Young engineers signal bright future

Students from schools in Portsmouth recently became real-life engineers for a day at the University of Portsmouth.

Students from local schools showcasing their prototype communications devices

The University’s Faculty of Technology hosted a Faraday Challenge Day for local schools, where the students were asked to design and build prototype communications devices for rescue teams in remote locations. The event was part of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Faraday education programme, which includes 55 challenge days across the UK.

Students from Cowplain Community School, Horndean Technology College, Admiral Lord Nelson School, Springfield School, Bohunt School, Mayfield School and King Richard School took part.

The challenges aim to encourage more young people to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects and to consider careers in STEM that utilise creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills.

Each challenge day involves teams of six 12 to 13 year-old students studying science, design technology or maths. Teams are given a secret engineering conundrum which sees them race against the clock to solve a real-life engineering problem, putting their STEM knowledge and skills to the test.

IET President, Professor Andy Hopper, said: “The Faraday programme is all about inspiring and attracting tomorrow’s engineers. Engineering is often an invisible industry amongst young people. They sometimes have preconceived negative ideas about what engineers look like, the jobs they do and what they can earn.

“The students attending the challenge days will experience hands-on, practical events to challenge their perceptions and make them realise engineering is an exciting, rewarding career path.”

Following an introduction to the IET and the university, the students were briefed: neighbouring towns in a remote, mountainous location were without power and communications due to extreme weather conditions.

The teams were asked to design and build a device that could send a coded message from one town to the other. Team members then delegated roles and responsibilities among themselves, researched, designed and built their devices, and then presented and tested them.

Cowplain Community School were awarded first place for their prototype device which used a simple circuit, a switch and a bulb, plus a cleverly devised code to successfully send a signal from one end of the room to the other.

Each member of the winning team was awarded a prize and a trophy for their school. The top three teams from across the UK will receive a trip to the national final in London in June to compete for a cash prize of up to £1,000 for their school.

Associate Dean of the Faculty of Technology at the University, Barbara Haward, said: “An experience like this can really change young people’s perception of engineering and technology. It helps them to picture their future careers, not so much as a vocation, such as computing, construction or mechanics, but in terms of things that they enjoy doing, like solving problems, designing and building things, and working as part of a team.”

The IET is Europe’s largest professional body of engineers with over 150,000 members in 127 countries.