Leeds hosts UKESF summer school success

Highly talented pupils developed their skills in electronic and electrical engineering at Leeds’ electronics-focused summer school, sponsored by the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF).

Between 10 and 14 July 2017, eighty school students about to enter their final A-Level year attended the UKESF-sponsored event. The event, hosted at the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Leeds, was designed to inspire the school students to pursue the subject at University.

Since 2011, the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) has sponsored the annual summer school as part of the Engineering Development Trust’s (EDT) range of Headstart courses. Dr Des McLernon, who led the summer school, said:

“These eighty young and aspiring engineering students got a chance to hear first-hand the ground breaking work being undertaken by leading engineering academics and how it directly impacts society. What a refreshing contrast to the typical ill-thought media headline portrayal of ‘Engineers remove dead leaves from railway tracks’"

Ten teams of eight competed in the Imagination Technologies-sponsored design challenge to use electronic engineering to mitigate or solve social and health problems facing the world.

Aspiring engineering students got a chance to hear first-hand the ground breaking work being undertaken by leading engineering academics...

UKSEF Headstart summer school

The winning team having been awarded prize Pure Radios

Students in the electronic and electrical engineering basement lab

Students taking part in lab-based activities in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

While at Leeds, the eighty participants enjoyed a range of activities, such as laboratory activities, design challenges, and lectures from international researchers in the field, incluing the global technology leader Imagination Technologies. Titles included:

  • Is the Mobile Phoned Finished?

  • Life Saving Capsule Robots

  • Smart Energy Systems Shaping Tomorrow’s World

  • Big Data

  • Social Networks and 5G

  • The Science, Technology and Engineering of Terahertz Systems

  • MEMS Biosensors and the Potential for Improving Healthcare

The success of the event was refected in the enthusiasm of the students. One participant said:

"I went thinking I wanted to do mechanical engineering, but now I want to do mechatronics. Des McLernon was really nice and funny, entertainment was good, and the lab sessions and lectures were not only extremely interesting but also fun and useful for sampling university life."

I went thinking I wanted to do mechanical engineering, but now I want to do mechatronics.

Three UKESF university-sponsored scholars also came and talked about electronic engineering courses, sponsorships and exciting internships with leading UK companies.

Further information

Learn more about the UKESF Headstart summer school by visiting their website.