The ‘Bloodhound’ supersonic car proved to be one of the highlights of this year’s Scarborough Engineering Week – the event aimed at encouraging youngsters to consider careers in engineering.
Now in its third year, the organisers are delighted with the success of the event, which has grown substantially year on year – with some 1,600 pupils attending this year.
“This year’s event has been the best so far, it’s really brought engineering to life for youngsters,” said Peter Wilkinson from the lead organiser Unison – the Scarborough-based manufacturer of tube bending machines. “The kids were able to interact with lots of exhibits – from subsea vehicle simulators, to robotic arms, and a Formula 1 car. The buzz was incredible, and we had some fantastic feedback – with East Yorkshire kids realising that there are some amazing engineering companies right on their doorstep.”
The Scarborough Engineering Week event was originally conceived by directors of Unison. The company led the organisation of this year’s event aided by sponsorship from York Potash – currently investigating the feasibility of a potash mine in the Whitby and Scarborough area – and help from the regional education business partnership NYBEP, local schools and colleges, and many of the region’s best known engineering companies.
The event included a business dinner with a keynote speech from the former land speed world record holder Richard Noble OBE, who is behind the new Bloodhound jet and rocket powered car which is targeting speeds of 1,000 mph to smash the current world land speed record. He presented pupils from Scarborough College and Graham School with prizes for the Scarborough Engineering Week design competition.
Schoolchildren were treated to an amazing array of engineering products and technologies, from Atlas Ward Structures, Firmac, Forum Energy Technologies, Bluebird, Fanuc, Festo, Plaxton, Castle Group, Yorkshire Coast College, HMK, Moog, Joy Global, York Potash, Unison, Dale, Denford, Bloodhound SSC, NYBEP, Derwent Training, Scarborough Sixth Form College, and Wilfred Scruton.
