Author: katcorbett

Exploring Materials: A Collaborative Workshop by the MAKERS Project and the Bristol Materials Network

Author katcorbett | Posted on

An engaging workshop, jointly organised by the Bristol Materials Network and the MAKERS Project, is set to take place on 7th November 2024, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at 4Z002 (Prototype and Play Lab), School of Engineering, Frenchay Campus. This hands-on event provides a unique opportunity to explore materials in new ways, emphasising tactile engagement and critical thinking about the environmental impact of material choices.

The Importance of Materials Awareness

Materials awareness is essential for professionals in design and engineering, particularly in a time where sustainability is increasingly critical. By enhancing materials literacy, practitioners gain insights into the environmental impact of materials, from sourcing to disposal, which can ultimately influence the longevity, sustainability, and ecological footprint of their designs. This workshop aims to foster such understanding, encouraging participants to adopt a more responsible, innovative approach to material selection.

Workshop Highlights

Hands-On Exploration of Material Properties
Participants will engage in a series of activities designed to explore materials through touch and observation, gaining a deeper understanding of their properties and applications. The workshop invites participants to think creatively about materials, with a particular focus on how they might be repurposed or reimagined in design and engineering.

Introduction to Innovative Recycled and Bio-Based Materials
Attendees will also learn about the latest advancements in recycled and bio-based materials currently in development, showcasing how new materials can provide environmentally responsible alternatives without sacrificing functionality or aesthetic value.

Artists’ Books Exhibition: Material Use in Art and Design
A pop-up exhibition of artists’ books will demonstrate unique applications of materials within creative processes, showing how material selection can influence artistic output. Attendees are encouraged to handle the works and explore how these choices reflect sensory engagement, offering inspiration for applying materials thoughtfully in both art and applied fields.

Event Details

Date: 7th November 2024
Time: 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Location: 4Z002 (Prototype and Play Lab), School of Engineering, Frenchay Campus
Cost: Free
Attendance: Places limited, book your place here

Partner with UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering for Community-Focused Projects

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The School of Engineering at UWE Bristol is seeking to collaborate with local community organisations by supporting project ideas relevant to engineering students enrolled in the Professionalism for Engineers module.

We are inviting project proposals from community, voluntary, and social enterprise sectors.

This initiative offers organisations the opportunity to receive free engineering consultancy from a small group of students (3-6 individuals). These students will develop skills in teamwork, client communication, and practical engineering applications as part of their course. The scheme is open for applications until 30 November 2024, with projects scheduled to run from February to April 2025.

Projects may involve researching and assessing opportunities or challenges for your organisation, planning or providing designs and proposals, or, in some instances, delivering an engineered item or solution. Examples of potential projects include: auditing and conceptualising a new engineering initiative, such as creating sustainable outdoor spaces or developing clean energy solutions; investigating community issues and proposing engineering solutions; or adapting infrastructure to meet specific community needs. Examples of past projects from 2019 are available on the blog.

For more information and to apply, please download the Organisation Brief below and submit the completed form to engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk.

Download the organisation brief

MAKERS is celebrating the return of its repair café with a repair skills day

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Following the tremendous success of the UWE Bristol Repair Café, launched in 2023 as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering-funded MAKERS Project, the School of Engineering is excited to announce its return with a Repair Skills Day on September 25th, as part of Starting Block.

In its first year, the Repair Café has prevented 248kg of waste and saved 1.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions—the equivalent of growing 26 tree seedlings for 10 years.

Students who volunteer regularly at the Repair Café also earn digital skills badges and receive repair kits to further develop their skills at home or at one of the many repair cafés across Bristol.

Student volunteers work alongside industry professionals and local community members, offering valuable networking opportunities and connections with wider repair initiatives across the city.

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café

The MAKERS Team is organising a series of repair-focused workshops on September 25th, perfect for those eager to make a positive impact by joining the UWE Bristol Repair Café. These workshops are open to students and a limited number of staff as well.

Soldering workshops

This practical soldering workshop, led by School of Engineering Technician Will Hadrill, is designed to equip participants with valuable skills that can also enhance their CVs. This hands-on session is particularly beneficial for those interested in volunteering at the UWE Bristol Repair Café.

