A 10-year-old Milton Keynes pupil has had her very own design printed onto a delivery robot which will now roam the streets of the city.
Over the summer holidays, Starship Technologies and MPs Ben Everitt and Iain Stewart ran a competition encouraging students to show off their design skills.
Poppy Waterson’s, from Giffard Park School designed the ‘Stray Cat’, which was picked as the winner by Starship judges.
For winning the competition, Poppy earned some vouchers for herself, £500 for her school and her robot design will now be seen around the streets of MK.
Poppy hopes the 'Stray Cat' design will help lost cats get better and find homes.
On Friday 14th October, Poppy and her school received a visit from the MPs and Starship Technologies where she was able to see her design in real life.
Ben Everitt, the MP for Milton Keynes North, said: “It was absolutely amazing seeing so many fantastic entries from the wonderful bright young people we have here in Milton Keynes.
“We love seeing the robots all across MK and I’m looking forward to the first time I see Poppy’s design roaming the streets. Well done Poppy!
“I also want to thank Starship for running this competition with us to engage young people across the city in innovation!”
Iain Stewart, the MP for Milton Keynes South, added: “I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the winner and the runners-up of the Back to School Bot Competition that I ran with Ben Everitt MP and Starship Technologies.
“We had many designs sent in with brilliant ideas on how to improve the Starship delivery robots. From street cleaning designs to football designs, it was a difficult job to narrow it down to the final three.
“Be sure to keep an eye out to spot the top three designs on the robots around Milton Keynes.”
Starship Operations Manager, Andy Curtis, commented: "Innovation in tech is essential to what we do at Starship, and this has been a great opportunity to encourage children to imagine how they could help the world with a robot invention.
“Starship is delighted to donate £500 to Poppy's school - she ought to be proud to have dreamt up such a clever and caring robot!"
