The Competition encourages school pupils to undertake projects exploring areas of interest in STEM subjects. Thousands of entries are made online or by presenting projects at regional fairs.

Jake’s project is one that he spent four weeks of last year’s summer holidays working on at Birmingham University, having been accepted for a prestigious Nuffield Foundation research placement there. The project involved devising a method of electronically measuring urine flow in catheters of hospital patients, to help enable more efficient monitoring of patients’ responses to treatment.

Jake’s detailed and thorough write-up of the project won a Gold Crest Award from the British Science Association and has also clearly impressed the judging team of the Big Bang Young Scientists Competition. As a Finalist, he was invited to present his project in person to a panel of judges and answer their questions.

The Finals of the Competition are part of The Big Bang Fair – a huge two-day science event in the NEC. After his presentation to the judges, Jake also had the opportunity to talk about his project with a wide audience of visitors and to answer their questions. The Fair welcomes about 20,000 people each day – many of them school groups from across the country.