- More than 150 of the best young engineering minds from across the UK compete in Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Technology Challenge national final
- Students use software coding to design and build miniature remote‑controlled 4x4s
- Competition unearths future talent for Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s leading investor in research and development
- More than 3 million young people have taken part in Jaguar Land Rover's global education programme since 2000
- School team from The King’s School in Worcester wins 2018 prize, beating teams from Manchester and Lincolnshire
Whitley, UK, Tuesday 27 March 2018 – More than 150 talented future software engineers from schools across the UK competed in the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Technology Challenge national finals.
The skilled young engineers, aged 11‑19, used computer coding to programme miniature remote‑controlled four‑wheel‑drive vehicles they designed and built for a two‑day competition at the British Motor Museum in Warwickshire. In the challenge, teams operate as small businesses and manage all stages of their 4x4 product cycle which helps them develop key business behaviours such as critical thinking and problem solving. In one challenge their vehicles negotiated a demanding course that wound its way over and through Land Rover Discovery SUVs.
The engineering contest, which supports curriculum learning, included a coding challenge to encourage engagement with STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths subjects and inspire the next generation of engineers to design and develop future autonomous, connected, electric and shared vehicles. The coding task required them to write code to enable an autonomous car to complete the track in the fastest time with no human intervention.
Team EDGE 4X4 from The King’s School were crowned 2018 champions, with The Mancunian Way from Altrincham Grammar School and team Trigonometric from Spalding Grammar School in second and third places respectively.
Jaguar Land Rover is a tech company and we need more talented young people to join our business to help us develop innovative autonomous, connected, electric and shared technologies. The Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Challenge plays a vital role introducing young people to the huge range of STEM careers we offer and also nurturing their electrical and coding skills, which are vital to our cutting‑edge business.
Alex Heslop
Director of Electrical Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover
It feels amazing to win! We’ve invested a lot of time and passion in our 4x4 and are delighted with our performance. We’ve all thoroughly enjoyed the competition and would all love to become engineers in the future.
Ed Cosson
Team manager
The global competition has helped the company reach more than 3 million young people since 2000. Teams qualify through a series of regional events. Team EDGE 4X4’s vehicle has an innovative 4 wheel drive system and unique suspension.
Following the success of its 2017 code‑breaking recruitment challenge, Jaguar Land Rover will be fast‑tracking applications for undergraduate and postgraduate placements for computer science, electronics or software engineering students in the UK, Ireland and China. Postgraduate opportunities are also available in these regions and in the USA. Successful entrants will apply their technical expertise to design software for future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. Talented students wanting to electrify their career prospects should apply via https://jlr.avature.net/FormulaeOverview?tags=formula‑e%7Cformula‑e‑overview.
For more information, or to find out more about working for Jaguar Land Rover, visit www.jaguarlandrovercareers.com.
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