Pupils from local schools recently took part in a series of Royal Institution Engineering Masterclasses, hosted and delivered by staff and students from the School of Engineering and other Science departments at the University of Warwick. The end of the series concluded with an official presentation and awards ceremony for the children, attended by parents and teachers, to mark their participation in the series.

Twenty Year 9 students (10 boys and 10 girls) from several local schools attended the regular Saturday morning masterclasses over a period of six weeks. The sessions were designed to spark their interest in a wide variety of engineering paths. Topics covered over the series included programming robots, understanding waves, intelligent vehicles and 3D printing.

Engineering Masterclasses were recently initiated by the Royal Institution in order to introduce Year 9 pupils to engineering through practical hands-on experience alongside practising engineers. Through the sessions, the students are encouraged to learn about the latest engineering applications and think about the possibilities for the future.

Good feedback was received from the students who took part, which demonstrated that the programme had achieved its aims. Students particularly commented on the satisfaction of seeing the results of the hard work they put into planning tasks, the enjoyment of working together as a team and understanding the science behind the way things work.

The 20 participating students from Year 9 (age 13/14) were nominated for the masterclasses by their schools. Schools from the Coventry, Warwickshire and Solihull area took part including Blue Coat, Cardinal Newman, Stoke Park, Caludon Castle, Coundon Court, Hartshill, Kenilworth, North Leamington and Heart of England.

The masterclasses:

Coastal Engineering: Dealing with waves at our coastline - Dr Jonathan Pearson (School of Engineering)

Will 3D printing turn you into a designer? Dr Simon Leigh (School of Engineering)

The Power of Process - Mairi Macintyre (WMG)

Intelligent Vehicles - Mark Amor-Segan, Gunwant Dhaydalla, Anmoal Thethi, Ali Ahmad (WMG)

Making an impact with recycling! - Dr Ben Wood, Dr James Meredith (WMG)

The Robot Garden - Dr Claire Rocks (Computer Science)