The Scottish Engineering Award, was presented to Steven Blair, Mark Craven, Stewart Munro and Andrew Rennie by Scottish Engineering at a ceremony in Dundee. The students had worked on a project involving aircraft navigation aids in conjunction with the airport operator’s engineering department.

HIAL sponsored the students as part of the The Best Programme which was devised by the Royal Academy of Engineering to encourage collaboration between industry and 5/6^th year secondary school pupils.

The award was granted for effective collaboration between the Inverness Royal Academy student team and the airport operator in pursuit of an Engineering Education Scheme in Scotland project. The students received certificates and a £500 cheque for their school.

Inverness Royal Academy has participated in the scheme for several years and head of physics, Robert Boardman expressed his delight at the pupils’ success.

"Our sixth year students worked very hard on their project and also gained valuable industry experience by working with HIAL’s engineering staff," said Mr Boardman.

HIAL's Engineering Manager, Keith Hodinott praised all those involved in the project. He said: "HIAL was happy to support this initiative and we would certainly commend it to other companies. The students carried out their project on a navigation device over a period of several months, which included a week at the University of Aberdeen. It is so important that industry encourages pupils to consider careers in engineering and participation in the Engineering Education Scheme is an excellent means of doing so."

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