Young digital engineers graduate from club at Fraserburgh campus
The following piece was written by Morag Kuc and originally appeared in The Scotsman on 20th January 2023
A class of young digital engineers has successfully graduated from a new after school Digital Engineering Club run by North East Scotland College’s Fraserburgh Campus.
The group attended a presentation to mark the successful completion of 10 weeks hard work and fun.
Each student received a certificate of participation from guest speaker Sam Buchan, Mechanical Engineer at Score Group plc.
The group of 14 pupils, from Fraserburgh and Mintlaw schools, was tasked with renewables and robotics projects.
Dr Leann Tait, Academic Improvement Lead said: “We have been delighted with the numbers joining the club and this first group of young engineers has been really engaged and eager to get involved.
“We wanted the club to be relevant to the North East, so incorporating the Renewable Energy Sector was an obvious choice.
“Combined with the robotics area pupils have had the chance to use equipment and technologies they don’t typically have access to.
“We have been fortunate with our funding from the Digital Xtra Fund and Science Aberdeen which have allowed us to run the club for an hour each week.”
The young engineers worked with different technologies including: AutoCAD software to design wind turbine structures as well as building models and looking at efficiencies of the different designs; Tinkercad, an online simulator to build physical circuit plus Dobot robots.
The Digital Engineering Club is based in the Fujitsu Innovation Hub at Fraserburgh Campus, a flexible and innovative digital learning space designed to promote active and collaborative learning through a dynamic and flexible layout.
NESCol is part of the Fujitsu Education Ambassador Programme which aims to enhance learning and teaching and unleash every student’s potential by putting digital technology at the heart of education.
Robin Macgregor, Vice Principal for Curriculum & Quality said: ”It is fantastic to see the Hub being used to help develop the digital skillset of local school pupils.
“Together with the fantastic equipment housed in our Future Skills Zone, funded through a generous donation by a local benefactor, Fraserburgh Campus is exceptionally well placed to help increase the digital confidence and skills of the surrounding community.”
The club is open to any student in S3 or S4 with a keen interest in engineering who is looking to learn.
The club, which is funded by Digital Xtra Fund as part of Round VII (2022/23) grant awards, will run again from Wednesday, January 25. To book your place contact [email protected] using code RCNDE-D222A