We’ve walked past this new building lots of times on our way to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester but this time we actually got to go inside what we now know is the Engineering Department at the University of Manchester!
I found this free tour on Eventbrite during my regular monthly search on the app. The University hosts a free monthly tour of their new engineering building which is the largest hub of engineering and materials science expertise of any UK university. You can simply book on via Eventbrite; the event is called “The home of Engineering and Materials – Building tour”.
We turned up at the building to find no obvious place to join the tour. We walked around for 15 minutes, asked a few clueless people and were about to give up, when Jack seemed to appear from nowhere to start the tour. We’re very glad we found him as we absolutely loved this tour. The bonus too was that, out of the 12 people booked on, only we showed up so it became a private tour!
Jack had certain places he wanted to take us but he asked us what we were interested in and tailored the tour accordingly. Peggy wanted to see some 3D printers and Aggie wanted to see some labs.
We were absolutely blown away by the facilities. Universities have changed rather a lot since the late 90s when we went! There is a lab open to any student at the university to come and work on any project they like whatever their degree. There are staff on hand to help you with whatever you’re working on and loads of technical equipment you can use too. Peggy got seriously excited about this!
The biggest change for us oldies were the lecture theatres. We did go in one traditional tiered lecture theatre but we were shown in a few where students sit in groups around tables and anything they’re working on together can be shown up on giant screens; it’s all about interactive and collaborative sessions. This is a far cry from the lectures we attended back in the day when you could fall asleep and no-one would notice; there’s no hiding nowadays!
We were shown round the aeronautical section where we got to see the two flight simulators they have, albeit not in action. These are quite the envy of the Royal Air Force apparently.
Peggy got seriously excited when we got to the material engineering part. There was a whole lab full of sewing machines, patterns, mannequins and yarns. Now that is Peggy’s kind of science!
The girls left the tour totally inspired. Peggy has talked a lot recently about being an engineer so this has opened her eyes to what’s out there and all the different types of engineering. Although Aggie isn’t interested in this area, it’s given her the opportunity to see what studying at university could look like. We often talk about going to university but that’s quite hard for then to imagine; this has given them a glimpse of what might be ahead.
Jack told us that this year’s intake is the first year where female engineers outnumber the males by 52% to 48%. That is amazing to hear. Perhaps Peggy will one day be joining them…..
We highly recommend this tour for any future engineers or for anyone really who wants to see what tertiary education looks like in the 21st century!
