February 27, 2023

Earlier this year, Elliott Hudson College students were invited to visit the state-of-the-art £13 million National Centre for Motorsport Engineering (NCME) at the University of Bolton.

The trip was organised for students studying Product Design at A Level with an interest in pursuing a career in engineering. The students met with the centre director Dr Mark Busfield and were given a tour of the centre’s pioneering facilities, including state-of-the-art engineering and design equipment, robotic workshops, carbon fibre laboratories and wind tunnels.

Students learnt about the process, design, and development of the car, understanding the engineering behind this such as stress analysis and how to make sure the cars meet safety regulations.

“The goal of the trip was to introduce the students to the importance of Product Design in engineering, to understand how they’re applied in motorsport engineering and see what engineers have to deal with every day.” Said Mrs Olutayo, Product Design Teacher.

Product Design student, Hamza Ahmed said: “It was a really good day, we got to see a lot of the building and a lot of the cars, and everything involved in Formula 1 cars and racing. I really want to go onto the Automotive Sport Engineering course at Bolton now. I’m a big F1 fan: I watch all the races and I really want to go into working in the industry.

We learnt loads in Product Design that is relevant to automotive engineering. We learn about materials and their uses, manufacturing, and even marketing. I’m currently working on designing a go kart, so Product Design helps a lot if you want to go into designing cars.

Product Design is the best course, you’re learning about real life, and you can apply the theories you learn in Maths and Physics to real scenarios in Product Design.”

Students that participated in the trip left with a better understanding of engineering and its applications in real life, as well as gaining a taste of what Motorsport Engineering at degree level is like.

“It’s important for us as a college, to demonstrate to students how what they learn in the classroom is applied to the workplace and in real life situations. Many of our students this year are interested in going into engineering at university so we wanted to give them an idea of what that would be like.” Said Mrs Olutayo, Product Design Teacher, “The course at the University of Bolton, is something a lot of our students are now interested in applying for and it helps fuel students’ aspirations by showing them the wide range of opportunities that are out there.”

Over the last 3 years, Elliott Hudson College has seen over 50 students go on to study engineering at university and over 200 have gone on to STEM degrees, demonstrating the importance and impact of trips like this for our students

Charlie Steel, Product Design student said: “The F1 simulator was the best part of the trip. We got to sit in the F1 car and see what it would be like to actually drive one – it was amazing!”