Educational experiences can have a powerful impact on our chosen career paths and that is precisely why the subsea installation and maintenance specialist, Global Marine Systems Limited, with joint venture partner Huawei Marine Networks (HMN), has consistently supported the Engineering Education Scheme (EES), organised by the Engineering Development Trust.
Adrian Jarvis of HMN mentored and worked with a team of four young women from the Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School; Charlotte Buttery, Abbie Cook, Jahnina Queddeng and Alicia Trew. It is a collaboration that has resulted in these talented students being declared the winners among eight competing teams across the East of England at the Celebration and Assessment Day held at PROCAT on 29th April this year.
The team’s hard work has subsequently been rewarded with an invitation to the South East Regional Final of the EES Contribution to Business Awards in London on 30th June 2016 and potentially the chance to compete in the National Final in September. And, most importantly, this experience has fuelled the students’ enthusiasm to pursue a career in engineering.
The EES is a national scheme that links student teams and their teacher with local engineering companies to work together on a project. In the case of the Brentwood Ursuline students, the task was to design, manufacture and test a novel solution that would assist in the maintenance of transatlantic cables. They chose to create a manually operated tar removal device.
Strict project specifications were established by the team, guided by Adrian Jarvis and Mr. Dif, the Head of Physics at the school who helped supervise the project. Having designed the initial prototype with CAD, ‘The Tarminator’ was then created using 3D printing, thoroughly tested and refined.
“I really enjoyed working with engineers and I definitely want to do engineering at university now,” said Charlotte Buttery. “We have set up our own science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) club because we really want other girls to know how fun and interesting engineering is.”
As well as receiving the good news that they are now finalists, in the EES Contribution to Business Awards, the young engineers have the satisfaction of knowing ‘The Tarminator’ also has a bright future. HMN plans to take the prototype through the commercialisation process, with the view to it becoming a standard piece of equipment. Additionally, Global Marine will look to adopt this innovative tool across their fleet.
