25th November 2022
On 25th November we welcomed Lord Baker, Siobhan Baillie MP and MOOG to the UTC.
MOOG launched the ‘Betta-Byke Challenge’ and asked students to work as a team of engineers, designers and
analysts to create proposals for a low-cost, electrically-powered bike. Lord Baker and Siobhan Baillie spent the morning interacting with the students, discussing their employer project, and hearing about the available opportunities at Berkeley Green.
MOOG produces a wide range of aircraft controls, space and defence controls, industrial systems and components. It has designing and manufacturing capabilities in motion, electronics and Fiber Optics. Mark Hince (UK Resourcing Manager), Rob Grey (Operations Training Partner), gave an initial presentation about the company and their roles within it. Students were then briefed about their tasks.
The teams needed to consider the safety, performance, design and testing of the product. An important part of the brief was that a previous electric bike made by the company had been a disaster; customers were injured whilst riding the bike and it drew high production costs that were far too expensive for the target market. In addition to this,
students were also asked to consider the possibility of a Smart bike. They were asked to use technology and data capture to integrate weather conditions, health monitoring, and compatibility with other products within the bike’s design.
The students settled quickly to the task, researching electric bikes, smart devices, production methods and looked at the costs of parts and devices. They assigned tasks within their teams to ensure they could complete the presentation before the deadline.
Ted Ruthers in year 10 felt the day was an “inspirational and educational experience”.
Mark Hince said that “attending the Berkeley Green employer project day highlighted the depth and breadth of incredible young talent that are a credit to the UTC. This has allowed MOOG to engage with an entity that aligns with our culture and philosophy in getting the best out of the students who aspire to work in cyber and engineering industries. MOOG considers the UTC network as ground breaking in their approach to early STEM careers.”
At the end of their visit, two groups of students were able to present their solutions to the MOOG project.
Our visitors were hugely impressed with not only the technical knowledge they demonstrated, but their ability to
present in a professional way.
The project was hugely successful and gave students the opportunity to work with MOOG and combine the knowledge they learn in the classroom with real world scenarios. Both Lord Baker and Siobhan Baillie were especially impressed with the Founding 20 representatives who they were able to speak to as they are both advocates for creating more opportunities for females in STEM.