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The Engineering Education Scheme 2009 In April, a team of four Year 13 pupils presented the results of their engineering project to a panel of experts at the Sentinus Engineering Education Scheme Celebration Day. The Sentinus scheme takes place every year and allows pupils from schools across Northern Ireland to gain experience of working on a real engineering project.
"Hmm.. We seem to have a problem!"
This year’s team from Thornhill College worked with Mr Malachy McElholm, an engineer from the Epicentre at the University of Ulster to devise a system which automatically indicates the location of open windows within a large building like Thornhill College. The team gained valuable experience of designing and building a prototype model of the system which involved some fancy electronics to transmit and receive signals from open and closed windows. Most of the work was completed during a three day residential workshop at Queen’s University, a part of the scheme that allows teams from different schools to come together and experience a small taste of university life.
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The prototype proved successful and the team went on to construct a model of the school building which was used to demonstrate how the system would work. This work was greatly assisted by Mr Michael Healy from the Technology and Design Department. The pupils wish to thank him for his help and encouragement. The final presentation was nerve-wracking but the team rose to the occasion and they were all awarded CREST Gold Awards from the British Science Association – a very prestigious award. The pupils involved were
all from Year 13. The team would highly recommend the scheme to others and we hop to see another successful team emerge next year.
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The Engineering Education Scheme is one of the programmes organised by Sentinus
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