Week One – Melinda

Visiting Beamish on Monday was a great way of getting to know each other and seeing how much engineering and innovation have advanced in 100 years.

It was also fascinating to learn about the ways in which advances in engineering are influenced and driven by the needs of industry and society. This made me think about what we can expect or begin to see in the coming 100 years. I also started thinking about what factors affect our ability to develop new technologies and to what degree do each of these factors control the timescale in which these technologies can be developed, distributed and advanced. The highlight of my day was definitely visiting the sweet shop!

The second to fourth days of the week were spent at Nissan, taking part in the Formula One challenge. For this, we were required to design, make and race small race cars. My favourite part of the challenge was working as part of a team and using physics principles to design the fastest car. We also modelling software, used by engineers, to design the cars and machinery such as 3D printers to make components of our cars. When on a tour around the Nissan factory, I was able to see commercial engineering in action. All of the processes were ran with great efficiency which made for an almost seamless production line.

The last day of the week was spent doing some initial research into  our final project and presenting what we’d found to the rest of the group. This helped us develop our communication and teamwork skills further.

Overall, the first week was fantastic and I definitely look forward to see what is in store for the following weeks.