The Suttonian 1996

The team had 5 months to design and make a University residence. Also by the end of the "trip analysis module", which could be insession there was a working 4 line protostalled in Dungeness B Power Station, type! and send in a completed detailed :.~..

Later came problems with power supproject report....... quite a task plies, microchips wrongly labelled when it was (a) not clear what THE by the manufacturers and misa "trip analysis module" was takes all of which caused 2 ENGINEERING and (b) the team's knowlor 3 weeks delay. Whilst E edge of electronics was reJames and Phil worked in the SCHEI~IIE stricted to GCSE physics. technology centre on the acrylic The team were initially shocked and box, Alex designed and made printed then anxious to get on with thetask ~ circuit boards and Sam and Mr Piper did they soon resolved what the problem meant soldering. : certain. 110 volt lines in switching cupboards One big problem over the last 2 years has been occasionally "tripped" relays (a bit like fuses) and completing the project report by the deadline-this at present there is not a system for an engineer to find year the team was well organised and the report was out which ones have tripped and in which sequence. in the post on the right day with no extra hassle.

The team was going to design a box which could Project Presentation Day is abig event with all the monitor this for 10 lines (although the final design was South East Region teams together (this year in a for 12). This could save the company a lot ofinoney, building at Chatham Maritime). The teams had to set because whenever a relay trips certain devices are up a stand with posters, hardware, designs etc. They shut down - it was essential to obtain a quick answer. also had to give a 15 minute presentation to a team Working mainly on Thursday afternoons, but with a of4 professional engineers - no mean feat. Later the fair amount of"home" work the team came up with engineers visited the stall to "grill" the team members 2 different designs. One was extremely attractive on the project. with displays oflight emitting diode arrays. The other Although the final device is not yet completed (but it was also good with liquid crystal counter/displays should be by the end ofthe summer term) the whole for each line - for each of these solutions a working scheme was a great success. The team members computer simulation was made. The latter solution have learnt a lot: how to work closely together with was adopted because not only could it give a timing no "friction", organisational abilities, new skills, new output of each "trip" (something beyond the speci- understandings of electronics, presentation techfication) but it also used far less components. niques, meeting various deadlines - in fact what it is It is one thing to design a computerised simulation like to be an engineer. circuit, but it is a different story when real compo- The scheme is not a competition, but skills are nents have to be put together by pupils who didn't assessed. The assessments the team received were know one end of the soldering iron from the other well above the regional average. Congratulations to (although they quickly found out). the team members - they have done extremely well.

The teamwork was exFrom Left to Right: cellent. There was a huge,-_.

Teacher/mentor: amount of progress made G.R.Piper and different members Team: worked on different asIlex Mansfield, pects of the design and Junrr.~ Reynolds, Phil Day, manufacture. Also the Sums Hignett. team members got on exLngineer Tutor: tremely well with each Zia Ahmed. other and worked efficiently and in good humour.

The highlight was the 3 day session at Loughborough Future Lower Sixth Form science pupils ....... can University in December- everyone had great fun, ate you rise to meet the challenge? lots of chips and fond out what it is like to live in Geoff PiperNews from the School 7