On Thursday 2nd July, the Cumbria round of the Nuclear Institute YGN’s annual Young Person’s speaking competition was held. This year’s competition once again featured a very standard from amongst the presenting speakers covering a diverse range of topics.
This year’s winner was Stephen Harrison from NNL who’s talk “Let’s Put Things into Perspective!” highlighted how facts and figures can be used to support almost any argument. A highlighted example from Stephen’s presentation being seventeen thousand men dying as a result of shaving each year, the context for which Stephen then went on to explain
In second place was Dorothy Stonell from Sellafield Ltd who’s talk “The Many Misconceptions Surrounding Radiation” explored the concept of radiation exposure and the risks to workers as a result before raising the question of whether or not our concept of all radiation exposure being bad was actually having a negative effect on creativity.
In third place was David Ward from the Nucleargrad’s scheme who spoke about “A New Energy Perspective”. The other entrants were Cameron McGlennon (Sellafield Ltd – “Hope for a Country Constantly Parched”), Tom Majchrowski (NNL – “Corrosion: Nature’s Forte and an Engineer’s Nightmare”) and Dale McQueen (Sellafield Ltd – Another Chance for the Ugly Duckling”) with Dale also taking the prize for best synopsis.
Commenting on the competition Matt Aukett, Nuclear Institute Cumbria Branch Events Committee, chair of the judging panel and system engineer for Sellafield Ltd commented:
“Once again we’ve had a very high standard of entries to the competition which made for a challenge to select this year’s winner and so I’d like to extend my congratulations to all the entrants.”
Matt added “I’d also like to thank my fellow judges Vic Emmerson from Cockermouth Speakers Club and Professor Neil Smart from Sellafield Ltd for their support in judging the event.”