The Sentinus Team R&D programme is a scheme for Y13 pupils to gain an insight into Engineering as a career.
A team of four AS Physics pupils are paired with a local company or organisation and are assigned a real-life engineering problem to solve. Over a period of six months, the team develop a possible solution and produce a prototype. The group produces a report of its findings and gives a presentation to a panel of leading engineers.
During the process, pupils have the opportunity to visit the local company and work in the Engineering Deaprtments at either Queen’s University, Belfast or Ulster University, Jordanstown.
Upon successful completion of the project, participants are presented with a CREST gold award.
In recent years projects have included:
- Developing a system to record levels of UV radiation from the Sun on oyster farms on behalf of UUC’s Environmental Sciences Research Group,
- Remote measuring of temperature profiles in freshwater lake0s, again with UUC,
- Identifying the cause of and eliminating damaging vibrations in Ballylumford Power Station,
- Using microwaves to analyse the sealing plastic butter tubs at Dale Farm’s Dromona plant,
- Assessing the effectiveness of fuel additives for the production of asphalt and bitmac at Northstone’s Macosquin quarry