INSTITUTE NEWS
Introducing students to engineering: ‘Most engaging Faraday Challenge Days yet’ praised
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has been creating and taking Faraday Challenge Days into schools for over 10 years, and over that time more than 25,000 students have taken part. Each year a new and unique challenge
is created with a partner organisation. This academic year IHEEM has partnered with the IET to develop a Faraday Challenge Day to highlight the work that our members do and challenge secondary school students all over the UK to come up with their own solutions to the kind of issues that our members face day to day. IET Faraday Challenge Days introduce students to engineering in a very practical way. They are presented with a real scenario, asked to think about the kind of challenges that would be faced, and then work together to come up with a solution and build a working prototype of their idea – all in the course of one school day. The Challenge Days are aimed at
12-13-year-olds (Year 8 students in England and Wales, S1/S2 students in Scotland, and Year 9 students in Northern Ireland), before they have made crucial decisions about their subject choices at GCSE level and the equivalent, and aim to develop students’ practical and employability skills, including team- working, problem-solving, and creative thinking.
Around 6,000 students This season, 169 events are planned to take place across the UK, involving circa 6,000 students. The winning team at each event receives a prize and a place on the season’s league table. The top five teams at the end of the season will be invited to compete at the National Final at the end of June for a £1,000 prize for their school. As the season of events is still in progress, the exact details of the challenge are kept ‘under wraps’ to ensure that all schools taking part in the competition can compete fairly – but it has been developed closely with members of IHEEM. Natalie Moat, Faraday Education Manager at the IET, said: “We are really enjoying working with IHEEM this year, as the hospital built environment is not one that most, if any, of the students will associate with engineering. There is huge demand for new healthcare engineers and technicians, and we’re confident that this challenge has helped to change young people’s perceptions of engineers, and inspire the next generation. It’s given students an insight into the life of a real
engineer, the variety that a career in engineering can offer, and just how exciting and creative engineering really is.
A broader range of ideas “The range of ideas the students have come up with on the Faraday Challenge Days so far this season is far broader than we have ever had before, with each team at each event usually making something completely different. Students have been very creative in their ideas, and we have been really impressed with the innovative solutions they have presented to the scenario. The season’s league table is the closest we have ever seen, so the National Final is set to be very competitive.” Pete Sellars, CEO of IHEEM, said: “The
feedback from teachers at the schools I have attended has been extremely positive, with many of them stating this has been their favourite and most engaging Faraday Challenge to date. Once again, I would like to thank the IET, and especially the course leaders, for their incredible hard work, and the passion they have and clearly demonstrate for this initiative. I hope that we can build on the outputs from this competition, beyond the Challenge Final in June, as part of our programme to encourage the next generation of efm leaders into our profession.”
A number of IHEEM Council Members
have also attended the Challenge Days. James Chadwick said: “This fantastic opportunity gives students an insight into the world of healthcare engineering, and gets them thinking about how it affects everything around them in a hospital environment. The engagement and interest during the day grew from strength to strength, grabbing the interest of a diverse spectrum of young people. I am honoured that as part of IHEEM I have been able to play my part in starting them off on their journey, and that some will be the next generation of engineers. I love encouraging development and interest in our field, and I have started to think about how to run some away days and team building exercises at work – every day is a school day.”
Boding well for engineering’s future Richard Harris said: “I attended two Faraday Challenge Days, and it was really enjoyable to see how well the
pupils engaged with the challenge. Some of the ideas that the pupils thought up and developed were quite amazing, and bode well for the future of engineering if these minds can be developed with such free thinking. I would like to personally thank the IET course leader (Mick Dunne), as he had the day so well organised.” Alison Ryan, IHEEM’s President-Elect,
said: “The whole day was incredibly well organised. It was interesting to see how the students worked together in teams, and gained a further understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, how they overcame problems, and worked within the timescales and budget available. It was inspiring to see the ideas of the younger generation, and especially their thoughts on how their prototypes could be developed further, and interesting to listen to their thoughts on the impact of buildings in terms of energy, sustainability, and waste, especially for hospitals and achieving net zero carbon. It also tested my electronics knowledge.” Alan Spraggon added: “The Faraday Challenge Day I attended was fabulous, and the programme leader, Mick Dunne, from the IET, was excellent. The students were engaged from start to finish, and it was refreshing to see some young aspiring individuals discussing how they wanted to shape their careers in engineering. Of the 30 students we had on the challenge, around a third were not interested in engineering before we started, but by the end they all wanted to be engineers of some sort. The school also asked for IHEEM material for their next careers day, as they lacked information on non-clinical roles within healthcare.” For more information, visit
Faraday Challenge 2021/22 - IHEEM at
www.theiet.org/faraday
May 2022 Health Estate Journal 9
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