Kayla receives Second David Doig STEM scholarship

BY David Doig Foundation ON 11/03/20

An Edinburgh College HND Engineering Systems student has been awarded the second David Doig scholarship which will see her working alongside College staff to inspire thousands of pupils to consider STEM careers.

Kayla Ho, who studies at the College’s Midlothian Campus has been named the David Doig Foundation STEM scholar for 2020, following a successful interview. Kayla’s role is to help deliver the College’s STEM Inspiration Experience programme to P7, S1 and S2 pupils for the remainder for term 2019/20.

The Edinburgh College Development Trust originally received funding from the David Doig Foundation to run the scholarship in 2018. Kayla will use the opportunity to boost her CV and gain work experience in working as part of a team and with young people from across the region.

Nineteen-year-old Kayla will work with College staff each week to deliver STEM Inspiration Days where school pupils take part in a range of activities covering each STEM branch:

• Science – exploring gravity and g-force. Students launch eggs attached to parachutes from height. This uses everyday objects to make the science tangible, accessible, interactive and fun.
• Technology – the Bloodhound Rocket Car Challenge. This is part of the national engagement project around the Bloodhound land-speed record attempt, giving pupils the opportunity to design, build and race their own rocket cars. They learn about physics, aerodynamics, design and the mechanisms of speed, using microchip sensor technology to record and analyse data.
• Engineering – pupils design and build a two-foot cardboard bridge, then test it using a heavy car model.
• Maths – a classroom-based problem-solving challenge centred on how the real Bloodhound reaches 1,000mph.

Kayla, who is from Edinburgh, says the opportunity of building up great work experience attracted her to the STEM scholarship.

“It’s brilliant to be this year’s STEM scholar. I’ve had previous experience with working with young people, but the opportunity to teach them STEM and Engineering-related disciplines is new and exciting, and will be great for my CV.”

Gillian Doig, who founded the David Doig Foundation in memory of her late husband who was an alumni of Telford College, said: “Congratulations to Kayla on becoming our second STEM scholar. We’re very proud to fund this project which will bring benefits to Kayla in terms of work experience but also to so many young people across Edinburgh and Lothians.

“David was a champion of, engineering, education and social responsibility and this scholarship represents this brilliantly. We look forward to hearing how Kayla progresses through her scholarship, as well as her future career.”

Looking to the future, Kayla is hoping to progress to Edinburgh Napier University where she will go into third year of Energy and Environmental Engineering and hopes to secure work in the fast-growing Scottish renewables sector.

She said: “With Scotland, and the world, moving to renewable energy sources, it made sense to pursue this career path. I want to be able to discover new ground-breaking ways of working and make the world a better place.”