Following the successful Thales Eureka Challenge Pilot, a second group of full-time Level 3 Engineering students from Bridgwater College are embarking on a challenge sponsored by The Somerset Larder, Somerset Chamber, Red Berry Recruitment and Thales UK.

The team of 10 have been undertaking a series of team working and training sessions designed to equip them with the skills, behaviours and mind-sets required to take problems using design thinking.

Thales flew the students to their flagship design facility in Glasgow to take part in a one day design thinking crash course, a fast paced exercise that exploded the students to a full cycle of the design thinking process. The students were also taken on a guided tour of the Thales Optronics manufacturing plant, gaining exposure to industrial scale manufacturing operations including clean rooms, electronic and optronic development facilities.

The crash course was a major step in demonstrating the design thinking mindset, engaging with real people, prototyping, iteration, radical collaboration and bias towards action. Project Leader, Matt Mullan said,

“It’s great to see the second group of Thales Eureka Students building on the hard work of the pilot group and engaging so enthusiastically. Design thinking projects are highly collaborative and multi-disciplinary, offering the students an experience that supplements their academic studies, whilst also developing a range of soft skills that are critical to their future careers.”

Thales Protection Systems Head of Engineering, Nick Clapp commented,

“The Thales Eureka Challenge projects are highly collaborative. The students are rapidly progressing to the stage where we can challenge them to apply their newly learned skills to a real local problem that will require them to collaborate with a number of local businesses. Projects such as these will be crucial to positioning the students for future engineering careers and more broadly, addressing the looming UK soft skills gap.”

Thales Eureka Student, Tom Harkness is capturing his experiences in a blog series. You can find his thoughts on the Glasgow trip and crash course by in this blog post.

If you would like more information about this project, please contact Matt Mullan of Thales UK Limited by emailing matthew.mullan@uk.thalesgroup.com.