Capula supports this year’s Young Engineer of the Year awards

A team of Capula STEM ambassadors are involved an initiative aimed at bringing engineering subjects to life in the classroom in an exciting project, that this year involves sending hydrogen filled balloons into space and using Go Pro’s to document- the journey.

This is the third year that Capula has sponsored this initiative, which is organised by KMF Group, a local engineering company. The challenge is aimed at enhancing the career aspirations of young people in the local area.

YEOTY20 Space Olympics is an awards competition giving Year 10 students from twenty Stoke-on-Trent schools the opportunity to challenge themselves with a project that involves designing, building and launching their own capsule of Space Olympics science experiments into near space by means of a giant balloon.

(Photograph taken at KMF YEOTY science experiment day)

The hydrogen-filled balloons rise at 5-6m/s for 100 minutes, their flight path determined by stratospheric wind conditions, which can be predicted in advance of the flight. The balloons expand due to pressure change, ultimately bursting, and a parachute brings the launch vehicle back to the ground safely so results and footage can be recovered.

As part of the competition, the teams of youngsters will be required to compile data, produce a results report, and document their endeavours on film using GoPro cameras and create their own short film of the experiment. These will be shown at an awards ceremony later in the year.

This is an annual YEOTY competition which hopes to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, some of whom could well hail from Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.