The Morson Group STEM Foundation is once again supporting the University of Salford’s summer school programme, called “IGNITION.” The STEM Summer School workshop is organised by the Morson Maker Space in collaboration with the University of Salford’s Outreach team, the Salford Racing student society and Morson Projects.

The summer school brought together Year 12 students from across Greater Manchester to explore digital fabrication, engineering skills, and electronic design, as well as careers in the STEM fields.  

The STEM summer school allows students to work in teams to design, construct, and race remote-controlled cars in a scaled-down version of the IMechE Formula Student competition. During the two-night residential programme, the students became part of a race team and construct their own remote-controlled cars using digital fabrication equipment, 3D printers, laser cutters, electronic tools and other technology for the design and manufacturing of their cars available in the Morson Maker Space.

The key objective for IGNITION is to ensure attendees get an authentic experience of being Salford students by learning a range of new skills, including:

• Team building and confidence
• Principles of automotive electrical systems
• Analytical thinking skills to understand the different functions of making a remote-controlled car work.  
• Basic principles of electronics and apply those to a functioning vehicle.
• How to iterate, test and improve the car design through test racing the built car.
• How to digitally manufacture parts using the Maker Space technical equipment.
• Understanding of campus life experience, seeing what it’s like to be a student.
• Experience other student society activities outside of and aligned with academic study.

The students competed in various race events to determine the overall results, with the total points from each competition added up to decide the winner.

In addition to the hands-on activities, Morson Projects STEM Ambassadors, Chris Summers and Jon Callahan hosted an inspiring industry session about how they got into engineering and the impact of STEM on their careers. During this talk, students learnt how to translate what they learn during the workshop into future career opportunities.

The IGNITION STEM Summer School is a fun, engaging, and successful skills programme that aims to ignite a passion and interest in engineering and STEM subjects for young people and provides opportunities for students to hear from role models working in those industries.

This programme is an annual event, part of the Morson Group STEM Foundation, supporting local young talent to join the STEM revolution.

“The summer school was fantastic, well thought out and organised, we cannot thank you enough for the experience you put on for the students. The remote-controlled race cars kept the students engaged throughout and taught them different skills such as electronics, design, and teamwork. The final races were extremely exciting and the perfect way to end their three days at The University of Salford.”

Feedback from a parent from IGNITION STEM Summer School, 2023

“We were excited to run Ignition for a second year as part of Morson Group STEM Foundation. It’s a great initiative for young people to be inspired to consider pursuing engineering at higher education and by seeing how real-world engineering skills are applied in everyday life.”

Dr Maria Stukoff, Maker Space Director

The IGNITION STEM Summer School is just part of the annual programme of events, networking, workshops and mentoring activities from The Morson STEM Foundation to support people from all backgrounds to explore, and pursue, pathways into engineering-related careers.

To find out more about The Morson STEM Foundation, its initiatives, purpose and objectives, click here.