The department has a selection for students to practise on
Neutral colours, high ceilings, lots of glass and wood fascia – it’s difficult to shake off the feeling that you are in an expensive, modern IT facility when you first walk into the University of Lincoln’s engineering department. Spread throughout the building are classrooms, workshops, lecture theatres, computer rooms – and even a real-time simulated control room, that can run operational scenarios for working on gas turbines.
Then you arrive at the main workshop at the heart of the building. The large, two-storey room has a viewing gallery/classroom which features several gas turbines in various stages of undress. At one end of the room is a Ruston T-8, designed in 1949 and manufactured in Lincoln. At the other is the most modern gas turbine to leave the gates of Siemens’ Lincoln factory, a 15MW SGT400.
Not many engineering departments can boast their own selection of gas turbines to practise on. But the turbines, combined with the not-so-subtle Siemens sign hanging nearby, affirm the strong connection the department has with Lincoln’s largest employer. Siemens Turbomachinery isn’t so much partnered with the university’s engineering department as embedded within it.
The department, or “Engineering Hub”, to give it its full name, opened in 2009 after the £7 million building was paid for by the EU, Lincolnshire Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Siemens. Surprisingly for the city, which has been home to engineering companies since 1840, the university had no engineering department before 2009. Last month, the first cohort of mechanical engineers graduated from the university. Nine out of the 16 graduates have joined Siemens.
Jarek Grebenik, one graduate collecting his degree, says: “The course not only teaches the theory behind engineering, but also prepares you for working in industry.
“The strong collaboration with Siemens, and sharing the Engineering Hub with the company, really helps students learn to become more aware of the real world of industry. I would highly recommend it to anyone – studying a course like this places any student in good standing for employment.”
University of Lincoln’s Engineering Hub
The Hub delivers undergraduate and postgraduate courses for mechanical engineering students and provides facilities for research. The most striking difference from a conventional university engineering department is that the Hub also provides full product training for the staff of both Siemens and its customers.
The strong link with Siemens is a major attraction for students, says Chris Bingham, professor of energy conversion and associate head of the School of Engineering at the University of Lincoln. After running for just three years, the mechanical engineering course is oversubscribed. The department welcomed 70 new students at the beginning of this term, bringing the total studying there to 200.
“We’ve increased our entry grades, and are looking to expand to offer an electrical engineering course within the next couple of years,” says Bingham. “We are a modern facility, and the collaboration means students can get bursaries and paid work experience over the summer. Our modular course is also structured so they learn alongside part-time students from Siemens. The regular access to industry personnel builds relationships, and improves their communication and presentation skills.”
At the same time as the undergraduate course, the Hub runs courses to “upskill” current Siemens staff, in block training delivered in weeks that can fit around work.
However, the main benefit to Siemens is the Graduate Accelerator Programme. This is the company’s response to the widening gap between its capacity to deliver advanced engineering and people with the requisite skills. The programme aims to increase both the number and rate of qualified engineers entering the company’s gas turbines business.
The Hub also runs “upskill” courses for current Siemens staff
The normal graduate route requires 18 months of vocational training once the graduate is employed by Siemens. But a graduate from the Accelerator Programme on the mechanical engineering course at the university needs only nine months to be brought up to speed on the job. “The idea is to create a pipeline of industry-ready graduate engineers,” says Steve Middleborough, engineering services director for Siemens in Lincoln.
The other benefit to Siemens is the increased level of collaborative research and development with the university. Research collaborations are normally on the university’s terms – a university approaches a company with ideas for research. Siemens in Lincoln wanted a closer collaboration with “industrial academics”, a role that the university is happy to provide.
“It’s one thing to publish lots of papers, but another entirely to make something that works and makes a difference,” says Middleborough. “At the university, they often drive their research into a product. Everyone is keen to work together in different and innovative ways.”
A promising example of the R&D work under this model, he says, is the development of laser ignition systems for gas turbines instead of spark plugs.
Mike Gibbons, Siemens training and regionalisation manager, says: “We see this as a business relationship instead of an academic relationship – we are the customer and the university is the supplier. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t blue-skies research going on here. It means the flow of ideas is two-way.”
This two-way flow of ideas and communication reaches the minutiae of things such as the equipment and layout of workshops for control systems, he adds. For the training of field service engineers, the main workshop is as close as they can get to the real world. That the students and faculty staff share the same facilities as Siemens’ staff and customers, and the pragmatic, vocational slant of the courses, also help to create a unique international atmosphere at the department, says Gibbons.
“People come here from all over the world to be trained in products, and the students come here to get a taste of the industry and equipment. It creates an atmosphere that is more conducive to learning and useful for both parties, with an international aspect not just within the department, but on campus and in the city.”
People from all over the world come to the Hub, says Siemens’ Mike Gibbons
Bingham says the Hub’s success is increasing the popularity of STEM subjects through the rest of the university. “The Hub is a tremendous asset, and the university is seeing an emergence of engineering and related subjects. We have become a hub in the region for engineering and industry. Pharmaceutical and chemistry courses are opening, and there are extensions to the life sciences facilities.”
But he says Siemens does not dominate the university. “We’re not the ‘University of Siemens’ – we work with lots of other industrial partners from different sectors, from food science through to automotive. It’s a mutually beneficial collaboration.”
Close links with IMechE
The University of Lincoln’s Engineering Hub is the first purpose-built engineering school to be launched in the UK for more than 20 years. The IMechE has been involved since the school’s formation, and the degree courses available are in the process of being accredited by the Institution.
The teaching is given in 21st-century facilities by staff from a range of disciplines and industry backgrounds. The school’s links to employers, and to the IMechE, mean that the work placements students take during their degrees can reduce the amount of work experience required before they become eligible for professional registration.
The Hub regularly hosts the IMechE’s Regional Committee’s events and meetings, such as the East Midlands apprentice challenge.
The school has received accolades for its pioneering approach, including the Lord Stafford Award for Open Collaboration with Siemens (2011), IET Team Award (highly commended) 2011 and 2010, and the IMechE Charles Sharp Beecher Prize 2010.