First cohort graduates from UK’s ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’

Posted on 13 Dec 2017 by Jonny Williamson

The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering – a joint collaboration between Coventry University and Unipart Manufacturing – has seen its first students graduate.

Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering - L to R: Joe Howe, Nick Hugill, Daryl Obe, Wendy Garner (Coventry University), Carl Perrin (director of AME), Ian Wilson (course director), Alicia Prior, Daniel Davey and Daryl Eastgate.
L to R: Joe Howe, Nick Hugill, Daryl Obe, Wendy Garner (Coventry University), Carl Perrin (director of AME), Ian Wilson (course director), Alicia Prior, Daniel Davey and Daryl Eastgate.

Seven graduates picked up their BEng degrees, including: Alicia Prior, Daniel Davey, Daryl Eastgate, Daryl Obe, David Mordi, Joe Howe and Nick Hugill.

All seven have secured employment, with five of them directly involved in industry – one has started work at Unipart Powertrain Applications (UPA), one is working with SAPA Hydro and another is starting his career in the motorsport arena.

Other students on the first cohort are continuing on to complete their Masters.

A ceremony was held in the Cathedral grounds to mark three years since the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) was launched.

Director of AME, Carl Perrin explained: “This is a fantastic milestone for us and highlights how a new approach to developing future manufacturing talent can work.

“We set out the vision in 2014 to create the UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’, an ambitious vision that linked up industry and academia and changed the focus of learning to real life experience of shopfloor projects and giving them access to the latest technology.”

He continued: “It’s an approach that has worked as we have produced much more rounded engineers that are comfortable operating in a high-pressured working environment and understand the dynamics of being part of a team.”

The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering is located on the Unipart Manufacturing site in Coventry and is housed in a 1,700 sqm purpose-built hub.

The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering was launched in September 2014 – image courtesy of AME.
The Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering was launched in September 2014 – image courtesy of AME.

In addition to creating industry-ready graduates, AME also boasts a team of technology specialists and professors who are working together to develop new powertrain and energy transfer solutions for automotive, aerospace and renewables.

This has included more than £7m of funded projects and already led to Unipart securing a new fuel rail project for the Ford Fox engine and the start of production on a lightweight exhaust system for Aston Martin.

Alicia Prior has celebrated achieving her degree by securing a position at Unipart Powertrain Applications in Coventry. The 21-year-old has enjoyed life at AME, including a two-month placement with a major US manufacturer in Indiana.

Prior commented: “It has been a fantastic experience, especially spending so much of it working on real time manufacturing projects…it reinforced the theory and allowed me to quickly apply it to situations I will find myself in the future.”

She concluded: “I’m now part of a small team at UPA, supporting an advanced manufacturing engineer in their work. This is just the start; the longer-term aim is to become a project manager in industry.”

AME is now into its fourth cohort of students, which means that 100 young people are currently getting industry-ready.