Who will engineer best plan for Fort Regent?

Saturday 28 March 2015

Judging is underway to see which group of girls have come up with the best idea to transform Fort Regent.

Ten teams of teenagers are taking up a challenge set by 17 year-old JCG student Rachel Hayden to come up with a design for a new sports venue.

The sixth form student wanted to get more of her peers interested in a career in engineering and, with the help of the International Women’s Academy (IWA),  has engineered her competition on a global scale too – challenging young women everywhere to come up with a new sports venue for their local community on a derelict or brownfield site.

Rachel said: “After being first introduced to engineering through a local CIGPE competition I felt that running a female engineering competition not just locally but globally, would be a fun and exciting way to promote the engineering industry to women around the world. I am thrilled ten teams have entered the local part of this inaugural competition.”

The local competition is sponsored by Jersey property company, Le Masurier, who are keen to build up a good relationship with the school.

Managing Director Brian McCarthy said: “The JCG Foundation Corporate Partner programme provides us with a great vehicle to financially support not just JCG but female local students with an interest in construction, property and engineering.  We are keen to offer opportunities for us to provide work experience, internships and mentoring to local students.  We very much look forward to using our partnership with the JCG Foundation to cement a strong relationship between JCG and Le Masurier to achieve our aspirations for Island students.”

There are four I-pad minis up for grabs for the winners along with tickets to the opening ceremony of the NatWest Island Games this summer.

All the entries which will go on show during the Games and will be judged by a panel including Jersey’s Chief Minister Ian Gorst, Dr Jon Hare who is an Engineering Professor at the University of Southampton, Head of Transport and Technical Services, John Rogers, Civil Engineer Becky Slater and Steven Bailey – the Games Director of the Jersey Island Games 2015.

The winning team will present their design to the States Assembly and will go on to compete in the global competition. The winners will be announced after the Easter Holidays.

The International Women’s Academy builds sustainable systems and infrastructure to help empower women to become the future leaders of science, technology and business.

You can find out more about the competition on the Building the Future, Shaping our World Facebook page.