A hospital scientist is helping Bradford pupils battle it out in the city’s own robot wars.

The event, at Bradford University’s Atrium, will see 12 schools from across the city compete to see whose robot is the best in Education Bradford’s NG Bailey Robot Challenge.

In the ten-week run-up to the final on May 30, school teams will work with engineering mentors to design and create their robots.

One of the mentors is 33-year-old Wayne Gardner, a senior clinical scientist in medical physics at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who is helping his Queensbury School, where he was once a pupil.

Mr Gardner, who monitors, maintains and develops hospital equipment, said the event was a great way of getting young people involved in science and engineering. “The whole point was to ensure that these subjects are seen as exciting rather than the dusty old subjects that students sometimes think they are,” he said.

“The pupils are given the core electronics and then set loose to scavenge recyclable material from which they must build a robot which measures up in terms of power, agility and style.

“Ultimately, at the end of the ten weeks, the robots go into battle in a final showdown with the other machines.”

Lindsey Johnson, partnership advisor with Bradford Education Business Partnership, said the support of the engineering mentors was invaluable for the students.

She said: “As well as drawing on their engineering expertise, the addition of an outsider allows the students to develop the team-working skills which are important employment and life skills.”