Hugh Harvey of the Institute of Cancer Research won the Light Zone in March 2015. He quickly got to work and here he tells us see how made the best of his £500 prize money…

I wanted to put the prize money towards buying a 3D printer for a local school, and setting up a 3D printing club for the children. This is a great opportunity to spread awareness and experience of 3D printing to school children – something which I hope will encourage them to take up science careers.

This ain’t your parent’s inkjet– It’s got a whole new dimension, plus cool sci-fi lighting effects!

A call went out to all schools who take part in STEMnet projects in Sussex for them to tell me why they deserved the 3D printer. I also got in contact with the super generous team at Ultimaker who loved the idea and offered to help part-fund the project. In fact, they were so keen to help they even offered a free one month loan printer as a second place prize for another school! Ultimaker run a fantastic education programme based around 3D printing, and I’m very happy to be partnering with them to help provide a school with a brilliant 3D printing educational package.

On top of this, the talented 3D modeller and designer Brian Richardson heard about the competition and offered the winning school one of his gorgeous models for free, to get the kids inspired!

Six schools responded to the STEMSussex call for entries, with each school submitting a short statement as to why they deserved a free 3D printer. I read and re-read them, and took the bank holiday weekend to decide… All schools were of course worthy and put across a great statement, but in the end there can only be one winner!

Hugh, 3D printer, and the students of Longhill High School STEM club. You’ll never guess which pupils are 3D printed clones.

The winner was Longhill High School. Head of Technology, Mr Matthews wrote a wonderful statement detailing his own experience with 3D modelling and printing, and his plans to get the kids creating a start-up business designing and selling models such as iPhone cases and jewellery, with profits being reinvested to purchase the raw materials needed to create more prints.

Longhill High School has a large proportion of students from underprivileged backgrounds who don’t often choose STEM careers so it is an absolute pleasure to be working with them and donating a free 3D printer. I recently visited the school as a STEM ambassador and helped to set-up the printer and the 3D printing club. Who knows – we might find the next 3D printing genius!

A valiant effort by Cardinal Newman Catholic School earned them the second prize of a 3D printer on loan for one month. They’ll get to try out what the printer can do, as well as benefit from all the educational support from UltimakerCREATE that’s on offer. Mrs Stone, their Head of Technology, wrote of the sheer excitement the pupils had of watching Youtube videos about 3D printers, so I can only imagine what the kids reaction will be once they get their hands on one in the classroom!

My thanks also go out to Daniel Hawkins at STEMSussex who helped organise this competition and visits.

Follow Hugh on twitter @DrHughHarvey and check out his blog, drhughharvey.com, for more 3D printing adventures.