Jennifer Barclay - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Jennifer's getting on with her STEM placement! 

Week One

"During the first week, I was given the opportunity to travel to the Network rail headquarters in Milton Keynes where I helped do a data transfer from the server. I thought this was a really good opportunity and I got to see the offices there which were very nice."

Week Two  

"Over the past two weeks, I have been working with the asset management team at Jacob's researching two BIM programs developed by Jacobs; ProjectMapper and TrackRecord. I have been using them both in order to see how well they work. I have also been researching alternative programs that Jacobs could potentially use." 

Week Three

"My third week at Jacobs has also been fascinating. This week, I focused on getting all of the ideas and information that I found out over the past two weeks into one place and writing them up in report form. I also continued researching many alternative programs that Jacobs could use and after a lot of researching, I finally found a few that would meet their needs. I didn't realise how many programs there were on the market that are all so similar. 

As my placement comes to an end next week, I will need to finalise my research and will then present it in front of the asset management team that I have been working with." 

                 - Jennifer Barclay 

Kieron Lintott - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Kieron's getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"My first week at SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd) has been a massive success.

I’ve learnt a lot about coding on MATLAB through online courses, the book “Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists” and hands-on experience with MATLAB.

My main task this week was writing code to loop through folders to process files and convert it to HTML to automatically update SSSTL’s MERRBYS website that showcases their satellite data (http://www.merrbys.co.uk/)."

Week Two

"My second week at SSTL has seen a lot of progress and on the Friday I finished the task of writing code to automatically update the MERRBYS website.

I’ve continued to learn more about MATLAB as the task progressed and overcame various obstacles and found more and more ways of refining the code to create a better presentation for the webpages I was writing code for, such as titles and page layout.

I also found out a bit about how I’ll be spending the rest of my placement; it will involve processing and analysing data from a GNSS Reflectometry satellite."

Week Three

"After a few weeks of writing code, running it, fixing bugs and other activities. I've finally finished my first task at SSTL of writing code that takes data that was processed from a satellite to automatically update the Data Explore section of the MERRByS website. This can be found on the MERRByS website under Data Explore. 

Once I finished my work on the website, I went straight into my second task of processing the vast array of data collected by the TDS-1 satellite, through using pre-written code that filters the data down to process only what I want it to."

Week Four

“My final week at SSTL has been the best yet. It’s been very busy, working on a code to process satellite data into Sea and Ice through using different data filters that could be found in an online product manual (also on the MERRByS website under Documentation) that supplied corresponding data that could be used to filter out anomalous data points and extracting information from plots. I found that GNSS-R data could be used to predict the surface of a reflected signal to astounding accuracy, correctly predicting Ice over 93% of the time I got data from.”

- Kieron Lintott

Alfie Gibson - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Alfie's getting on with his STEM placement! 

Week One

"I spent the first day surveying the birds, the idea was that it would take 10 minutes for each area of the school but my inexperience meant it took a while longer to identify all the birds. Tuesday and Wednesday were routines of sweep netting, moth trapping, long worth trapping and pond dipping - I caught a variety of interesting critters. Thursday was very helpful as Dr.Harvey took us through the data we’d collated and quizzed us on writing the report, any problems with ideas and details we might’ve been unsure about which really helped me plan a structure for it"

Week Two

"We spent the second week at Hythe school across the road from Magna Carta. There was a much greater variety of plant life and we took a while to do the bush/tree surveys on Monday as well as the sweep netting on Tuesday. The rest of the week was a comfortable routine of longworth trapping, camera trapping and moth trapping. I also went back to Magna Carta each day and did bird surveys at both schools as to acquire more substantial data on the levels of bird biodiversity." 

- Alfie Gibson

Alli Wilkinson - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

Week one 

"This week I spent most of my time collecting data about the physical and chemical properties of several chlorinated solvents. I used several reference sources and recorded all of the data using excel spreadsheets. I then started constructing a spreadsheet showing the ranges in values for each property so that i can choose which values to use in a model,  which will generate generic assessment criteria to be used to evaluate the levels of chlorinated solvents found in soil samples based on the risks to human health."