What Participants Will Learn:

  • Soldering Basics: The workshop covers the fundamentals of soldering, including safety guidelines and essential tools.
  • Practical Experience: Attendees will practise creating clean, strong solder joints on circuit boards and electronic components.
  • Repair Skills: The session will help participants develop the ability to repair electronic devices, a key skill for those looking to contribute to the UWE Bristol Repair Café.

Session 1: 11am – 12.30pm
Session 2: 1.30pm – 3pm

Location: 3Z032 in the School of Engineering (Z Block)

Sign up for a soldering session

Garment mending workshop

Learning how to repair clothes is a useful skill that will help extend the life of your favourite garments.

In this class, Meret from Re_Thrindle will teach basic mending techniques, including how to fix seams and hems, reattach buttons, and do simple patching. Participants should bring along an item that needs mending; all other materials will be provided.

What you’ll learn:

  • A variety of stitching techniques and simple patching
  • Beginner-friendly repair skills
  • How to mend a much-loved piece of clothing

This workshop is ideal for fixing broken seams, missing buttons, and minor repairs and will run from 12.30 – 3pm on September 25th in the Atrium of the School of Engineering (Z Block).

Sign up for the clothes mending workshop

Dr Bike session

A free safety inspection, along with gear and brake adjustment, all done in the spirit of sustainability and repair. This service includes brake blocks and cables when necessary. Each participant receives a safety inspection, and a detailed report on their bike’s condition.

This service is offered by the Bristol Bike Project, a member-driven cooperative focused on repairing and redistributing bicycles within the community. Their mission is to support people from all backgrounds in getting on two wheels, fostering an inclusive and empowering experience for all.

Free drop-in, 11 am – 3pm, School of Engineering (Z Block), Atrium.

Eastville Old Library and the MAKERS Project: Cultivating Community through Food Growing and Sewing Workshops

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Over the past year, the MAKERS Project, which was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Impact Programme, has partnered with the Eastville Old Library to deliver workshops focused on food growing, sewing, and textile repair.

About the Old Library

The Old Library, a volunteer-run community hub, is situated in the heart of the South Lockleaze & Purdown neighborhood. It offers a variety of activities, events, a café, a kids’ space, a lounge, a book swap, a community garden, and a repair café. Established by the South Lockleaze & Purdown Neighbourhood Group C.I.C. after the closure of their local library in 2016 due to budget cuts, the Old Library aims to foster a more social, safe, and strong community in North Bristol. As South Lockleaze is one of the most deprived areas in Bristol, community spaces like the Old Library are essential for residents.

University Collaboration

UWE Bristol and its School of Engineering have longstanding ties with the Old Library. They have previously supported the establishment of a weekly STEM Club and a monthly repair café, and there is also a monthly Climate Book Club, run by Sarah Robertson from the English Literature Department.

Food Growing Workshops

To make food growing accessible to people from all backgrounds, the Old Library, leveraging its proximity to local allotments, partnered with Sara Venn from Edible Bristol. This initiative aimed to address food insecurity and promote sustainable growing methods in the area. Two workshops were held for participants involved in local community growing projects, including Really Wild Lockleaze, Hillfields Community Garden, St Werburgh’s City Farm Allotments, Eastville Welcome Space, and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust. These sessions facilitated skill-sharing and connections with other Bristol groups.

The workshops covered soil and regenerative gardening, as well as seeds and seed saving. Participants learned about growing methods that work with nature, support biodiversity, and produce healthy food at minimal cost, making these practices accessible to people from lower-income backgrounds.

Sewing and Upcycling Workshops

Recognising the fashion industry’s impact on climate change, the Old Library organised five sewing, mending, and upcycling classes in collaboration with sustainable fashion workshop and service provider, Re_Thrindle. Nineteen locals, including three UWE Bristol students involved in the MAKERS Project, signed up to learn sewing machine use and garment repair, with priority given to those on low incomes.

Due to high demand, these sessions are set to continue after the summer, with more collaborations in the pipeline.

MAKERS project brings engineering skills to young people in St Paul’s

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The MAKERS project actively supported local community groups in helping them to develop new skills around making and repair, promoting self-sufficiency and empowerment of individuals and communities, and highlighting engineering as a career choice. As part of this, MAKERS collaborated with three remarkable community organisations in St Paul’s:

  • Bridging Histories: A project co-led with Bristol University, focused on uniting divided communities.
  • Each One Teach One: A violence prevention organisation dedicated to fostering peace.
  • Fancy Finance: An organisation assisting local residents in managing the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.

