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Engineering students in the driving seat
Eddie Irvine pictured in the Queen’s Formula Racing car with Mechanical and Aerospace students from Queen’s
The importance of engineering skills in driving economic recovery was highlighted at the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce Annual lunch at the City Hall.
The lunch was attended by over 400 business people from across Northern Ireland as well as Mechanical and Aerospace students from Queen’s.
Guests at the lunch heard from sportsman and entrepreneur Eddie Irvine and the Minister for Employment and Learning, Dr Stephen Farry, who spoke about the importance of engineering skills and praised the relationship Queen’s has with the Formula One teams in terms of placements.
The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering currently has five students working within Formula One engineering, for either Red Bull Technology, based in Milton Keynes or Mercedes Benz High Performance Powertrains, based in Northamptonshire. Both engineering facilities design, develop and manufacture either Formula One powertrains or chassis and components.
This is the second year Mercedes has recruited from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Red Bull are keen to ensure that Queen’s students apply to their undergraduate and graduate programmes.
Students undertaking placements are involved in the design of pit gear, the design and testing of exhausts and radiators and damage reduction design for manufacture. They also have the additional benefits of working at these two high profile companies, including travelling with the teams to race locations and being offered graduate employment on completion of their studies at Queen’s.
There are already a number of Queen’s graduates working at the highest level in Formula One.
