Roke's Robot Rocks at Quilley School

Graduate engineers, Estelle Tidey and Landry Ndikumasabo, from Roke Manor Research Limited, a Siemens company, recently ran a robot workshop at the Quilley School in Eastleigh as part of the school's Science and Engineering Day.

The workshop aimed to enthuse the students about science and technology and to show how an understanding of basic science directly contributes to the success of a key engineering project like RAT - Roke's Autonomous Traveller. This unmanned droid has been designed to explore and map dangerous or uninhabitable areas such as military zones or distant planets without putting human lives at risk.

Three groups of year nine and ten pupils took part in a quiz to match inventors with inventions, learnt about the range of exciting careers in engineering, saw the robot in action and then applied what they had learnt about project management and engineering to designing their own mobile phone, car and hospital.

The robot workshop forms one of many activities designed by Roke to support and strengthen Quilley's engineering specialism. Roke has recently formalised their relationship with Quilley through establishing them as a Partner School and this status is a mark of Roke’s long term commitment to challenge, enthuse and engage students in science and technology through giving them "live" examples of science in action.

Tracy Philipsz, head of science at Quilley School welcomed Roke's involvement, saying:

"At a time when the teaching and learning of science is high on the agenda, we were delighted that our students had an opportunity to engage with current and 'real' science and have first hand experience of a product which might later impact their lives."