Monday

Renault Twizy

Thanks to the generosity of Imraan Esmail at Renault UK, the DT Department at MTS were able to borrow an iconic Renault Twizy, Renault’s all-electric city car, which looked resplendent when parked outside (or inside) the new Design Centre. The car was a massive hit with DT students, studying iconic products, and it left a lasting impression on our Phab and Mencap guests who took full advantage of photo opportunities when they visited MTS to visit the Bloodhound education car and to enjoy a concert by Electric Umbrella on Wednesday afternoon.

DEMAND Maker Day ‘An ingenious bunch’

DEMAND, a Product Design company specialising in Inclusive Design, are dedicated to helping people with disabilities who require bespoke equipment to help with their everyday lives. Demand has previously run Maker Days with Engineering undergraduates at Nottingham Trent University.

A team from DEMAND, keen to inspire young inventors and makers led the DT Department’s first MTS Maker Day. Twenty-seven Year 12 and 13 Design Technology students were challenged to design and develop a device to help partially sighted people when filling cups with boiling water when making hot drinks.

The day was broken down into the following 4 distinct phases:

• Introduction to the challenge, including empathy exercises;

• Initial feedback from groups on concept proving through prototyping;

• Groups construct final concept model;

• Final testing for use and judging.

MTS pupils' ingenuity knew no bounds and in a few hours the nine teams delivered some amazing designs and models, ranging from the elegantly simple to the decidedly Heath Robinson. The DEMAND team of Gary, Dan, Lynnette and Luke were impressed with the boys’ efforts and the high level of teamwork, and after some deliberation decided on the ‘Tea Saw’, designed and developed by Joe Savage, Luke and Lewis Duckworth as the winner. Dan Tyas, Head of Education and Outreach for DEMAND commented “Designing something so simple and highly effective is a rare gift. The students should be proud of what they have achieved today”. The Maker Day is just one element of DEMAND’s work with students of all ages as Gary Evans, DEMAND CEO, explains, “A vital part of our work is inspiring and educating young designers, makers and engineers to think about all the people who might use their products. It still amazes me, how so many products, for the want of a bit of thought and empathy, fail so many people. It all starts with good inclusive design which is why we are committed to sharing more of our skill, expertise and experience with schools, colleges, universities….and never has so much glue, foam, card and wooden dowelling been put to such good use in one day."  

VEX Robotics

Andy Thomson (HOD DT) and Jon Taylor (teachers at Highgate School) contributed to the Monday evening twilight event, sharing experiences from a recent trip to America where they represented the UK as national champions in the VEX EDR robot challenge. Parents and pupils were shown a video of the event where it appears schools from New Zealand were the ones to beat.

Watching in the wings were our very own Fifth Form pupils Nikita Konovalchik and Simon Arends who form the fledgling MTS VEX EDR team. Their manpower, and brainpower, is soon to be bolstered in numbers by other keen students and Mr Macleod and Mr Williams from the IT Department, who were keen to get stuck in.

 

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