March 2019

| 36 | March 2019 www.smartmachinesandfactories.com | PRIMARY ENGINEER | No hot air when it comes to children’s learning T he British Compressed Air Society (BCAS) has named the 2018 recipient of the Primary Engineer Rogers Knight Award as Gary Kelleher, product support sales manager (GB) from Aylesford based BOMAG. The Award to Kelleher was in recognition of his contribution to furthering the engagement of primary pupils in STEM projects. Smart Machines & Factories reports. Kelleher was instrumental in not only working with local school teachers to demonstrate how to introduce Primary Engineer to school pupils, he also brought the children’s designs to life by visiting the school during class time, to help them build concept vehicles which demonstrated the importance of planning, measuring, accuracy and design. His involvement had a direct impact on the number of pupils from the school entering the Primary Engineer Leaders Award – a competition, as previously reported in Smart Machines and Factories, in which children are asked “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”, and then submit ideas for new inventions solving an identifiable problem. What started off as a company CSR project reaching out to the community on the suggestion of BOMAG GB Chris Rochester, UK Director, Primary Engineer, Gary Kelleher, Product Support Sales Manager (GB), Bomag, Danielle Abley, Sandling Primary School, Jason Morgan, BCAS President