- Alli Wilkinson

Year 8 Construction Challenge - Royal Grammar School, Guildford - Press release by Beard Construction

80 Surrey pupils take on a bridge-building challenge

Eighty Year 8 students from eight different schools in Guildford, Woking and Carshalton have taken part in a bridge-building challenge, with a little help from regional construction firm Beard. 

The youngsters, aged 12 and 13, were taking part in educational charity SATRO’s Year 8 Construction Challenge at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford. The learning initiative aims to bring science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) lessons to life through fun, hands-on projects working with industry professionals, such as Beard.

The schools taking part were Guildford High School for Girls, Guildford County School, Christ’s College and the Royal Grammar School, all in Guildford, as well as St John the Baptist in Woking, Ash Manor School in Ash, Heathside School in Weybridge and Carshalton Boys Sports College in Carshalton.

Split into groups of eight, each pupil was given a specific role and job to do – just as on a real construction site. Then, using rolled up paper, masking tape and nuts and bolts, the students had to design and build a model bridge able to span a 1.5 metre gap. The project involved each team pricing their project, buying their construction materials and making sure that their scheme was delivered in the most cost-effective way.

Representatives from Beard – which sponsored the event – were on hand to provide expert advice and guidance on construction techniques.

At the end of the challenge, each bridge was tested with 500ml bottles acting as weights and judged on its performance, the team’s project management skills, design and cost-efficiency. The winning team was presented with a Beard ‘Construction Challenge Winners Pack’ which included high street shopping vouchers and Beard mugs and pens.

SATRO is one of three local charities selected by Beard’s Guildford staff to benefit from its £20,000 fundraising campaign, in celebration of the construction firm’s 125^th business anniversary.

“These events are a fantastic way to show young people how exciting and rewarding a career in construction can be,” says Joachim Daniel, assistant quantity surveyor for Beard. “We have really enjoyed watching the students using their problem-solving skills and being creative. We strongly value our partnership with local charity SATRO, so much so that we’ve chosen it as one of our staff charities we’re fundraising for this year as part of our 125^th business anniversary celebrations. I hope the students had fun building their bridges and that the challenge will encourage some to think about construction and engineering careers.”

"It was our great pleasure to partner with SATRO and Beard to host the Year 8 Construction Challenge," comments Tom Shimell, assistant head of partnerships at the Royal Grammar School Guildford. "It was fantastic to witness so many boys and girls from different schools working together to design and build their structures. The inherent stretch and challenge in the task combined with the focus on leadership, teamwork and problem-solving chime closely with our ethos here at the Royal Grammar School and we certainly hope to be able to host such inspirational events in the future. Everyone agreed that SATRO and Beard organised and led a fantastic programme so ‘thank you’ on behalf of all of the students who learned so much while having great fun."

Alma Hadzihasani - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

Week One

"This week I was introduced to my project on simulating revolutionary transistors composed of semiconducting nanowires, used for quantum computing at higher temperatures (temperatures higher than is currently possible). I was made familiar with the simulation program known as Silvaco, and I began to learn the language (2D and 3D) by going through examples. I carried out research on how transistors and semiconductors function, and modern industry processes. By the end of the week I had finished the 3D structure of the actual nano-wire, with correct dimensions/meshing/material, simulating it for different temperatures, fixing a variety of bugs."

Week Two

"This week I got to improve and explore my previously built nano-wire transistor simulation. I have been busy trying to solve unexpected problems (such as solution convergence errors) by researching and learning of different quantum models available in the program and whether they may be appropriate to my simulation. Learning some of the ideas of quantum models/equations and transportation has proved to be very interesting and thought-provoking. I have also expanded my knowledge on Silvaco syntax."

Week Three
"During week 3 I created more simulations in the interest of solving a simulation of the nano-wire transistor. This included various 2D structures, a range of quantum and low temperature models, and refined meshing. Through this I experienced more errors that required logical and systematic approaches to attempt to solve them. By the end of the week, and after many attempts, we concluded that using Atlas to simulate the nanowire transistor was not an appropriate method."

