Sixth Former Will Falkingham has reached the national finals of a competition to design a feasible solution to a real world problem, using his design and engineering skills.

Will’s ‘3rd World Seed Planting Mechanism’ is aimed at helping farmers in the developing world to sow seeds at equal distances and proper depth. His design so impressed judges of the Triumph Design Awards that they have invited him to display and present his work to senior judges at the Triumph HQ in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

The competition attracted more than 100 entries from sixth form STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) students and Will, who had just finished taking his A Levels, is one of 25 students to reach the final, on Saturday 7th July.

He said: “Having designed a chair for my AS course work, when it came to my final A2 course work I wanted to design a more mechanical product connected with agriculture. This was when I started to research agriculture in the developing world, trying to come up with a simple way to increase crop yields.

“I then started developing ideas of different ways I could use simple mechanisms to plant seeds accurately on a small scale. One of the main problems I faced was making a product simple enough to be manufactured anywhere but also to do the job. After many ideas, models and much testing I finally produced my product.” 

Steve Ellis, Pocklington School’s Head of Design, said: “Will has made use of his dual interests of helping people and his farming background to produce a possible solution a very real problem found in third world agriculture. He has done extremely well and we are very proud of him for reaching the Triumph Design Awards final.”

Will intends to gain work experience in agriculture in the UK and Southern Hemisphere next year before studying agriculture the following year at Newcastle University. 

The Triumph Design Awards aims to inspire the next generation of engineers by celebrating their design achievements and demonstrating how the same skills are used by engineers in UK business. It wants to encourage the students’ creative thinking, innovative problem solving and their ability to produce feasible solutions to real world challenges.