Students attend UK Electronics Skills Foundation Girls in Electronics Programme

News - Jul 22

On Thursday, three Year 12 students (Evelyn D, Rose B and Ern Qi T) had the amazing opportunity to attend the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) Girls in Electronics Programme supported by Apple and hosted by the University of Bristol. The day allowed us, along with students from other schools, to find out more about Electronics, studying Electrical Engineering at University level and to hear from female graduate engineers.  

Participants began the day by attending a lecture by Dr Faezeh Arab Hassani, Senior Lecturer from the University of Bristol’s Department of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering. She discussed the development of the laptop and pointed out the increased number of transistors and decreased size of the microcontroller with each generation, which was really interesting to hear about. Furthermore, she shared her career path into Engineering. Following this, we heard more about the UCAS Application Process and the UKESF Scholars briefly outlined the considerations that shaped their degree and career choices.  

We then went on a department tour of the Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering Department at the Queen’s Building. The tour, led by technicians, gave us the opportunity to view various machines, including the wind tunnel, an aircraft flight simulation machine, and the earthquake table which can simulate earthquakes of up to magnitude 15! It was fascinating to see the numerous machines available to students.  

Subsequently, we received an interesting talk from Cristina Teodora Ibanescu and M J Armado, who are Layout Engineers at Apple. They discussed the life cycle of a silicon chip and the extensive process of creating one, beginning from the architect through to the Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers and various other people, all overseen by the Project Manager. As Layout Engineers, their role is towards the end of the life cycle to finalise the chip, often meaning that they are under time pressure as there may have been delays earlier on in the chip development.  

Over lunch, attendees had the opportunity to network and connect with the representatives from Apple and UKESF Scholars, who are also current PhD students studying at the University of Bristol. In the afternoon, we received an introduction to microcontrollers and had a practical session on using Arduinos, where we experimented with testing the light, sound and temperature sensors as well as programming the Arduino to make the light flash and make the buzzer turn on and off.  

Overall, this was a very informative and interesting experience, and we are so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you UKESF.  

Written by Ern Qi T, Year 12