A GROUP of students have won awards for designing a security robot which can detect people’s faces and shoot water at them.

The group of engineering students from Ormiston Rivers Academy in Burnham took part in an Engineering Cadets Scheme run by EDT.

Georgia Dyerson, Sam Davies, Scott Munro and Ethan Birdwork worked with an outside business to develop a prototype sentry robot powered by a Raspberry Pi computer, which uses facial recognition to detect and aim at intruders.

The robot can fire a number of deterrents, ranging from a water jet to a party-popper.

The team was chosen by a panel of industry judges as the People’s Choice Award winner.

The pupils were supported by design technology head Kevin Rumary.

Mr Rumary said: “We are thrilled to have received the People’s Choice Award in acknowledgement of the outstanding work of our engineering pupils.

“This award demonstrates what happens when pupils commit to designing, developing and prototyping technology.”

The hard work of the pupils during months of prototype development paid off when the project was further developed with a school trip to Brighton University for a two-day intensive workshop with industrial mentors.