Category: Engineering in the Community

Cosy Compost

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Students taking the Engineering Competence Postgraduate Diploma have the option to take the community challenge module – Engineering in the Community. Five groups undertook varied projects, and this is the 4th in our blog series showcasing the results.

For this community challenge, William Holmes, Paul Trimble and Elisabeth Woeldgen, partnered with Incredible Edible Bristol, Airbus and the Science & Technology Facilities council, to create an insulated compost bin. The team delivered the prototype compost bin made of reusable materials to Speedwell Allotment, along with accompanying instructional material for Incredible Edible to use on their education sites. Read more about the project below:

Poster available here:Download

Sustainable Outdoor Space

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Another chapter in our series, highlighting the real-world community challenges undertaken by students on the Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering Competence.

Jack Lewis, Samuel Whatling and Keshav Ooriah collaborated with North Bristol Community Project (NBCP) as part of the Engineering in Community module. NBCP is a charity that promotes well-being by running a variety of workshops for different people groups. They wanted to redevelop their outdoor space to further benefit the community and the students helped to structurally design and model various aspects of the new space.

Find out more below:

Take a closer look at the poster here:Download

Identifying Healthier Workshop Heating Solutions

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In this blog series, we’re showcasing the Engineering Competence Postgraduate Diploma students’ community challenges, completed as part of the Engineering in the Community module.

For this project, Airbus‘ Ross Gardner & Ed Wheatcroft partnered with Residents Against Dirty Energy (RADE) to try and find ways to keep open workshop and garage spaces warm without producing pollutants that are detrimental to health. A number of potential solutions have been outlined in their poster below.

Poster available here:Download

Clean Van Heating Solutions

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Read about the findings from student community projects

Students from our Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering competence have presented results from real-world community challenges set in the Engineering in the Community module. These group projects will be showcased in the next few blog posts, so stay tuned….

First up, are Airbus employees S. Cole,  D. Guerrero and  A. Hayes, who worked with Residents Against Dirty Energy (RADE) – a community group who aim to reduce emissions from static burning. The student project focussed on wood burning as a heat source for those who live in vans and found that improving efficiency was key for reducing emissions.

Read their poster to find out more about the project.

Take a closer look at the poster here:Download

Free engineering consultancy for local community organisations

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The Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE, Bristol are seeking to partner with local community organisations with project ideas relevant to engineering Postgraduate Diploma students. We welcome project proposals from community, voluntary and social enterprise sectors, and small businesses.

The project is an opportunity for organisations to receive free engineering consultancy from a small team of students (3-6 people), who will be learning skills in team-working, client liaison and applications of engineering as part of the Engineering in the Community module. The scheme is open for applications until December 2019 with projects completed from February to August 2020.

Projects could be researching and scoping opportunities or issues on behalf of your organisation, planning or providing designs and proposals, or in some cases students may be able to produce an item or intervention for the organisation. Examples of projects might include: auditing and developing concepts for a new engineering project in your area; researching community problems and engineering solutions; or adapted infrastructure to meet the needs of a community garden.

Information about last year’s projects can be found here and here.

For further information and to apply, please download the Organisation Brief below and return the form within to engineeringourfuture@uwe.ac.uk.

Engineering in the Community Organisation BriefDownload

Engineering in the Community poster event 19th September 2-4 pm

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UWE Bristol staff and students are warmly invited to the final poster celebration of our Engineering in the Community event. This module brings together our Degree Apprentice Postgraduates from industry (Airbus, Babcock, and STFC) with members of the community. Our student engineers have been working with local projects to find engineering solutions to community problems.

This poster celebration is a chance to view the results, ask questions about the project designs and process, and solidify our community connections for future development.

Thursday 19th September, UWE Frenchay Campus

14:00 Arrival and poster viewing

14:30 Groups answer questions about their projects

15:30 Community connections and further developments

16:00 Close

For more information about the module or event, please contact the module lead Laura Fogg-Rogers.

