Engineering Apprentices Test Their Manufacturing Automation Skills

SERC Engine

Student teams from the Level 3 Apprenticeship NI in Engineering at SERC went head-to-head in a manufacturing engineering competition held in the College’s Bangor Campus recently.  

(Above) Harrison Rollo (20), from Newtownards, and Leo McBride (20), from Belfast, both from the Level 3 Apprenticeship NI in Engineering, took first place and a prize of gift vouchers.  

Competing against each other in a practical challenge,  the teams were tasked with designing, building and testing pneumatic and electro-pneumatic circuits. They had to apply their theoretical knowledge of the fundamental principles of pneumatic and electronic engineering and use the appropriate sensors and actuators to build simple automated systems. Teams were marked on their use of logic, design and fault-finding skills in the timed challenge, which was judged by Jonathan McEwan, Industry 4.0 Lecturer at SERC.