A designer at The Leys School, Cambridge had the honour of attending the presentation of the £1 million Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering 2019 at Buckingham Palace.
Jack Jiang, who is in the school’s Sixth Form, designed the trophy for the event. The prize, regarded as the world’s most prestigious engineering accolade, was awarded to Dr Bradford Parkinson, Professor James Spilker, Hugo Freuhauf and Richard Schwartz for their work creating the first truly global, satellite-based positioning system – GPS. Professor Spilker died in September, seven months after the award was announced. His widow, Anna Marie Spilker, was at the Palace to receive it on his behalf.
The presentation was made by the Prince of Wales on behalf of Her Majesty (Dec 3rd). The trophy was made to Jack’s design, which was selected from more than 50 international entries from young people aged 14-24. Jack created his elegant design using the QE Prize 3D Design Studio app. The Leys srudent will receive a 3-D replica of his trophy design and a high-end laptop computer as his own prize.
Jack said: “It is an incredible honour to be part of this ceremony, it is an opportunity of a lifetime being able to go to Buckingham Palace and seeing my trophy being presented to the engineers responsible for making the GPS. I also had some very inspirational chats with the creators of the GPS, which are definitely life-changing.”