-Alma Hadzihasani 

Thomas Rates - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

Week One 

"My first week has been incredibly interesting. My project has been about the use of organic transistors as a way of converting AC power to DC, as organic materials can be ink jet printed. This week I have been learning how  to use simulating software to model components and I have also been doing research into the project, looking at various papers and websites to do so.Towards the end of the week I have had some success modelling an example from one of the papers. Next week I should be able to use this in a simulation circuit to see the efficiency of it, and see if there is anything that can be done to improve it. I have really enjoyed the project so far and I look forward to the remainder of it."

Week Two

"My second week has also been very good. This week I have been developing my simulation and working out some of the problems it has had. I have also been looking more closely into how my component will behave in a circuit and trying to simulate this as well.

During this week I have also modeled a real circuit on a bread board to see the outputs of it. This will carry on into next week taking measurements to see what values I should be expecting and to generally get hands on experience with what I will be trying to simulate.

This week has been interesting and has been very productive in setting me up for running simulations and experiments next week."

Week Three

"My third week was very productive. I have worked on simulating my component in a circuit and seeing how it behaves. This has given me very interesting results that will end up going into my final report.

 I also took measurements from the circuit I created on a bread board, to see how it changes AC to DC power and how this can be optimised. Although this was not my component, it was close enough to achieve very good results, and works well as a proof of what I’m doing. 

My project is close to an end now and my results have been very promising and I am looking forward to seeing its conclusion."

- Thomas Rates 

Elliott Myers - Summer STEM Work Placement Student - Weekly Reports

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Elliott is getting on with his STEM Placement!

Week one

"On Monday, I learnt how to factorise and solve complex quadratic and cubic expressions, also learning how to use "Maple" a mathematical problem solving system. On Tuesday, I learnt a method of completing the cube similar to completing the square, and conducted some of my own research into Group Theory. On Wednesday, I participated in a couple of lectures on modulus functions and RSA. On Thursday and Friday, I wrote a report on the modulus function and proposed an idea and question for my research the following week."           

Week two

"I started this week by researching into a way of combining a symmetric group with RSA encryption to create a secure encryption method. This then furthered my interest into permutations of sets, looking at a way of ordering all permutations of a set, with a method that could be successfully used by anyone. This then changed to looking at this method numerically, finding the difference between permutations as a sequence, which produced interesting graphical results with clear patterns." 

Week three 

"For my last week I have focused on writing up my report and my poster for SATRO. I have managed to condense my ideas into a logical document, which draws conclusions from all my encryption methods. This placement has really opened my eyes to the world of scientific world, helping me understand the concepts behind abstract mathematics that I have never come across before. I would like to thank all the members of the maths department at Surrey University and the staff at SATRO for this opportunity."

                         - Elliott Myers

What is it like working for McLaren Automotive? Chase Beswick tells all...

Name: Chase Beswick 

Works for: McLaren Automotive 

Job Title: Data Integration Lead

What attracted you to the job? 

The reputation which McLaren Automotive has a world leader in technology and performance, as well as the drive and passion everyone within the company clearly has. 

What does your typical day involve? 

Day to day activities can vary considerably. My day can involve assisting the business in releasing components, to supporting the design, development and launch of new car programs, to running upload programs to load large volumes of data when the business is particularly busy with engineering changes. 

No single day is the same which helps keep me motivated - because I never know what challenge will be next. 

What gives you the most job satisfaction? 

The role I currently have within the business touches on all areas of the business. This means that I am fortunate enough to have a good understanding of the dynamics and interactions between each business area. For me, I get the most job satisfaction seeing the dynamics and interactions between each business area improve based on improvements we have made. This ultimately results in us working together better to improve the amazing products we produce. 

What do your friends and family think about your job? 

The idea of working for McLaren is a dream job when I speak to most people, whether they are friends and family, or simply someone I meet for the first time where the conversation arises. This is because of the reputation the company has globally as being the best at what we do. 

Once anyone realises where I work, inevitably they have a load of questions to ask about what we do and what new projects we may have coming up. Unfortunately, due to the sensitive nature of the work we do, what I can say or tell them is very limited. 

How did you get where you are today? 

I left school with no more than GCSE's for qualifications. After this, I signed up to an employment agency to try and find work and earn a living. 

