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East Midlands companies such as Tarmac, JCB, BAE Systems and Network Rail have been mentoring sixth form students from across the East Midlands in major science and engineering projects as part of the Engineering Education Scheme. A total of twenty one teams from across the East Midlands have laboured on their projects for 6 months and dedicated over 100 hours of work per student, including a three day period of research and development at a local university.

The culmination of their projects was a “Celebration and Assessment Day” held at Loughborough University on the 21st April at which they demonstrated their projects to independent assessors to gain certificates acknowledging their success in the Engineering Education Scheme. They can also achieve the prestigious BA Crest Award at Gold Standard for their work on the project.

The projects being presented were very varied and included developing a rainwater harvesting system for depot operation, automating a packaging system and designing a windscreen for a 52 ft luxury boat.

The Engineering Education Scheme is run nationally by the Engineering Development Trust (EDT). The students were inspired in their presentations by the success of students from Oakham School who presented at this event last year and then went on to develop their project to receive the top team award at the National Engineering and Science Awards in Manchester last month among many other accolades.

Geoff Jellis, EDT, Regional Director for Midlands and Wales says, “The East Midlands is developing a fine reputation for the quality of its engineering and science students and this event showcases some of the best of them. All the students can be inspired by last year’s Oakham team to keep on developing their skills to achieve similar success.”

The Millennium Centre, Derby have been working with Electricity Alliance Babcock on developing a ground installed Bird Flight Diverter fitter to the earth wire on 400kv cables on pylons.

Pictured around a working model on feeding the cable are, from the left, Oliver Toogood (teacher), Steve Williams (engineer), and pupils Jack Firth (16), Aiden Rogers (17), Stephen Hallam (17) and Adam Palmer (17)  with Andrew Ibbotson (engineer for Electricity Line-west)

ENDS

Editors Notes:

1.     Media Contact

Andrew Third, Integra Communications Ltd, 0115 912 4350, andrew@integracommunications.co.uk

2.     Interviews

Geoff Jellis is available for interview before, during and after the event. See media contact below to make arrangements

3.     Media Attendance

Media are welcome at the event. See media contact below to make arrangements

4.     Photography

Photography will be available from the media contact, the day after the event.

5.     The Engineering Development Trust is an independent registered charity, established in 1984, running schemes to inspire and motivate young people to choose a career in science, engineering and technology (SET). http://www.etrust.org.uk/

6.     The Engineering Education Scheme is run nationally by the EDT and funded in the East Midlands by East Midlands Development Agency (emda) through its £6 million STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) initiative.

7.     Schools and Businesses involved