The Workshops

The community partners and the MAKERS team co-designed a series of seven workshops running from April to June 2024. These sessions aimed to introduce participants to new engineering skills and inspire future aspirations:

  1. Introduction to Basic Electronics (including soldering, see image above, taken by George Francis)
  2. Scooter and (Electric) Bike Mechanics and Maintenance
  3. An Introduction to Python Coding
  4. Computer Aided Design (Tinkercad)
  5. Routes into Higher Education and Engineering
  6. Tour of UWE Bristol’s Engineering Building (Featuring Virtual Reality Rooms, Simulators, and a wind turbine building activity.)
  7. Trip to Pytch Bristol (A sustainably run event production company.)
Pytch Bristol – photo by Dayton Powell
Inside Pytch Air – photo by Dayton Powell
Digital Gallery – photo by Dayton Powell
Exploring digital engineering using Minecraft – photo by Dayton Powell

Impact and Participation

Each session was attended by up to 15 young people, supported by community experts and current/former UWE students and staff. Many participants faced significant barriers to higher education, so MAKERS focused on creating an inclusive and welcoming environment at the university, a place many had never visited before.

Learning and Future Collaborations

The project offered invaluable insights for both the university and community organisations. This experience has laid the groundwork for future collaborations, and the MAKERS team is excited about establishing a long-term partnership to continue supporting and empowering the community.

The MAKERS project was funded through the Diversity Impact Programme from the Royal Academy of Engineering, aiming to improve belonging for diverse engineers. The evaluation findings will be reported soon.

Partnership with Easton based Baggator Nexus leads to new community energy project

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Student-led designs for a new heat network serving Barton Hill’s tower blocks are being taken forward by Bristol Energy Cooperative and Baggator Nexus. Over 30 students on the third year Professionalism for Engineers module developed potential solutions for the Heat Network and pitched their ideas back to local residents. These proposals are being taken forward as a potential Community Energy project, called Barton Heat.

UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering have been long-term collaborators with Baggator Nexus, working on several community co-development projects.

Their outreach team have supported several cohorts of young people over the past five years, with STEM learning and engagement activities. These include the West in Minecraft sessions, and Tinkercad 3D design workshops, which were delivered as part of the MAKERS project.

Digital design workshops with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque
Tinkercad workshop at UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering with children from St Mark’s Road Mosque

This collaboration also continues to offer opportunities for Engineering Students to work on live brief projects, providing real world experience where they can contribute towards sustainability goals. This not only provides students with skills for their employability but contributes towards UWE Bristol’s mission as a Civic University with an aim to reach Net Zero by 2030.

A team of students are also currently helping to fix broken traffic and pollution sensors as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering funded project MAKERS, which will be installed on buildings in the area to help improve the air quality for its residents.

Working with Baggator provides a fantastic opportunity to support young people from under-represented groups in STEM, which fulfils UWE Bristol’s aims to diversify the STEM industry.

UWE Bristol students support Easton campaign for better air with repair skills

Author katcorbett | Posted on

As part of the MAKERS project, UWE Bristol students recently had the opportunity to use their repair and making skills to support the Easton based Baggator Youth Group and “Residents Against Dirty Energy” (RADE) Bristol campaign for better air by helping them to fix their traffic and pollution sensors.

The community group uses sensors to measure traffic and air pollution in their area to support their campaign efforts. The collected air pollution data can be then be accessed on the Luftdaten pages, whilst life traffic data is available on the Telraam pages.

As the project has been running for a while, many of the sensors weren’t working as well as they used to, which is why UWE students were invited to support RADE to help fix the faulty sensors, helping the group to improve the quality of the collected data, which plays a key role in their campaign efforts.

It has been a fantastic repair session that was supported by five students and a technician from UWE Bristol’s School of Engineering. This was a great opportunity to learn some practical repair skills of electronics, whilst connecting with and supporting the community of East Bristol in their efforts to improve the air quality for its residents.

The group also especially enjoyed the lunch that was provided by the community and sourced from local businesses.

We would like to thank the community of Easton for being so welcoming to our students, and we look forward to hearing about updates from the project!

How the MAKERS project is supporting students to develop hands-on skills and boost employability

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The UWE MAKERS project has been going from strength to strength since it first launched in September last year to help improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the region.

The project is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and aims to support diverse students to continue their careers within engineering. Student feedback has helped the team to develop more employability benefits and direct industry links.

