Magdalene BME Engineering Residential

Magdalene held its first BME Engineering Residential for high achieving state school students considering Engineering at higher education in August.

Ten year 12 students attended the residential, living in Magdalene and working in the Department of Engineering for three days to experience life as a Cambridge student.

The visiting students took part in a wide variety of engineering tasks centered on the design and construction of a small motorized vehicle. Students attended lectures on subjects ranging from Aerodynamics to Software and Computer Engineering and Making Lightweight Structures. The students were given training in the Dyson Centre for Engineering Design in a variety of programming and construction techniques, which they put into practice when designing, programming and building their own vehicles.

Outside of their work in the department, the students took a tour of Cambridge, visited some of the Colleges, and took a punting trip down the river. They dined at Top Table in Formal Hall, experiencing the role that formal dining takes in bringing together the College community. They also took part in a Magdalene College tradition, an engineering challenge to design and construct a boat from an assortment of vegetables powered by a small fame and a tube of coiled wire. 

Devised by Fellow and Director of Studies in Engineering, Dr Richard Roebuck (1994), and the College’s Schools Liaison Officer, Mr Sandy Mill, the residential was a huge success. All of the participants enjoying and engaged with the challenges they were set and will go forward using the experience of their time at Magdalene to help inform their university choices and any future applications to Cambridge that they may make.