TDK-Lambda has continued to demonstrate its commitment to supporting STEM education by helping Ilfracombe Academy Year 12 A-Level students qualify for their Engineering Education Scheme (EES) certificates and British Science Association CREST Gold awards.

A team of four students from Ilfracombe Academy worked under the guidance and mentorship of Tim Puttick, Production Manager for TDK-Lambda UK. This year, students were tasked with establishing a method for handling and transporting heavy manufactured products safely for workers during product quality assurance. Previous projects have included controlling ambient temperature on the production line, calculating the facility’s carbon-footprint and developing a wind tunnel.

Image caption: Tim Puttick (far left), Production Manager for TDK-Lambda UK and Engineering Education Scheme (EES) mentor, presents Year 12 A-Level students from Ilfracombe Academy with their EES certificates

These projects allow students to develop valuable transferable skills not easily learned in the class room environment, including team work, project planning and presenting, writing program code, building prototypes and analysing return-on-investment for decision making.

Tim provided support and assistance to the pupils where needed, saying: “The project team undertook their challenge over a six-month period, successfully producing a solution that allowed a 28kg product to be handled and operated safely from manufacturing to testing, inspection and finally shipping”.

CREST Gold awards are widely recognised and respected by UCAS for university admissions in STEM subjects.