Bicycle Fridge Wins Ben Engineering Accolades

Huge congratulations to Ben Herbert Owen in the L6 (Year 12) who has been shortlisted in the top five in the Big Bang Engineering Prize for his project designing a prototype Bicycle Fridge. This means he was eligible to compete for the prize of GSK UK Young Engineer of the year 2021 and his design was awarded runner-up prize in this competion

Ben says that from a very early age he has always loved designing and building things.  He especially enjoys creating things which represent personal interests and the Bicycle Fridge grew out of his own experiences cycling during summer months and needing to keep drinks and refreshments  cold.

Designing the fridge was not always straightforward and Ben experienced problems with the weight distribution, storage capacity and also where to fit the various parts which operate the cooling system.  The process also taught him a few new skills in the DTE workshop: 3D printing and designing parts using specialist software.

The Bicycle Fridge needed to be environmentally friendly, use sustainable materials, quiet so as not to disturb wildlife, light and easy to carry and have some form of energy supply to cool the inside.  Ben decided to power the fridge using rechargeable batteries charged by solar power as well as a dynamo integrated into the bike’s wheel.

Hearing of his success in the competition came as a surprise for Ben, “The entry went in some time ago, but I didn’t expect to get anywhere with it.”  He has since made a video about his project which can be found seen on the Big Bang twitter feed  @BigBangUKSTEM

We wish Ben well in the final.