I learnt to weld yesterday so it's just getting... But, um...
So these sit on there, on the side
- Yeah, yeah.
Like that, and then this locks in like that
- Okay
And then it just butts up against it.
- Then we're going to put...
And then we're going to get like a gate
- A little clip
Latch, kind of thing.
- Be very careful with this one, [or it's] going to be glued closed by the...
- By the, by the molten...
Ah, that's true, actually.
- Erm
We're going to put a big handle on it, so if it's still hot we can wiggle it off.
- Well it may be that in this case you just put a handle on it,
that may be a bit more complicated, that wouldn't be refugee camp-suitable.
I teach in a studio space and that allows
us to mix the activities. So if I'm teaching something like design for
assembly, we can teach the theory but then we could be having them do it - have the
students performing a practical exercise - taking things apart, reassembling them,
looking at the issues that they may have, of why it's complicated and what they
might do to improve that design. So we really try and mix practical with
theoretical and hopefully that fires them up to be engaged and interested in the subject.
I'm James Moultrie and I teach design in the Department of Engineering
and my main teaching is for the students in their third and fourth year who are
studying manufacturing engineering.
Well, I'm not sure it was ever part of my plan to be teaching.
I originally studied mechanical engineering and industrial
design and worked in industry for about 10 years or so where I worked
developing precision instruments for measuring exciting things like roundness
in geometry and also worked on lenses that are used in the film industry.
So we set them a brief this year to manufacture a better world and design a
new manufacturing process. So we give them some constraint, so that they're not
just having to think about designing anything, and that allows them to really
focus their energies and focus their attentions on something that maybe,
hopefully, makes a difference. And then we work very closely with them through
the whole of the year and coach them and guide them and support them.
Er, you take a big reflector - this is a little mini model of what we're actually
- So what scale is this?
So this is a quarter scale. The actual thing's going to be two metres [in] diameter.
Er, then coming up from a tower in the centre of this we have an evaporation chamber.
Basically a cooking pot with water in it.
- That sits above, yeah
So this then sits above here with a stream of dirty water going into it
- Yeah
The heat on the bottom evaporates the water, you get it coming up...
evaporated water forms on a cold condensation surface and then water drips out the bottom
- Into a container, through the through the middle underneath.
So many of their projects are great.
Their design projects as groups of students can be fantastic and when they
come up with an idea that you can see is genuinely exciting - has a genuine
potential to make a difference to the world - then that's fantastic.
A few years ago I had a project that made a... a solar oven for baking bread in Equatorial
Africa and the student who, or one of the students engaged in that project,
subsequently took it to Africa and developed it further and it starts to
have a real benefit in a real use in the real world and that's amazing when they
do that and go beyond what they've just learnt here with students and actually
seek to really make a difference with what they've been learning.
James very much oversees this process, he'll be there to give a... a guiding light to teams
who are looking for inspiration. He has excellent real-world industrial
experience so he can give a very informed view on where he thinks your
project should go, what steps you should be looking to take next.
Clearly, they're all exceptionally intelligent. I think that gives us an extra pressure
as teachers that we know we're dealing with with youngsters who often won't
take the simple answer. They want to understand the fundamentals, they want to
understand how things work and they have high expectations
from us as teachers, that we are able to provide those answers to them. And I think
that makes teaching them exciting, and I think we have a quite rare and special
responsibility and a rare opportunity to influence these great students to go on
and do fantastic things. All of the academic year our students have been
working on their projects today they display their work to a public audience.
So, running through the day, first of all our students will pitch their projects and
their business plans. They have a display stand that has some posters and their
prototypes and their models that they can use to explain what their design is
and how it works and explain maybe what investment that might need in order to
take it further and how that investor may make some profit from that design.
The day culminates with a design show and so it's a fantastic evening
where families, business people, investors and other academics all get to see the
students work, the students get to talk about their work, explain what they've
done and hopefully convince us that they've done some really good work in
their projects are really exciting. So quite a few students do
entrepreneurial work and set up their own firm. We have students who have gone
on to work in design agencies, quite a number of students who become
manufacturing engineers working in factories, working on supply chains
international supply chains. We have students who'll go and work in design
departments, doing some really interesting exciting work in the development of new
or future products. And if more of our bright young things can be excited by
actually how important it is that we design fantastic stuff that is good for
the world, that is using the world's resources sensibly, that can make
people's lives better than that - that would be that's a really rewarding thing to do.