Networking opportunities

During the UWE Repair Café, students now get to work alongside STEM Ambassadors from Industry and Community Volunteers from the Bristol Repair Café Network, many of which are retired engineers themselves. This is a great way to meet and learn from experienced professionals, and connect over hands-on repair, whilst supporting the wider community and the University’s sustainability goals.

Free repair kit to take home

Once students have attended 5 MAKERS events, they can choose between a Hobbycraft Voucher, a Basic Household Repair toolkit, an electronics Device Repair Toolkit, which can be used alongside the freely available IFixIt Repair Guides. This is to enable them to apply their skills and learning at home, acquiring more confidence and practice in doing so.

Digital Skills Badges

MAKERS student volunteers earn digital Skills Badges, which can be used on LinkedIn profile and other social channels to help showcase any relevant skills earned, whilst also enabling badge earners to see job postings requiring those skills.

There are three types of badges: bronze, silver, and gold, depending on the level of involvement in the MAKERS project.

Repair Group and Technician Repair Support

MAKERS students can access technician support and facilities to help grow their repair skills and confidence. This includes the electronic maker space, the 3D printing facilities, and the fitting shop, with all the available tools. There are also a number of sewing machines and an overlocker available to use by those with an interest in textile repair.

Demonstrable Green Skills

The MAKERS project works with the Restart Project to measure their environmental impact, in particular in terms of how much waste has been saved from landfill, and how many CO2 emissions have the saved.

Get involved in MAKERS:

Students who would like to get involved can sign up here.

We particularly encourage women and students from Black, Asian and racially minoritised backgrounds to get in touch!

Students and community repairers explore 3D printing of spare parts

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Students and community repair volunteers recently had the opportunity to explore a novel way to create spare plastic parts for repair: 3D design and 3D printing.

This idea first occurred when coming across a number of snapped plastic parts as part of UWE Bristol’s Repair Café. The traditional way of using glue and epoxy resins was not always suitable or strong enough, and after a first successful trial of fixing a Soda Stream by replacing a broken seal  with a new 3D printed version, the team behind the MAKERS project decided to explore 3D printing for repair more.

MAKERS (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability) aims to improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the West of England.

Students and MAKERS community partners were invited to take part in a 3D design workshop led by Dr Joe Butchers, lecturer in Engineering Principles, to explore how the freely available and easy to use platform Tinkercad could be used, even by those with no relevant previous experience to create spare parts.

After practicing on some initial simple shapes and design, the group got to work on some broken sample parts, which had been sent in by members of the public to create a new part. As part of this, they successfully created a new plastic bracket for a 40-year-old baby cot.

3D printed replacement cot catch and the original, broken version

The session was a great way to explore how 3D printing could be made more accessible to the wider repair community, and the team are now looking to run another one soon, giving the amount of interest from the repair community and students to learn more, and to work through some of the other broken items that were offered by members of the public to be fixed.

The team are exploring routes to run a workshop again and seeking funding for future training.

Join the 2024 Women Like Me Mentoring Programme!

Author katcorbett | Posted on

We’re thrilled to announce that recruitment is now open for the 2024 round of the Women Like Me Mentoring Programme in the West of England area. As well as our cohort open to all women engineers or property professionals, we now have funding from the Office for Students for a specific cohort focussed on degree apprentices!

Women Like Me is a dynamic peer mentoring and outreach project aimed at boosting female representation in engineering and construction careers at all levels. Our unique program pairs senior women engineers/property professionals with their junior counterparts, fostering mentoring relationships supported through various events. Plus, we provide training and opportunities for junior women to engage in STEM education outreach within local schools. Since 2018, the program has empowered over 300 women, and we’re excited to continue making a positive impact.

Who can take part? Early career female engineers/property professionals (with less than five years of experience) in the Bristol and Bath area are invited as mentees. Senior women engineers, with at least five years of experience, are invited to participate as mentors.

If you’ve been part of the Women Like Me Mentoring Programme before, we encourage you to spread the word within your companies and among friends. Your support is crucial, and you’re more than welcome to join this year’s scheme as mentors.

For more details, and to enrol onto the programme:

  • Mentors (more than 5 years’ experience) apply here
  • Mentees (less than 5 years’ experience) apply here

Check out our impact video: Women Like Me (vimeo.com)

Thank you for your ongoing support! Let’s make the 2024 Women Like Me Mentoring Programme another resounding success.

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