The workshop in EDA enabled students to get hands on with a range of science projects. The workshop also highlighted to the students the wide range of courses our School has to offer, from electronic, computer systems engineering and bioengineering to digital media technology.
Special guest, Libby Jackson, a regular face on BBC also dropped in to encourage the students. After running the Education Programme for Tim Peake’s famous mission to the ISS, Libby is now the UK Space Agency’s Human Spaceflight and Microgravity Programme Manager. Libby went to school in Kent, and in fact her ex-school Newstead Wood For Girls is a regular participant in the EES. Inspiring more women and girls to engage with STEM is one of the EDT’s major aims.
Furthermore, EDA is also very pleased to announce details of a success story concerning the team of pupils from Kent College in Canterbury who in 2016/17 were given a real life engineering problem to solve by their company mentors in the form of designing a low cost robotic arm by BAE sytems.
The team from Kent College started their project in October 2016, and then attended a two day workshop in EDA at Kent in December 2016 developing their ideas with their mentor from BAE and specialist mechanical and technical staff from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts.
On their return in January, the Kent College team continued to develop the hand and the arm as well as starting to write their report. They presented their final project to a panel of industry experts at the University of Kent in May. The team won the contribution to the business award for their project, they went on to the regional finals in London in July, which they also won and then the National finals in September 2017, which they also won. Furthermore, the team also took their project to The Big Bang Science Fair in June last year, where they won the Young Engineer of the year (South East) award, they will be attending the national final of this competition at the NEC in Birmingham in March 2018.
On 7th November 2017, the team from Kent College attended the Houses of Parliament to showcase their project at The Big Bang @ Parliament, in celebration of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week. They were invited by Stephen Metcalfe MP on behalf of The Parliamentary and Scientific Committee with EngineeringUK. They discussed their project with many guests from Industry and Education and MPs, including Canterbury’s own MP, Rosie Duffield.
EDA are delighted to have supported Kent College’s successful team and are indeed proud to collaborate with the EDT charity.