UWE Bristol student engineers improving compost heap thermal insulation

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As part of the Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics at UWE Bristol’s new module, Engineering in the Community, students on one project are working to design new thermal insulation materials to help compost heaps work better.

This Group Project Challenge aims to set some real-world challenges for the engineering students on our Postgraduate Diploma course. The students are now working in groups to come up with design solutions to a community problem to make a difference in the local area. The improvements to composts bins are being carried out for Incredible Edible at Speedwell allotments.

The module provides a broad comprehension of the competencies and social responsibilities required for ‘engineering citizenship’ in order to be a professional engineer. It introduces the wider social considerations needed to enact Corporate Social Responsibility in the modern engineering industry.

Each group has been given an engineering challenge for which they have to develop a socially acceptable solution for their assigned community group. They are learning about a variety of engagement strategies utilised by professional organisations and Chartered Engineers, as well as the variety of audiences with which these skills can be practised and explored.

Engineers also need to recognise and value the need for them to work effectively with both modern technologies and people in their social or organisational contexts – a hybrid challenge employing engineering ideas in practice.

We have 15 engineers out in the community (12 engineers from Airbus, two from Babcock and one from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)). They are working with four community groups across five projects; as well this project improving composting for Incredible Edible community gardens there are also teams working on:

  • Improving access to Bedminster shops (as presented by Olivia from the Bubble Play Café, and Alice from Trylla in the photos above)
  • Improving community space for the North Bristol Community Project
  • Improving heating options for van dwellers – in association with Residents Against Dirty Energy, presented by Stuart Phelps
  • Improving air quality in mechanical garages  – in association with Residents Against Dirty Energy

Call out for Engineers: Bristol Open Doors

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In partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, we have an opportunity to involve engineers in creating inspirational events for Bristol Open Doors* (13-15 September 2019). Could you develop a boat tour of our changing harbour, or develop an event around wind turbines, tunnels, caves, medicine, earthquakes or floods? We are looking for engineers to inspire the public around what engineering can achieve (from the everyday to the spectacular). You will be well supported in the development of your activity. Open to engineers at all levels.

For more information and to register your interest by Thursday 18 April, please contact:

Lucy MacDonald, Programme Manager

Lucy.macdonald@architecturecentre.org.uk

0117 922 1540

*Bristol Open Doors is one of largest festivals in the South West.

UWE student engineers consider challenges within society

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Last week, UWE Bristol’s first year Engineering students completed a second project week at Frenchay. They looked at engineering as a civic responsibility, applying their problem-solving skills to real world issues as Dr Tushar Dhavale (Programme Lead for Mechanical Engineering) tells us in this guest post.

All the first year student engineers went through an amazing experience of working through a second project week, which was organised in ECC from 18th-22nd March. The students worked in groups and put their heads together to address challenges within the society in Tamil Nadu, India.

Through this mechanism the participants went through a thorough research followed by engineering analysis and a presentation in the form of a poster.

There was a wide spectrum of speakers from industry, all of them ex-UWE who were quite keen to come back to UWE and speak to the future engineers.

For the students, this was a wholesome experience where they had an opportunity to apply knowledge they gathered here at UWE to real world problems and attain a sense of achievement.

Community grants available from UWE Bristol Fund

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Applications for grants of up to £3,000 for projects which enhance student learning (inside or outside of the curriculum) through practical, community-based activities are still being accepted until Monday 1 April.

Applications must be led by a current UWE Bristol student or staff member, and must also identify a lead community partner who should be involved in development of the application. If you have a good idea but need help finding a suitable community partner, please contact communityfund@uwe.ac.uk. Projects should have a positive impact on the local community in one of the theme areas: Schools and Education; Sustainability or Stronger Communities.

Applications close on Monday 1 April. Decisions on funding will be made in mid-May. For more information please visit the UWE Bristol Fund webpage or contact communityfund@uwe.ac.uk.