Tegan – Week Three

Week 3

We started off Week 3 with a visit to MACAW Engineering, a company who specialise in pipeline engineering. We were introduced to the world of drones, and even got to fly a small one (or tried to fly a small one). We had a presentation from a girl who had just become an engineer at the business, and a Q&A session with a group of female engineers. Both of which were really informative and helpful in finding out about the different ways and reasons people get into engineering.

The next day we visited Kromek – a company who produce radiation detectors to work in the medical, security and nuclear sectors. We were given lots of information about what it’s like to study physics at university, then the physics behind radiation and the detectors Kromek had produced. It was amazing to think that such a small object could be capable of so much. After having a go at detecting an unknown chemical in a tin, we were given a tour of the clean room. For this we had to change into gorgeous lab coats, hair nets and stylish white shoes, which ended up taking longer than the actual tour did! We were shown some of the radiation materials, and then an example of a machine that was used to detect banned materials in bottles at airports.  

To get used to the designing aspect of Engineering, which we hadn’t really focused on before, we had an instrument-making workshop. We were given instructions to set up a circuit to power the spinner which would make the instrument work by itself. Then it was up to us to design and produce the instrument using only: glue, tape, cardboard, drums, shakers, and drumsticks. It was really good to have a go at engineering ourselves and get used to the designing and problem-solving… and also really fun!

At the end of the week we finished off our academic research and posters on the Nepal earthquake, ready for the presentation day on Friday.