Solihull College’s Engineering students have enjoyed playing their part in the Engineering Education Scheme run by charity EDT. EDT gives students the chance to work with local companies to work on real, scientific, engineering and technological problems. The scheme provides students an in-depth experience in science, engineering and technology which assists them with their choices with regards to their future.
As part of the EDT project international engineering company Control Data Services (CDS) were able to collaborate with Solihull College amongst others in the region to offer students the Engineering Education Scheme. CDS are a provider of power system controls and intelligence worldwide with 2 offices situated in Birmingham.
CDS set the students a task of inventing a device to allow engineers to remotely monitor and book Environmental chambers on site to increase both time and cost efficiency. Environmental chambers are devices which test the effects of specified environmental conditions on systems such as those used in aircrafts.
Students were given a budget of £200 to create their invention in the hope it would be successful and meet the CDS requirements. With the help of the engineering facilities at Solihull College along with Engineering lecturer, Alan Robin, the team of students including Jonathan Bell, Neelam Akmal, Abdul Khokhar and Luke Baulcombe, were able to design and create their invention, under budget. CDS engineers also assisted the students with their creation; giving them professional advice and expert knowledge enabling the students to overcome any obstacles they were faced with.
The Solihull College students then had to present and demonstrate their invention to the members of CDS management. Jonathan, Neelam, Abdul and Luke also had the opportunity to compete for a British Association (BA) CREST Award. CREST is a UK award scheme that recognises success, enabling students to build their skills and demonstrate personal achievement in project work; there are four levels of the Crest Award with Gold being the highest achievement.
The Solihull College team of students were not only presented with the CREST award but they managed to achieve the gold level which was a fantastic achievement for the group. The team of students were 1 of the only 3 colleges in the region to achieve the top Gold Level CREST award. Student Jonathan Bell commented “??the scheme was a great experience for us and receiving the award was a great bonus.”? Abdul added “??the award makes you stand out as an individual, especially when writing your personal statement for a university application.”
Throughout the scheme students were also given the opportunity to attend universities to use their facilities and also experience life at university. The students at Solihull College were able to visit Coventry University as well as Birmingham University; all of the students hope to progress to university on completion of their course.
For more information on the courses available at Solihull College such as engineering visit www.solihull.ac.uk/courses or call 0121 678 7000.
