Cornwall kids: We Made It!

The national competition, run by the Dods Innovation Panel, invites school children aged 11- 14 years to submit their designs for a new product, gadget or toy.

Truro and Falmouth MP Sarah Newton wrote to all secondary schools in her constituency to encourage their pupils to participate.

233 local children have now submitted designs to the competition, the highest number of applications from any part of the UK.

"I am delighted that local young people have led the way in submitting entries to the ‘ We Made It!’ competition, and am very grateful to local schools for their enthusiastic promotion of this great initiative," Mrs Newton said.

"Given Cornwall’s proud engineering history, from Trevithick’s engines to Brunel’s bridge, it is great to see a new generation of Cornish engineers coming forward.

"I look forward to very much to seeing the designs created by local pupils and hope that some of them can be realised in due course using Falmouth University’s cutting edge technology."

After the competition closes on 8th November, the local MP will choose the best entry from their constituency and the winners will be announced in mid-December.

Seven finalists will be selected by a panel of manufacturing experts and their prototypes will be created in a ‘Fab Lab’.

The overall winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in the Houses of Parliament in March.

The Fab Labs are in Manchester, Makernow at Falmouth University, Maklab Glasgow, Fab Lab Ellesmere Port, Fab Lab Airedale, Fab Lab Belfast and Fab Lab Derry.