A young Cumbrian inventor has returned from an international competition in the USA carrying third prize.

Brad Stalker, of Egremont, won a Young Engineers title at Birmingham NEC earlier this year coming top in a field of 1,700 entrants from across Britain.

That gave him a place competing against a further 1,760 finalists from around the world, in Phoenix in the United States.

Last week he flew out to Arizona and, after presenting his invention, was named in the top three in his field by a panel of judges and an environmental science specialist.

The UTC student’s V-Generator is a device that can be installed in river beds making them self dredging.

He was inspired to do something after the floods of 2009 because, he said: “It needed fixing, so I fixed it.”

The 17-year-old’s third place in the Grand Awards saw him bringing home a cheque for $1,000.

He said:”The money will go towards paying for a patent and after that I haven’t decided. I may look for investors. I have a lot of options so it’s a matter of weighing everything up.”

Brad’s design was influenced by the Austrian scientist Viktor Schauberger whose inventions were inspired by the natural world.

Brad added:”It feels really good to go from nothing to this really quickly, really pushed by the people that I know. I’ve been motivated by my family and where I was going by the floods. So going from not having a motive to really being inspired and motivated by people pushes you really quite far.

“You don’t even realise how far you’re getting.”