Industry Dragons support Electrical Engineering & Electronics Projects
Posted on: 8 June 2022 by Richard Finch in Connections in action
A collaboration with our Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics for engagement between students and industry within the academic curriculum.
A collaboration between Careers & Employability and colleagues in the University’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics recently presented valuable opportunities for engagement between students and industry representatives as part of the academic curriculum.
This collaboration was part of an Electrical Engineering & Electronics module which aims to enable students to apply scientific & engineering principles to the solution of practical problems of engineering systems & processes to provide experience of all aspects of working as a team, and to complete an engineering task with a complexity that is comparable with those encountered in industry. In line with these aims, students worked in groups to deliver a solution to an industry-relevant problem on a topic related to the discipline of Electronic Engineering & Electronics.
Upon completing their projects, the student-groups pitched their solutions to a panel of academic assessors and industry representatives, with the latter acting as active observers and asking project-relevant questions in order to support the academics’ assessment process. This assessed session was run in a manner akin to the BBC reality-television show, Dragons’ Den. The panel of industry representatives – or, in this case, the ‘dragons’ – was formed by guests from Crover, DefProc Engineering, Liverpool University NHS Foundation Trust, MBDA, and the Science & Technology Facilities Council.
Module leader, Dr Munira Raja commented on the value to students of industrial representation in proximity to the academic curriculum:
“These engagements are invaluable to students, as they further enhance students’ learning experiences and develop their practical & soft skills. This particular experience also offered practical feedback, from an industry perspective, taking into consideration key criteria around market analysis, value proposition, potential implementation, and viability of their projects/demonstrators”.
From an employers’ perspective, the benefits of engaging with a talented and ambitious cohort of Electronic Engineering & Electronics students, meanwhile, is apparent from feedback provided by one of our ‘dragons’, Matthew Fell, fromMBDA:
As a former student I always enjoyed interacting with employers and gaining industry insights. Now representing MDDA, I see that such interactions not only better-prepare the students for industry but also allow employers to engage with prospective graduates”
Through initiatives such as the Dragons’ Den-style assessment, the Employer Connections Team are always looking to facilitate engagements between industrial representatives and our students & graduates. Whilst we’ve touched upon extra-curricular examples (such as our Science & Engineering Placements Bootcamp and examples of School-based or Departmental Employability Weeks) in previous articles, we’re keen for such engagements to occur ever-closer to the students’ degree disciplines.
To find out more about ways to engage with talented and ambitious students at the University of Liverpool, in support of your attraction and recruitment aims, please get in touch with the Employer Connections Team