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Sellafield Ltd employees support young engineers
Engineering students have been putting their skills to the test by solving real life problems with professional engineers.
The Engineering Education Scheme links teams of four Year 12 students and their teacher with local companies to work on real, scientific, engineering and technological problems, providing students with an in-depth experience in science, engineering and technology.
Priestley College students have been working in two teams to tackle challenging situations and were invited to the University of Liverpool to celebrate completing their tasks.
One team designed a method of safely transferring radioactive liquor from a storage tank across a busy road at Sellafield to two other tanks, while the other group investigated a device which confirmed the closure of a valve in a pipeline that carried radioactive liquid.
The groups presented their solutions to a panel of senior engineers, winning praise from the adjudicators for their efforts throughout the scheme.
Gareth Davies, a process engineer said: “I’m extremely proud of the Priestley College teams. They worked very hard over seven months and delivered high quality solutions to real life engineering problems. I think this has been a unique opportunity for the students to see what a career in engineering has to offer and hope to see Sellafield Ltd’s continued support of such a worthwhile scheme.”
Parents and members of the general public were invited to meet with the teams and discuss the progress they had made over the last six months.
The Priestley teams were handed certificates by Professor Peter Goodhew from the School of Engineering at the university and Chris Harris, the scheme's regional director, was on hand to congratulate them.
Adrian Birchenough, Priestley science tutor, said: “Attending the University of Liverpool for this final presentation was a great way for our students to bring the curtain down on their projects.
“The Engineering Education Scheme is a great way to challenge the engineers of tomorrow and the college’s teams should be really proud of their efforts.”
Dan Brook, a mechanical engineer at Risley said: “Working with the students and teachers from Priestley College has been a great opportunity to inspire a new generation to the possibilities in engineering. They each rose to the challenges we set and came out on top.”
