Specialist School Mathematics and Physics

The Engineering Education Scheme

The Engineering Education Scheme involves a team of Year 13 pupils in a research and development project, set by a local company. The scheme runs for several months and includes visits to engineering companies, residential workshops, and practical work to solve a real engineering problem.

With assistance from a company engineer the students develop a solution to a real life problem through on-site visits, work in school and a residential workshop at one of the local universities. The year’s work culminates with an Assessment and Presentation Day, when teams exhibit their projects and present their work to panels of experts

The Engineering Education Scheme is one of the programmes organised by Sentinus

Click here for details of the Engineering Project 2009

Recent projects have included:

• Automatic Detection of Powered-Up Equipment - a way of detecting the location of electrical equipment that has not been switched off (with the Epicentre, University of Ulster);

• Rainwater Harvesting - collecting rainwater for use in the school (with WELB);

• Wind Energy Feasibility Study - investigation of the benefits of installing wind turbines at Thornhill College (with WELB);

• Robot Power Grid - the design of a wireless power supply to allow a robot to move around freely (with School of Mathematics and Computing, University of Ulster.