Michael Thompson, Project Engineer QinetiQ and STEM outreach ambassador
On Thursday 21 November, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Ambassadors at QinetiQ’s Farnborough site pulled out all the stops to make sure that visiting pupils from Calthorpe Park School in Fleet, had a day to remember and one that, hopefully, whets their appetites to one day following a STEM-related career in the future.
The competition ran over a full day and allowed students complete freedom over the design and programming of their robots, something which isn’t possible within the time and resource constraints of a classroom-based lesson or club environment. The challenges weren’t excessively difficult – it was more about organising their teams, making decisions, and optimising the solution. Before the event – which takes months of planning and preparation on our side – the students know nothing about the challenges they’d face; they just turn up and solve the problems!
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Children racing their robots.
From the time of the challenge briefing, the teams had just one hour to plan, design, build, program, test, and refine their robots. Each team was given two robots for each of the three challenges and encouraged to test mad ideas as well as conservative ones!
This year’s event was built around the theme of ‘Motor Sports’. We prepared a parking challenge to test the teams’ programming accuracy, a land-speed record to test their engineering skills, and the third challenge – a rally – really tested their cooperative team-working skills.
The event has several positive aims: it allows the pupils to apply ideas they’ve learned at school; encourages them to work together to a very tight schedule; provides a friendly competition with no preparation or homework, so is a low-stress activity; and – very importantly in our eyes – encourages them to think of science and engineering as interesting and fun.
Robolympics also helps to build awareness of QinetiQ within the local community, particularly in the minds of students who may form the next generation of scientists and engineers. Additionally, it’s a catalyst for encouraging our new graduates to get involved in the STEM Ambassador programme, and employees from all departments work together, designing and building the challenges.
The standard of engineering, programming and the range of different solutions tried this year was impressive. In the land speed record challenge, all three teams beat the record that we’d managed when we were setting up and testing! STEM’s Carol Smith, who attended the event, said: “I really enjoyed seeing the students and STEM Ambassadors having a really engaging time; it makes my job seem so worthwhile to be part of events like yours. Well done.”
Our STEM activities are just part of our plan to encourage young people to think about QinetiQ as a great start to their career, as demonstrated by our commitment to The 5% Club.
Robotics is an essential offering from QinetiQ, and our Talon and Ghost robots have been in action in both military and civilian environments, whether clearing improvised explosive devices, or assisting the emergency services during severe fires.
