Harper Adams University - Prospectus 2024

During his summer break, MEng (hons) Mechanical Engineering student George Billington undertook a voluntary placement with Equal Adventure – a not-for-profit organisation that develops equipment for disabled people, specifically focused around outdoor pursuits. “I was interested in using engineering skills to help people with limited physical abilities to fully experience the outdoors and have active and fulfilling lives. I had worked with Suresh Paul, the director of Equal Adventure and a visiting lecturer at Harper Adams, on a class project for which we had to produce a product design specification for the next version of the Boma electric off-road wheelchair, originally designed by another Harper engineering graduate, Chris Swift. "After speaking to Suresh about my particular interest in the Boma, he offered me a summer placement. I machined, soldered, and assembled parts for two new wheelchairs, and wrote up multiple improvements to the manufacturing instructions and parts I was making. “Myself and the other two placement students, alongside Suresh, went up CairngormMountain with a customer and a ‘demonstration’ Boma to test the machine on rough terrain. “I helped design a ‘first draft’ model of the new generation of Boma, based on my experience and the ideologies of the organisation." “The lecturers are fantastic…I think what we have at Harper is really special, particularly the level of industry experience, which I don’t think you’ll find anywhere else. “The department has a particular mission and that is wanting everyone to leave as a confident, competent, 'industry-ready' engineer and I genuinely think they are really succeeding at this. No other university can rival Harper in my opinion. “For example, for our group engineering project this year, my team and I entered an international engineering competition called the Efficiency for Access Design Challenge and we got to meet other teams from different higher education providers. “We engaged with all of the other participants and shared ideas…The universities came from all over the world and what really stuck with us was that we were the only team who had any real experience of doing projects similar to those expected of an employed engineer.” Student Story: George Billington Student Story: Isabelle Bourassa “I have enjoyedmy time atHarperAdams... The atmosphere and rurality have been great and the small class sizes havemeant that I have had amore intimate andpersonal learning experience.” HARPER.AC.UK | 59