Handmade with STEAM Competition – New Round Launched
Handmade with STEAM is the work of a network of science and technology creative individuals from academia, business and education and is sponsored by Birmingham University and TCL-CUMBRIA.
https://www.handmadewithsteam.net
The HANDMADE WITH STEAM competition for 2026-27 is now open for students between ages 11-16. The successful participants will be given a budget to use towards purchasing materials for the construction of their design as well as receiving online mentoring support. This year students will choose to build one of the devices below:
(a) to construct a mechanical musical instrument that provides a sensory environment other than only sound.
(b) to construct an automatic device that can collect rubbish from the surface of a pond.
(c) to construct a hydroponic system that provides a solution to grow food in small spaces.
(d) to construct a device of their own that helps to improve climate or biodiversity.
(e) to construct a device of their own that encourages social transformation or cultural exchange.
Competition Timeline
1 August 2026: announcement of competition; registration of interest is open
Schools and individuals can apply at https://www.handmadewithsteam.net/contact-1
From all the applicants, ten teams will be selected who will eventually participate in the scheme. More details can be found at https://www.handmadewithsteam.net/competition
30 September 2026: registration of interest is closed; a selection process follows, and successful participants will be informed early October 2026
15 October 2026: project work commences
18 April 2027: deadline for project submission with relevant paperwork
Winners of the competition will also be invited to participate in the Pitch for the Planet 2027 hosted by Project Earth (https://projectearth.global/ ).
About Us
Ian Stephenson is a mechanical engineer and inventor. Throughout his career he has established many business-to-education partnerships and has mentored many student projects. Ian has been working with the Engineering and Physics Departments at Lancaster University since 2014, initially on a fluid dynamics concept supported by the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation and more recently on a novel compact hydro-energy device, with funding from Innovate UK. With a passion for the outdoors and environmental issues, Ian aims at developing projects in line with the Envision 2030 ambitions towards Affordable Energy, Zero Hunger, Good Health & Wellbeing, Sustainable Cities & Communities, Responsible Consumption & Production, Climate Action and Life On Land. Ian is the director of TCL-CUMBRIA.
Cristina Lazzeroni graduated in 1992 from the University of Pisa in Italy with a research in particle physics on beauty meson decays. She did a PhD at the same University on beauty production at an experiment at CERN. She then moved to UK where she has worked on kaon and beauty physics ever since. In 2007 she joined the University of Birmingham and she is currently a professor in particle physics. She is also an enthusiastic communicator and has been holding a STFC public engagement fellowship. She has been the Spokesperson of the NA62 CERN experiment in 2019-2022 and she has won the Institute of Physics Meitner Medal and Prize in 2019 for her work on public engagement.
Maria Pavlidou graduated in 1988 from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece with a research in space physics. She did a PhD at Cardiff University on the acoustics of the classical guitar. She has been a secondary school teacher in Greece and in UK for many decades and an Ogden Trust Teacher Fellow at the University of Birmingham, focussing on outreach and public engagement. In 2020 Maria established Galileo’s Voyage, a science education company that specialises in physics and astronomy.
After a physics degree and research at the University of Chicago, Becky taught in a variety of schools and was Senior Lecturer in physics at the University of Kent. She set up the Institute for Research in Schools to support school students and teachers doing authentic research through a wide range of projects in STEM. She is now a teacher at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School where she is particularly keen to empower school students to act and innovate to help tackle the climate crisis.
Becky was awarded an MBE in 2008 and received an Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Physics in 2014. In the summer of 2016, she was awarded the Kavli Education Medal from the Royal Society
