Faculty of Technology

The Technology Bridging Unit

In the Faculty of Technology, two of our Engineering departments Mechanical and Design Engineering and Electronic and Computer Engineering have been developing a ‘bridging unit’ which is now available to local college students to help them with the transition into Higher Education and to also help with the promotion of the STEM subjects in colleges.

The aim of this unit is to introduce students to some of the basic engineering principles by the development of academic and practical skills, to give them a taste of teaching and learning in a University context and to encourage them about the engineering subject areas.

The unit will be delivered as 4 x 1.0 day sessions to be held at the University of Portsmouth. The days are designed to be stand alone sessions, so students can join the bridging unit at any one of the sessions, as part of a rolling programme of delivery.

Students who are studying courses in the following subject areas should be encouraged to participate in the Technology Bridging Unit:

• Engineering
• ICT
• Computing
• Mechanical Engineering
• Electronic Engineering

Schedule of dates for 2010

Details of Wednesday 20th January 2010 session: Visual Programming

This session will involve students working in pairs to produce a simple game. The students would have to acquaint themselves with the programming environment (a basic "wrapper" for OpenGL using VisualStudio) and use graphical software in order to design their graphics. The game can be specified as anything they like but they must get user feedback somehow (possibly by taking the game away at the end of the session and asking people to play it). Some example games will be provided to that students do not have to do all of the programming from scratch. (session photos)

Details of Wednesday 28th April 2010 session: Materials and testing of Formula 1 Racing Cars.

Students will evaluate different materials & designs used in constructing Formula 1 racing cars. Typically this will involve testing carbon fibre composites, against impact using our high powered gas gun; Looking at racing car aerodynamics in our wind tunnel; Testing for strength, hardness and impact on advance metal components and examine the fractures under the microscope.

(Details of later sessions to be announced at a later date.)

Timetable for the day session

After the session

Students will be required to write a 700-1000 words report for each laboratory activity. This report will be submitted once to the topic lecturer who will give feedback and comments and allow the student to develop the work further before resubmitting it to the lecturer. This pattern of assessment is typical of that which first year undergraduate students experience.

Benefits of studying the Technology Bridging Unit

• A ‘taster course’ of a first year Higher Education (i.e. University) programme.
• Encouraging familiarity with the University environment.
• Assisting with students’ skill development to facilitate them as ‘independent learners’.
• Motivation to study the STEM subjects and pursue engineering based careers.
• Extension of subject knowledge pre entry to University.
• Building links with staff and other students at the University of Portsmouth.
• Preferential (reduced) entry tariff to University of Portsmouth Engineering courses.
• Knowledge of progression routes to University courses and available course options.

How to enrol for the sessions

Further information about any aspects of the Technology Bridging Unit can be obtained by emailing the Technology Bridging Unit team at the University: tech-bridging-unit@port.ac.uk