A student from Trowbridge has been granted a prestigious £5,000 scholarship to help fund his studies at the University of Bath.
Matthew Sellick, 19, was awarded the scholarship after producing a write up of a project that involved redesigning the mechanism skateboards use in order to go around corners called ‘trucks’.
To apply for the scholarship, students had to come up with an innovative design for an original engineering device.
Matthews design stood out because it combined the two different styles of trucks that are available into one that reduced the drawbacks of both.
Matthew attended The John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge before starting a degree course in Integrated Mechanical & Electrical Engineering at the University in October this year.
The Jeremy Fry scholarship commemorates the work of the Bath-based engineer who died in 2005. Mr Fry, who founded the company Rotork Controls, was renowned for his inventive approach to engineering design as well as for nurturing young talent. He gave inventor James Dyson his first job.
The scholarship is funded by The James Dyson Foundation and is presented annually to a first-year engineering student at the University.
Matthew said: “It’s a great compliment to be recognised with a scholarship like this. It has and will continue to help my studies at University.”
He now has his eyes set on being part of the Student Formula team, an annual competition where engineering students have to design and manufacture a car. The University team came first in the UK at the competition in the summer.
He said: “After my degree I want to become an engineer for Formula One so entering that competition would be great experience for me.”
The Jeremy Fry Memorial scholarship is open to all first year engineering students studying at the University of Bath who are originally from Bath & North East Somerset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bristol or South Gloucestershire.
Students who receive the Scholarship will get £1,000 for the first three years of their course, and £2,000 in the final year (excluding placement years).