An animal “carwash,” a wheelchair that converts into a bed, and a freeze ray to prevent the polar icecaps melting were just some of the engineering inventions on display at the University of Sussex this weekend.

The inventions came from the School of Engineering and Informatics’ collaboration with the charity, Primary Engineer, to stage the first ever Special Leaders Award to take place in the South East. The Engineering Department backed the award, which is aimed at attracting children into engineering careers, as part of its celebration of its fiftieth anniversary this year.

Over 480 children, from 12 schools across the South East, took part in a competition to answer the question “what would you do if you were an engineer in the South East?” They also interviewed engineers as part of the competition. The 18 winning entries were displayed with 8 highly commended entries and a selection of inventions from all the participating schools.

Other inventions from the children included were a self-cleaning litter tray for animals, a propeller driven flying bicycle, and hover boots. There also came up with rain wipers for spectacles, a robot driven energy efficient lorry, and a lightning catcher. Other inventions included a grass powered lawn mower, a smartphone app to tell users the location of the nearest toilet and a fast finder for lost objects.

Professor Diane Mynors, head of the School of Engineering and Informatics, told the children that there was a very short time until they could be designing real engineering projects. She introduced them to three 22 year old students, who will form part of next year’s Mobil1 Team Sussex Formula Student racing car team, and said “You may think you are very young now – you are not. You might be designing things on paper now, but in 10 or 15 years you too could be building a real car, like our students.”

Professor Mynors also pointed out that the head of the 2016 Formula Student team was female and said there was “no excuse” for girls not to become engineers.

Jim Lockhart, chair of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ South East Region, which also sponsored the awards, told the children that everything around them was designed by engineers “but the big problem this country has is that not enough people are becoming engineers.”

He said engineering was a prestigious and well paid profession and added: “judging the competition showed me just how fantastic your imaginations are and that is fundamentally what you need to become an engineer.”