Primary Engineer asks primary school pupils, 'If you were an engineer, what would you do?'
Amongst thousands of ideas submitted in 2023-24, several pupils across the South region proposed concepts for robots and automation to promote recycling, to reduce waste and pollution.

Join us to find out about the Primary Engineer competition (leaflet available).

Through meeting final year undergraduate engineering students who were inspired by a primary pupil's concept to design a smart bin, you can learn about design projects as part of an engineering degree.

Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) be used to recognize waste items and match them to categories suitable for recycling - quicker or more accurately than people?

Our hands-on challenge: Try sorting a mix of typical waste items (provided) into the categories to be received by conventional recycling bins - how many items can you sort correctly in 30 seconds?

We could discuss: How can AI be used to make a bin smarter? How much more efficient could recycling be, without items becoming contaminated by mis-sorting? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using AI to help automate sorting of waste - should we change and adapt? If smart bins might help people, how can engineers design them appropriately?