PARKSIDE School students have been named as the best robot designers in the country.

Team Brute Force from the Cullingworth school won the accolade at the finals of the Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge.

They had competed against 500 other UK schools in the local and regional heats, finally taking on 49 other schools at the Big Bang science fair at Birmingham NEC.

Brute Force consisted of Oliver Rhodes (team manager), Emily Wood (challenge mat robot designer and programmer), Lucy Stephenson (quality control manager and troubleshooter), Albert Lawler (speed robot designer), Tomas Windle (speed robot programmer) and Farrell Gale (graphic designer).

In the final they were competing for several awards, one for each of the five components of the challenge, two highly-commended places, and the national winners.

Brute Force won the National Robot Design Award for a presentation the students gave on their designs.

During the final the Parkside team had to present an interactive display to 20,000 members of the public attending the event.

RAF officer Christopher Bell, one of the judges, told the team: “Your design presentation and methodology was fantastic. We were very impressed.”

Rachel Beddoes, the Girls’ Participation Coordinator with the MEI Advanced Maths Support Programme, praised the Team Brute Force’s passion and creativity with their robot design when solving problems, especially using maths.

Parkside staff members Lydia Cooper and Andrew Mangham, who supported Team Brute Force, said they were extremely proud of the group’s achievements.

Mrs Cooper added: “The students have grown in confidence throughout this process and developed vital skills that can be transferred into their future careers.

“It has been pleasure to be on this journey with them and we are excited to see where opportunities like these will take them in the future.”