mark Champkins.

And the teenager who lives near Annacloy certainly turned heads with his Keycall device. He was also awarded the The Broadcom Masters International Award for excellence in science, technology, engineering and maths.

As a result, it’s now off to Pittsburgh for John on an all-expenses paid trip to represent the UK in the World Finals at the end of May, with the Down High pupil the first junior student to be selected to represent the UK at this prestigious event.

John has also secured support and guidance on his remarkable journey from a number of companies. Campbell Evans and his team at Laser Prototypes Europe Ltd. thought the Down High student’s device to be “a clever little idea” and John is delighted the company produced high quality housings, based on his design, for his device that allowed him to demonstrate his product and enabled realistic testing and feedback from the market.

Anahilt firm Komodo provided John with information on graphics and the production of suitable badges for the product, while he also approached Invest NI to find out information regarding technical issues, business plans, marketing and intellectual property details.

John would also like to thank Sentinus and Young Engineers for giving him the opportunity to showcase his project and for the privilege of representing the UK in Pittsburgh in May.

Dr. Aderin-Pocock said she believed the country’s science and engineering industry “has an incredibly bright future ahead of it if John and his UK fellow finalists are anything to go by.”

She added: “I was overwhelmed by the amount of enthusiasm and passion the youngsters had for their projects; it’s these talented individuals who will inspire others to think about science and engineering in a new and exciting light.”