YOUNG ENGINEERS AND SUCCESSION PLANNING
the 2021-2022 brief given to young entrants for the Faraday Challenge Days held in schools. The video also included impassioned contributions from EFM professionals, including healthcare engineers – many IHEEM members – emphasising their key role in hospitals’ day-to-day running, and in ‘supporting the environment in which doctors and nurses deliver patient care’. The video concluded with the participants wishing the young engineers every success. Keira Hart thanked the IHEEM members involved.
The Challenge itself Following the video, the five finalist teams were given around an hour and a half of ‘dedicated build time’ to create their prototype, plus additional time to finalise it, and write an accompanying 10-minute presentation to give to the judges. This year’s judging panel comprised: n Michelle Richmond, Director of Membership and Professional Development at the IET.
n Paul Fenton, IHEEM President. n Stephen Lowndes, Technical Director at the Carbon and Energy Fund.
n Sue Brown, Associate Development Director at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Challenge then began, with the five
teams working intensively for much of the morning to create their prototypes. Team members were not only able to purchase items from the shop, ensuring they kept within the allocated budget, but, if they had components or materials left unused, could sell them back at half the price.
Team presentations given Following the close of the competition, each team presented on how they had developed their prototype, the key components, and how it met the brief, also explaining each team member’s role. They were also asked to explain how their prototype was ‘inclusive’, how they had engineered it, the product’s sustainability credentials, how they had used their budget to minimise the costs to IHEEM, and how their team had ‘worked together’ effectively to achieve success. The key criteria the judges used to decide upon the winning team included: n The prototype must ‘provide a realistic solution for the problem posed in the brief’.
n It must work effectively. n It must be ‘well engineered, both in structure and electronics’.
n The budget must have been used effectively.
n The team must have ‘gone beyond the brief’s minimum requirements’.
The five teams then all gave a presentation, demonstrated their prototype in action, and carried it over to the judges’ table so the judges could have a closer look and ask any questions.
38 Health Estate Journal August 2022
Made available to each team was a range of ‘Electrical components’; and ‘Construction materials’ from which to create their prototype.
Judges’ questions At the end of each presentation, the judges posed some challenging questions – for example asking how members might further develop and improve their product, how or whether they had addressed infection control considerations, and how the teams had ensured they worked collaboratively. After a fascinating hour or so of presentations, Challenge Leader, Phil Hart, said that in spite of many of the young team members having to adapt to new ways of learning due to the pandemic, with considerably less face-to-face interaction, the audience had witnessed ‘the best set of presentations I have seen in any Faraday Challenge Final to date’. His praise was endorsed by fellow Challenge Leader, Keira Hart. Phil Hart said: “What you have all achieved in spite of the recent challenges is incredible. You should all be extremely proud.”
Presentations during judges’ deliberations Here, the judges ‘retired’ for their deliberations. During this period, guests – including the young team members – heard short presentations from IHEEM CEO, Pete Sellars, David Houghton and – once she had awarded her marks – judge, Michelle Richmond, Director of Membership and Professional Development at the IET. Speaking first, Pete Sellars said what he had just witnessed had been ‘incredible’, remarking that – regardless of which team won – the youngsters were all ‘winners’. Addressing his next remarks particularly to the teams, he said: “I’ll tell you why. Today we have about 20 IHEEM members here from all over the country. Most are senior NHS personnel, managing the services, and building hospitals like Alder Hey. Alongside your engineering design, what you demonstrated today is how to work together as a team, bringing the best out of eachother, and the benefits of sometimes pausing to take a breath because you might not be going in the right direction. I’m sure every one of
IHEEM’s senior people here will be taking all this back to their organisation, because there are lessons here about interpersonal skills, managing situations, and working well together, which the NHS is not very good at. Regardless of what the judges decide in terms of the outright champion, you are all winners.”
Helping people grown and develop He added: “One of IHEEM’s fundamental aims is to help people – from apprentices to directors in our sector – to succeed, develop, and grow. What we saw with the Faraday Challenge was an opportunity to reach out to you – the engineers of the future.” Before closing, he thanked David Houghton from Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust – who he had approached to ask if the Final could be held at the site. The IHEEM CEO recalled that he had first met David Houghton ‘about 20 years ago’, when the new Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the Park was ‘just a vision’. He said: “I just want to say, on behalf of IHEEM and healthcare as whole, ‘David, thank you for your amazing work’.” David Houghton then gave his own short presentation, remarking that he could ‘hardly have had a better retirement day.’ He said: “I love working with kids, and with design teams. The pandemic has meant me not only having to work remotely away from colleagues, but also from the children I love working with. You – as the finalists in this year’s Faraday Challenge – are a great bunch of engineers and designers, and the NHS needs people like you, so please stay in touch with people like Peter and IHEEM, because they can take your experience and career right up the scale.” He praised the teams for their pragmatic, ‘real-world’ approach to designing and developing their prototypes, but also exhorted them to retain their enthusiasm for innovation, not to be discouraged by the inherent risk in doing something differently, to fight for what they believed in, and to ‘surround themselves them with supportive people’.
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