An innovative team of budding engineers has won a prize for creating a clever cable cutting device in conjunction with Renishaw.

Nia, Charlotte and Ellie in Year 12 at Haberdashers’ Monmouth School for Girls spent six months working on their project to enter into Engineering Education Scheme Wales’ Big Bang competition.

Their brief was to design and build a machine to measure and cut lengths of varying thicknesses of cable accurately.

Mrs Debra Davies, Head of Physics at HMSG, said: “Engineers at Renishaw currently measure the cables off the drum manually with a tape measure and wire cutters.

“The team designed and constructed a fully automated table top device which measures the cable with good accuracy; they used an electronic circuit with a Raspberry Pi and a stepper motor to feed the cable between two wheels.

“The judges were all very impressed to see the working model in the girls’ presentation at the Liberty Stadium Swansea on Monday, April 3.”

The HMSG team won the prize for the Best Engineering Design.

They were also nominated for the Best Application of Science Award, and the Best Working Model Award.

Mrs Davies added: “Many thanks go to Mr Draper who gave up many hours of his time to help the girls through the project and also to our DT department for their help with the manufacturing.”