Young inventor’s bright idea to be brought to life

Thursday 05 December 2019

An aspiring engineer, who is always thinking about inventions to make life easier for herself and friends, is going to have one of her bright ideas brought to life – an ingenious way to sit and ‘scoot’ at the same time.

11-year-old Ameya Colston-Weeks’s talent as an engineer was discovered during the national 'If you were an engineer, what would you do?' competition.

Judges were so impressed by her ‘Seater Scooter’ that it’s going to be made into a prototype by engineering students at Kingston University.

Ameya was just 10 years old when she entered the Leaders Award competition along with nearly 800 other young islanders flexing their engineering muscles. 

The Beaulieu Convent student spoke to Express about her design – a scooter with a pop-up seat – which allows young people to keep moving and take the weight off their feet at the same time. 

Pictured: Ameya was just 10 when she came up with the winning concept of the 'Seater Scooter'.

Looking forward to when her prototype arrives in Jersey next summer, Ameya said: “I’m really excited. I can’t wait to try it out. My sister really wants to try it out too because I designed it for her. 

“On weekends we go out for long family walks and my sister, who is seven, likes to take her scooter but she gets tired so easily so we constantly have to find a bench to sit on – and that can take a while. I thought that if a seat popped out from her scooter then she could rest without us having to find a bench.”

Ameya’s also interested in seeing how the university students will bring her invention to life: “I’m really excited to see how the engineering students at Kingston University will make the seat come up from the scooter base. I have a few ideas of how it can be done – I thought you could use a hydraulic jack system – but I’m looking forward to seeing what they do.”

The young inventor said that her debut design won’t be the end of her engineering career. When asked if she often thinks of ideas for inventions, she replied: “Yes, but I don’t always write them down. Sometimes I look at something and wonder how I might make it better. 

Pictured: After designing her first invention, Ameya says she can see herself becoming an engineer.

“I help at a farm and stables at weekends and have to pick up the horse poo. I’ve sometimes wondered whether I could design an electric lawn mower to pick up poo. I’ve also thought about how I could make emptying bins any easier.”

Ameya’s teacher, Francesca Vincent, said: “As an all-girls school, we are incredibly proud of Ameya and her achievements within this STEM competition. Her ambition and forward thinking shows younger years that there are opportunities within the sciences to be creative and open minded. We cannot wait for the prototype to be unveiled and hope Ameya enjoys being involved in the design process.” 

The fully constructed ‘Seater Scooter’ will be presented to Ameya at the 2020 Awards Event at the Town Hall in the summer.