The Manufacturing Technologies Association’s (MTA) flagship competition for schools, the Technology, Design and Innovation (TDI) Challenge returns to Yamakazi Mazak’s European headquarters in Worcester, on 4th July for the finals day.
The TDI Challenge is one of the MTA’s longest running outreach projects. This annual event has been going for fifteen years and exists to help teachers and lecturers to promote the great work of their Design & Technology and Engineering students and to celebrate the creativity and innovation taking place inside the curriculum. The competition also helps industry to better understand the challenges of the education world and how we might be able to assist through collaboration.
The competition is aimed at GCSE and A Level students; they submit their coursework projects and a panel of industry judges made up of MTA members decides on the winning projects. The TDI Challenge is designed to encourage the student not only think about product design and manufacturing, they also have to consider the marketing aspect of their project and what gap it fills.
After much deliberation over another year’s worth of outstanding entries the finalists for 2018 have been announced. (A full list of finalists to be found at the foot of the press release).
Stewart Lane, General Manager UK Sales and Group Business Development, Renishaw and Chair of the judging panel for the TDI Competition, said “This year’s entries are again of a very high standard and indicative of the capabilities of this country’s future engineering talent. Picking finalists for this event is always a tough decision and choosing between them becomes even more difficult when we see them all displayed on finals day.”
Laura Pickering, MTA Education and Development Manager said, “At the MTA we do everything we can to shine a light on the opportunities a career in engineering can offer young people. Over 50% of the schools that entered this year’s TDI Challenge had not previously entered the competition, and we are really pleased to be engaging with a wider network of schools and colleges than ever before”
Two age categories exist within the competition 14-16 and 17-19, with six finalists in each age group. There is also a group category at 17-19 age group and three teams are competing for that prize.
In addition to prizes on offer for the students placing in the top three in each category, the winning school in each category will also win £2000 of credit to spend with Technology Supplies Limited (Design, Technology & Engineering specialists for education worldwide) on D&T equipment for the classroom. Runner-up prizes of £1000 and £500 are also available for schools in each category. Individual prizes up for grabs include an iPad, GoPro, UE Boom Speaker, a drone plus many more.
The TDI Challenge 2018 is sponsored by Close Brothers Asset Management. Steven Gee CEO – Industrial Equipment Division – Close Brothers Asset Finance, said “Close Brothers is delighted to be sponsoring the Technology, Design & Innovation Challenge 2018. We believe that it is important to invest in the next generation and we want to inspire young people to pursue a fulfilling career in engineering. Now more than ever, it is important to address the skills gap that many businesses in the manufacturing technologies industry face. We hope to help close this gap by supporting D&T and Engineering in the curriculum and raising awareness nationwide through the TDI challenge.”
