Institution news
Now in its seventh year, the Apprentice Automation Challenge provides teams of apprentices with the opportunity to design and build a device to automate a process in the home or garden. The aim is to address key challenges in today’s society, such as energy efficiency. Teams design and build a working prototype, taking into account other factors including design specification and manufacturing instructions, together with a full business case.
Team Motus from Aerospace Engineering company Leonardo impressed the judging panel with a well-written report and a clear business case for their LED Motion 8 project. They showed real teamwork during their presentation of their project, with featured a neat and compact design.
Team Motus overcame stiff competition from apprentices from The Manufacturing Technology Centre, Perkins Engines, Delphi Technology and Incomm Training to take the trophy.
The construction of the control unit in Team Motus’ project gained praise from the judges
“The team comprised a mix of business and technical apprentices, so we had to quickly find a way to learn about each other’s areas in the business, which included learning the language that goes with it,” explained Aaron Wills, Motus Team Leader.
“For example, technical apprentices would talk about coding while business apprentices referred to gantt charts. One of our favourite moments was when we knew we’d come up with a great concept after many weeks of commercial and technical research, which we knew could really help those with mobility issues.
“It has been rewarding for us to learn we can follow a lifecycle management process through to completion to deliver a product on time, to budget, with great market potential. I think we’ve all become more confident in our abilities to see a project through and we look forward to using the skills we’ve gathered together on future innovation,” he concluded.
Owing to restrictions around COVID-19, this year’s Apprentice Automation Challenge finals were held virtually, with teams taking part in online presentations to showcase their work in front of a panel of judges, followed by rigorous question and answer sessions.
The judges commended all teams for overcoming unprecedented conditions to participate in this year’s Challenge. In particular, they noted that a combination of furloughing, shift work, issue with material availability and remote working all contributed to a difficult environment to develop and build their projects.
“As in real projects, things sometimes don’t go to plan, so engineers have to be able to adapt in order to finish their projects and they have all risen to the challenge,” remarked Toby Hegarty, Head Judge for the Challenge.
As part of their prize, the team will receive £2,000 and will go on to exhibit their winning entry as part of the Smart Factory Expo and attend the TMMX Awards in 2021.
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers congratulates Aaron, Connor, Seiya, Lewis, Lucy and Daniel of Team Motus on their win and thanks all teams for participating this year. We look forward to welcoming them and other teams when registration for the 2021 Apprentice Automation Challenge opens in December.