Setting Sights on a Smart Future
Who will design the connected automated transport systems of the future, invent better ways to recycle plastic or come up with more energy-efficient lighting solutions for our cities?
The next generation of engineers, that’s who.
On 6th July, the interactive Big Bang event brought students aged eight to 16 years to Uxbridge College in West London for an exciting day of exhibitions, drop-in sessions and workshops designed to help bring the STEM subjects to life. Two Bosch STEM Ambassadors, Gemma Winter, Divisional Controller, and Claire Cassidy, Marketing Communications Manager – Automotive Aftermarket, volunteered in the ‘Tomorrow’s Engineers: Meet the Future You’ workshop where students had a chance to talk to real-life STEM professionals, and to find out where a career in STEM could take them in five, ten or 15 years’ time.
The Bosch Smart Future Challenge – an Even Bigger Bang
This autumn, Bosch will launch its most exciting and comprehensive STEM initiative yet, the Smart Future Challenge. Run in collaboration with the STEM Ambassadors programme, the competition draws from Bosch’s expertise in smart solutions and Internet of Things (IoT) and challenges students to think about the wider implications that these technologies will have on their day-to-day lives, particularly in the area of mobility and transport. The competition will be piloted at six schools in Buckinghamshire, with the participating teams competing for a £500 cash price for their school and a chance to see their pitches regarded by MPs at an inspiring location in London.
The competition demonstrates the importance of research, development and strategic management skills as a foundation, and a core strength, for any STEM career. It also requires a high level of cooperation and commitment, to accurately simulate the requirements of many real-life STEM projects. The students will take on the roles of project managers as well as domestic and commercial applications research teams, with tasks including setting up a risk register to identify potential threats to the project and planning how the new solutions can be pitched to all stakeholders. Students will also carry out tasks using key business and economics tools such as PESTEL, a tool used for marketing analysis, and SWOT, a technique used in strategic planning.
“This is our biggest challenge yet and we are thrilled to give students the chance to unlock their imagination and experience first-hand what it takes to build a smart future”
- Paniz Mojahedi, Marketing and Communications Specialist at Bosch
“I believe that by focusing young minds on exciting concepts like ‘smart technology’ or ‘automated and connected future’ we can expose the whole hidden dimension of what STEM really has to offer. With the Bosch Smart Future Challenge we want to inspire and engage students in a way that’s never been done before by setting a real-life challenge that takes into account the wide range of skills required in these industries instead of just focusing on the technical know-how. The goal is to make the students say ‘Wow, I didn’t know STEM did that, and I didn’t know Bosch did that!’ Paniz concludes.