A TEAM of Oxfordshire students have been designing equipment for a science facility to test how electronics stand up to harmful cosmic ray particles.

The team of Year 12 students from King Alfred’s Academy in Wantage have been taking part in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES), a six-month programme which links students and their teacher with local organisations where they work on real engineering and technology projects. The students showcased their work at an event at Diamond Light Source on the Harwell Campus near Didcot yesterday.

Cosmic rays hitting the Earth’s atmosphere generate showers of particles including high energy neutrons. These are an invisible threat that can disrupt the normal operation of electronic systems.

Simon Cooper, the ISIS staff member who has been mentoring the school team, said: “It has been great working with the students to help them reach their project goal. It’s definitely been a challenge for the group having never worked on anything like this before but they’ve been making great use of the opportunity and together have come up with some interesting concept designs to solve this engineering problem.

“It’s been a lot of fun and a good learning experience – for myself as well as them.”