Trike wins Carmarthenshire student Shawn engineer award

A student from west Wales has won the UK Young Engineer of the Year Award with a solar powered trike.

Shawn Brown, 19, from Llanybydder in Carmarthenshire, beat hundreds to win the National Science & Engineering Competition.

His 'Solar Bike', a bamboo framed electric trike, was made using sustainable and reusable material.

The gap year student is now flying to Ghana for nine weeks to help repair a children's nursery in a charity scheme.

Shawn will be one of five former students at Ysgol Gyfun Llanbedr Pont Steffan in Lampeter working on the charity project in Africa.

He said the he was "very excited" to have won the award.

The student received his award from Business Secretary Lord Mandelson

It was presented by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, at the Big Bang science fair in Manchester on Friday.

Lord Mandelson said: "The winners of the National Science & Engineering Competition are living, breathing proof that science and engineering in the UK is at the heart of a strong and thriving Britain over the coming decades."

Building the prototype took many months of trialling and testing ideas by the student engineer to become a reality.

Shawn said there are currently no plans to make the trike a commercial reality.

"While I am interested in renewable energy, I saw this as a challenge, producing a product that was as sustainable as possible."

Large Hadron Collider

Shawn, who moved to west Wales from Oxfordshire five years ago, is on a gap year before going to Exeter University's Cornwall campus to study a four-year masters degree in renewable engineering.

As well as working on his solar trike, he has founded a charity organisation to help with engineering projects in Africa.

The teenager is flying out to the village of Butre, on the Ghana coast, to help repair a nursery there for the next nine weeks.

But despite beating off young engineers from across the UK to win the national award, Shawn said he has "not got a clue" where his long-term career path will take him.

Lord Mandelson presented Shawn with the award and a a cash prize of £2,000; an experience prize of his choice from either a trip to Earthwatch or NASA; and an additional trip to either CERN to see the Large Hadron Collider or the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma.