Launch of Mid Sussex STEM Challenge 2025-2026: students to build vehicles powered by potential energy

The launch event took place at the Council Chamber of Mid Sussex District Council in Haywards Heath on Friday, October 24 (1.30pm).

The 2025-2026 ‘Potential Pit Stop Challenge’ will see students given a chassis so they can create a potential energy powered vehicle, which can race on a predetermined course and load a selection of weights in ‘a pit stop zone’.

Students have to demonstrate design integrity and the innovative use of potential energy.

The Deputy Lieutenant of West Sussex Andrewjohn Stephenson Clarke officially opened the challenge. He said: “I’m here as a representative of King Charles III. King Charles takes a life-long interest in the wellbeing of everybody in the country and therefore I’m here today to congratulate you – and, for that matter, everybody who’s on the council, all of the teachers, all of the volunteers, all of the professors, all of the people who make STEM something that is not just ‘intention and aspiration’ but something that actually works for everybody who’s involved.”

Mr Stephenson Clarke explained he was part of the team that built the mosque in Regent’s Park. He said he also built chemical plants, oil refineries and oil rigs out in the North Sea. Then he moved into teaching systems engineering, computer programming and also did broadcast engineering.

He said: “That’s quite a variety of things, all of which were possible because of having an interest in science at school and having teachers that encouraged me to follow the particular subjects that I loved.”

He said he was delighted to announce that this year’s STEM project had started.

Nick Green, general manager at Flowserve, called the STEM Challenge ‘a fantastic event’ that encourages young people to engage with STEM subjects as they go through their education. He said: “It’s very rewarding to get involved in technology and in those careers. We need engineers and technologists to build the economy and go forward and there are lots of opportunities in this area.”

He said students would learn many engineering skills, as well as life skills, by completing this year’s project.

Jim Davison of Make UK, who represents manufacturing businesses in England and Wales, said he was ‘pleased and privileged’ to join students at the start of the challenge. He called it a great opportunity for students to learn some ‘real fundamental skills’ that will be valuable to them and to employers in the future.

Jim said the challenge would be enjoyable but warned students: “Use every second. Because one observation is over the years I’ve seen teams that almost ran out of time at the end of their projects. So start now and start working and I’m sure you’ll have great fun.”

He went on to say that the companies he represents in the UK say there is ‘a fundamental skill shortage in engineering, manufacturing and technology’. He said: “Right now, today, there are 46,000 long term vacancies. Some of that is for all the good reasons because there are lots of new companies looking to expand and move into exciting ‘clean and green’ technologies. Digital technologies are having a massive impact on every business, but really excitingly in engineering and manufacturing in particular, and obviously science. So that is going to drive, over the next 20 years, to 100,000 vacancies.”

He added: “If it’s something you want to do and you want to get involved then there will be a massive opportunity for you going forward.”

JP, a quality assurance and production engineer for Flowserve, explained that students would receive a basic chassis kit for this year’s challenge.

He said: “We’re going to then ask you to power this using purely potential energy. So that could be something like gravitational potential energy. You might have seen some of those gravity powered cars where you might suspend a mass which propels it along.”

He continued: “You might want to use some sort of stored pressure or you might want to use some sort of magnetic potential energy. We’re looking for the vehicle to move without you touching it. So it could be that you might take a break and you might re-fuel it or you might re-pressurise it or rewind the gears.”

“The idea is you’ll be moving this from point A to point B without touching it while its moving,” he said. “You’ll then load it with a mass and you’ll bring it back and see how many laps you can do in a given time.”

Professor Winfried Hensinger, also talked to students about his work with quantum technology, encouraging them to learn the difficult subjects, like maths, so they can ‘change the world’.

He said: “Learn because you really want to do something cool. You can do very special things. The key thing for that is to believe in yourself at the start of your journey, to be super inventive, to really go out there and try new things, like these machines. And this is the first step to get into much more cool science and engineering projects.”

The actual race challenge is set to take place in July 2026. There will be awards for Engineering, Project Presentation (donated by Rotary), Race Challenge and Overall Winner.

Throughout the project, engineering and medical companies aim to help students see the careers they could have in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. The STEM challenge organisers have announced that Willmott Dixon has joined this year’s team, which also includes: Flowserve, Thales, PSM Marine Engineering, Adelphi, Nuffield Hospital, Bike Smart, Edwards/Atlas, Balfour Beatty and Rotary. Each of the companies involved in the 2025-2026 Mid Sussex STEM Challenge will provide STEM Ambassadors to work with every school. Students will also be brought into the workplace and they will prepare a Marketing and Business Management Plan with help from Nuffield Health.