Boy wins competition aimed at getting girls interested in science

While EDF Energy's 'Pretty Curious' campaign is aimed at girls, the UK competition was later opened up to all 11 to 16-year-olds

EDF Energy said the #PrettyCurious campaign was aimed at encouraging girls to get interested in STEM subjects, but the competition was 'gender neutral' (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A 13-year-old boy has won a competition aimed at attracting girls to the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

While EDF Energy's "Pretty Curious" campaign is aimed at girls, the UK competition was later opened up to all 11 to 16-year-olds "in the interests of fairness".

Three of the four runners-up were girls.

EDF Energy defended the competition on Twitter:

Computer scientist Doctor Sue Black OBE told the BBC: "Congratulations to the winner - but I'd love to hear from EDF how the winning solution meets their stated aim for the competition.

"It is taking me a bit of time to work out how this result will change girls' perceptions of Stem."

The campaign previously attracted criticism due to its "sexist" name, #PrettyFocused, when it was launched in October.

A survey found 67 per cent of Europeans don't think women can be scientists.

Women engineers marked what would have been Ada Lovelace's 200th birthday with pictures of their achievements using the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer.