TWO students from Okehampton College have proven their technological prowess after winning a nationwide TeenTech Award.

Twelve student projects from the college were entered into the national engineering and science competition. From more than 1,000 entries across the UK, three groups of Okehampton students were invited to the Royal Academy of Engineering in London — thanks to the quality of their work.

Reece Boulton and Sam McGlynn won in the music, media and entertainment category for their ‘Reel Strings’ project. They designed and manufactured a guitar that allows you to replace strings from reels hidden in the back of it if any strings happen to snap.

They presented their idea at the Royal Academy of Engineering and were judged by industry sponsors, scientists and celebrities, including former Top Gear presenter James May.

The boys won £1,000 for the school and three sets of headphones. They recently attended an awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace where they were presented with their prize by the Duke of York.

Sam said: ‘The visit to Buckingham Palace consisted of each team giving an outline of their idea and what they had done and wanted to do after the competition. We were given a certificate and had our photograph taken with Prince Andrew.

‘Winning or even taking part in the TeenTech awards is a great opportunity. It looks good on your CV and we have learnt new skills that will stay with us in the future.’

Reece added: ‘We took a train to London and as we were early, we were permitted to view the palace mews. This was full of historic items from royal history such as carriages, cars and the royal horses.

‘After viewing this, we were invited into the palace, Then we met Prince Andrew and pictures were taken. By 5pm, we had left the palace and began to make our way back to Okehampton.

‘I think this award will help to not only inspire us and take us into careers in engineering but also to inspire those around us and encourage them into careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We will also ideally take our idea into production and that will help to give us a future career as innovative scientists.’

The TeenTech Awards are for UK students aged eleven to 18 working in teams of up to three to look at problems large and small. The awards were established in 2012/13 to enable students to take their new found interests further. It encourages students to develop their own ideas for making life better, simpler, safer or more fun.

Other Okehampton students shortlisted included Ellie Shayler and Sophie Mugliston for their education app and Oliver Walstenholme for his ‘alarm mattress’.