Wokingham

A sleek new computer aided design (CAD) suite has been opened at Wokingham District Council Waingels College by Tanya Budd, a former student and Young Engineer of the Year.

Tanya, who left Waingels College, Wokingham sixth form last year, was awarded ‘Young Engineer for Great Britain’ in September 2005. Part of Tanya’s prize money was allocated to the college and as a result they have been able to build a new computer-aided design suite, which Tanya officially opened at a special ceremony at the end of June.

Tanya also entered for the IKB competition, sponsored by Brunel University, and won two prizes - one for engineering and another for innovation. She also recently went to represent Great Britain in the ‘World Engineering’ Competition and was awarded fourth prize out of 1,500 students. She was given a special award by the US coast guards for designing a life-saving device. This is an award normally only given to US citizens.

To encourage GCSE and A Level students to follow in Tanya’s footsteps, the Wokingham college will in future present the Tanya Budd Technology Awards to those who have excelled in design technology. The first round of these awards was presented during the opening of the new CAD suite, by Stuart Ellins, young engineer director at Young Engineer Enterprise. The award winners were:

* Richard Masey, 17, from Woodley – A2 Resistant Materials
* Patrick Townson, 18 from Woodley – A2 Graphics
* Anna Minchinton, 17, from Woodley – AS Resistant Materials
* Vistral Giga, 17, from Woodley – AS Graphics
* Joe Zalinski, 15, from Woodley – GCSE Resistant Materials

Executive principal Richard Green said “Waingels College is very proud of Tanya. Inspired by her success, this year some 10 students from our college will be entering the Young Engineer of the Year Award. The new CAD suite will really help them to maximise their potential.”

Wokingham District Council’s executive member for children’s services Cllr Frank Browne said: “This is an outstanding achievement, and I would like to congratulate Tanya on this and all the other accolades she has collected. I hope that the new equipment she has won for her former school will inspire other students there to follow in her footsteps.”

Wokingham District Council