This is a scheme for Year 12 students (Lower Sixth) who are considering Engineering as a career. It is run under the umbrella of the Royal Academy of Engineers, a prestigious professional body for the top professionals in engineering.
The scheme involves working with a partnership company which will provide a real problem that you can tackle. It's not such a problem that they would pay €1000 an hour for a consultant but student solutions have been known to save €200 000 a year in production costs.
| Case Study KC Engineering of Consett (County Durham) make white metal bearings for machinery. White metal is an alloy widely used for bearings, but the composition may vary. A full analytical laboratory would cost €200 000, way above what a small company can pay. Sending samples away to a specialist lab would cost a fortune in time (several weeks) and money, something the customers would not tolerate. The students came up with a design for an analyser that could be used by a semi-skilled operator on the shop floor, getting results within about 30 minutes. The analyser can tell what the composition of metal is, so that the same composition of alloy can be made up for the new bearing. The analyser is in constant use by the company, a tribute indeed to the fresh and innovative thinking by the student team. One of the team works in a senior professional role within KC Engineering. |
If you want to find out more about the EES, visit www.thescheme.org.uk
Click on the link for a Presentation about the EES
Below are some links to what my student teams have done at St Mary's College
Windfarm at North Tees (PowerPoint)
Windfarm at North Tees (Report in Word format)