“Everyone at Leonardo works really hard and is so passionate about engineering”, explains Hannah Newton, Leonardo’s VP Human Resources in Luton.
“When I joined the company, I thought Rampaging Chariots was such a great idea and I was really excited about the idea of running a competition for employees.
“I thought it was an opportunity for everyone to be creative, innovative and have some fun – and maybe a bit of competition too!”
The idea to run a Rampaging Chariots was presented to Leonardo’s Fit For the Future (FFF) Innovation theme. FFF is an employee-led initiative that provides a forum for anyone across Leonardo’s UK business to propose ideas to improve their work environment and ensure that the company is ready to meet the challenges of the future. FFF focuses on the themes of Communications, Environment, Sports and Social, and Innovation.
Harvey Alison, who is Leonardo’s FFF Innovation Theme Lead, as well as Chief Technical Specialist with Leonardo’s Electronic Warfare line of business, thought the internal competition was a great way to introduce the excitement generated by Rampaging Chariots to all those at Leonardo, not just the engineers.
“Fit For the Future is all about building a sense of community and collaboration through our shared values and passion for technology and problem solving. Taking Rampaging Chariots to our colleagues therefore, seemed like a great way for engineering and fun to collide!
“In the end, we had 13 teams competing from both our Basildon and Luton sites. The ingenuity and skills of those that took part produced some fantastic souped-up entrants with some amazing fantasy franchise livery was on display!”
Leonardo has a long-standing relationship with Rampaging Chariots, dating back to the first event in 2006 at the company’s Edinburgh site. By 2018, each summer Leonardo sites across the UK were hosting a series of Robotic Games, before these events, like so many others, were affected by lockdown.
Rampaging Chariots was the idea of former Leonardo employee, Peter Bennett MBE, who, as Flying Officer with the Edinburgh Air Cadets, had originally been a part of the all-conquering ‘Team Typhoon’ on the TV programme Robot Wars. After competing in competitions around the world, the team retired and formed the ‘Rampaging Chariots Guild’ to widen the community involvement and involve a larger number of young people. They designed and produced a kit of 330 parts for Scottish Schools and Air Cadet Squadrons to build powerful radio controlled sporting robots to compete in a National Robotic Games.
The Games see young people testing their powerful and lightweight robots in a series of challenges, including an assault course, sumo, tug-of-war and football.
One of Leonardo’s leading proponents of Rampaging Chariots is Luke Petch. Luke joined the company in 2014 as a Technical Apprentice at Luton, having previously taken part in Rampaging Chariots as a student at Luton Sixth Form College. During his time with the company and through his work as one of Leonardo’s many STEM Ambassadors, Luke has organised six Rampaging Chariots events at the Luton site, as well as taking the activity on the road at STEM-focused events across the UK including the Big Bang Fair, Forces in STEM, and air shows up and down the country.
“Rampaging Chariots is always extremely popular and you can see just how excited those that take part get when they are at the controls of the chariots,” says Luke.
“The scheme is unique in that offers young people a chance to try their hand at an engineering challenge, building the robots at their schools with support from Leonardo apprentices and graduates, which eventually culminates in a robotic games event where the students’ robots go head-to-head.
“It allows young people with an interest in STEM-related topics, to see first-hand the enjoyment that can be had by developing these skills and, ultimately, the kind of career opportunities that are then open to them.
“At the end of the day, that’s what it is all about; making sure you go to work every day, looking forward to the challenge and enjoying what you do.”
Looking at the photos captured at our latest Rampaging Chariots events, you can see just what Luke means!
