Year 13 students compete in REME Craftsman Cup Challenge

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Year 13 UTC Swindon students have been taking part in the inter-college Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers’ (REME) Craftsman Cup Challenge, competing to be crowned winners of the prestigious Craftsman CUP.

Since September, teams from UTC Swindon, UTC Reading, City of Oxford College and Reading College have been working on projects faced by REME engineers on a daily basis such as; modifying the payload of a Desert Hawk to enable the carrying of medical aid to the battlefield, or developing failure prevention systems for military equipment.

The projects have been tailored to link closely to the students’ learning programmes which are rooted in STEM subjects. During the challenge, the project teams have been able to acquire and develop a range of skills and competencies such as; creativity, innovation, problem solving and communication, to engineer a solution to a given REME problem.

UTC Swindon, Year 13 student Kyle Connelly said: “Our team’s project has been focused on overcoming the problem the REME have when driving quads over terrains. The challenge we’ve been set is to protect the traverse throttle so it doesn’t roll, so we’ve decided to make a roll cage to protect it.”

He continues: “As part of the project, we’ve visited the REME a few times, as well as their team visiting us to mind map some of the problems they have and things that commonly break. It’s been good to work with experienced engineers; they’re a great group of people and have a lot to input and challenge us with.”

Another Year 13 Student, Ben Upton said: “It’s been a fun and challenging project so far. We got to choose our team and the challenge we worked on, with a wide range to choose from. I want to eventually go into design so this project has been incredibly beneficial for me. You get to experience the whole process, from sketching it out on paper, to designing and making the finished product.”

Next month, in May, the project finale will be taking place where the best of the best will showcase their design, innovation and craftsmanship abilities, presenting their projects to a team of REME dignitaries. The winning team will then be awarded the Craftsman CUP!