The first few jobs they found for me were very basic jobs with not much of a future, so I kept ringing the agency asking for anything else they had to offer. Fortunately, one day they mentioned they had a job as a general labourer at the McLaren 'Paragon' building site where they were finishing the McLaren Technology Centre building. My role was to clean up the building site whilst the builders finished their work. 

Whilst working on the building site, I worked alongside the paint shop team who had moved in early, as McLaren Automotive did not have their own paint shop yet. As I worked alongside them, I asked their manager at the time if I could work for him as a Paint Shop Junior. As he had seen my work ethic, he took me on to work for his team. 

Working within the paint team, I was keen to carry on with my education, as I could see the potential which was staring me in the face with my new-found career. Eventually, the company offered employees the opportunity to sign up for a foundation degree which could be run at the local college - Brooklands. I signed up for the course and after 4 years of evening lessons, finally managed to secure a foundation degree in Performance Road Car Technology. 

However, this made me want to progress further in my education, so I asked my Director if the company could support me to convert my foundation degree to a full degree. After some deliberation with the rest of the Directors, he agreed and I enrolled on the Computer Aided Mechanical Engineering course run by Oxford Brookes University and after a further 2 years of day release studying, I managed to successfully secure my full honours degree. Interestingly, for my dissertation, I designed the paint fixtures that were used to paint the panels of our first McLaren only road car - the MP4-12C. Pictures of these paint fixtures can be seen widely on the internet when images of the McLaren Automotive paint facility are shown. 

With my new qualifications, I began exploring the opportunity of putting the new skills into practice and was placed on secondment as a Quality Engineer. This then evolved for me to become a Quality and Manufacturing Engineer, then on to Data Reconciliation Lead for a new project the business ran to move on to a more stable software package for the business called SAP. It is that role which eventually led to me being Data Integration Lead for the business, once the project completed and the business was fully up and running on the new software. That is the role which I currently have within the business. 

Did the subjects you studied after the age of 16 prove useful in the job you are doing now?/any subjects you wish you'd studied? 

Each of the subjects I studied at the age of 16 have helped in some way or another. Whether it be something which relates directly to what I do today (such as IT), to something which does not directly relate to what I am doing today (such as Geography). I say this because the subjects which relate directly to what I do obviously help me better understand what I do day to day, whilst the other subjects which do not directly relate to what I do taught me other life skills such as how to manage my time and priorotise several tasks which need my time and attention. 

In retrospect, there are no subjects which I wish I had or hadn't studied, because they have all been useful in their own right, and have allowed me to progress in to a career I am very happy with. 

What advice would you give to someone thinking of following in your path? 

The key advice I would give is to remember to face all challenges with a keen and positive outlook, as these are traits that people look for and invest in. There have been a number of times where I have felt like I would not achieve anything substantial, but through putting my head down, getting the job done and showing a desire to progress, fortunately I have managed to achieve more than I could have imagined. 

How well is your job compensated? What is the starting salary for someone in your field and how much this can be expected to rise? 

The starting salary within Data related jobs is normally around £25,000, and this can rise to as much as £60,000 or higher depending on the amount of experience you have and how specialised your skill set is. 

What out of office hours pursuits light your fire? What kind of hobbies or extracurricular activities do you have? 

I play golf during the weekends (sometimes during the week when the days are longer!). I am also a STEM Ambassador and like to attend events which encourage young talent into STEM subjects. I was fortunate enough to tell the story of my career as a guest speaker at the 2016 SATRO STEMX awards ceremony which I find extremely awarding. 

James Nicholls - SATRO Summer Research Placement - University of Surrey Cyber Security Centre

James Nicholls from Reigate College is the first of our Year 12 students to begin a SATRO Summer Research Placement. He will be spending 4 weeks at the University of Surrey Cyber Security Centre and will look at implementing cryptographic algorithms used between contactless cards and contactless readers. Here is what James has to say about his first week! 

"The first week of the research placement has been fantastic. This placement has allowed me to greatly improve my knowledge of an important subject that is relevant to day-to-day life as well as my future aspirations at university. My supervisor has provided me with lots of necessary information and equipment to enhance my research capabilities and has given me support when I find myself struggling with a particular topic. I'm looking forward to continuing my research in the next few weeks."
                                                                                                                                             - James Nicholls