Curriculum Leader in Design Engineering Mr Bett took students from Year 7 to Cambridge Consultants for a project day this week. The students were competing with other schools from the Cambridge area on various design tasks looking at the problem of preparing and eating food with only one arm. The students looked at user needs, the idea of a ‘user journey’ to help them understand the importance of creating products that are useful. They developed a design for an egg holder and cutter on CAD. They also had to develop code for a robot arm to help manufacture their product. Finally they printed out their design on a 3D printer!

The students had a chance to interact with a number of engineers and scientists at the company and develop a deeper understanding of the various roles needed to produce a successful product. They also got to see the world's smartest car park, with AI technology that can recognize thousands of different cars. The project was run by the local STEM initiative ‘Cambridge LaunchPad’, a scheme designed to encourage students into STEM careers.