Heriot's Healthy Home

Cartoon house

In 2019, we launched a competition for school children across Scotland to design a healthy home, full of gadgets and tools to make your family healthier, and improve the health of the planet we live on. 

The competition was part of our Year of Health, when we celebrated and shared all the amazing research taking place to improve our health and the health of the planet. From the homes we live in, to the health of the cells in our body, our chemists, biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, social scientists and engineers are working together to make life better. For example, we are working on:

  • designing eco-houses
  • renewable energy research and design - wind, wave, and sun
  • building robotics for assisted living for the elderly
  • making new and advanced medical equipment
  • improving cancer treatments
  • investigating how the brain works
  • understanding and preventing diseases

You can find out more about some of our research in our 'Research Bites', from eco-bricks for low carbon homes, to artificial intelligence in the home, and reducing carbon emissions for a healthy planet. 

The Winners

We were delighted to award the winning prizes to:

Age 7-9: Connell MacKinnon, St Josephs Primary School

Age 10-12: Jack Robertson, Currie Primary School

Runners up:

  • Georgia Leadbetter, Currie Primary School 
  • James Braddock, Stromness Primary School
  • Lauren Taylor, St Josephs Primary School
  • Sam Squire, Stromness Primary School
  • Cal Leitch, Pitlochry High School
  • David Malczewski, Pitlochry High School
  • Finlay McPherson, Greenwards Primary School  

Both winners received a family ticket to a local science centre or zoo, plus a tour of the Robotic assisted living labs at Heriot-Watt University

Key information