award This afternoon, the Director General Manager of ABC Compressors, Carlos Martín, has awarded a 600 euro prize to several students from Mechanical Engineering of Tecnun for the "robustness, reliability and originality" of their project, a machine dedicated to the recycling of bottles and soda cans. The prototype, designed and assembled by 4th year students as part of the subject of Pneumatics and Oleohydraulics, has received the best grade by the jury.

The members of the jury were three managers of the Eibar-based company ABC Compressors. Its General Director , Carlos Martín; the Technical Director , Demetrio San Adrián; and the Advisor, Lucio Arizaga. All three have highlighted the high level of industrialization of the machine developed by the students of ABC Compressors. Tecnun.

The goal of this initiative is to encourage the participation of the company, dedicated to manufacture compressors for the food and petrochemical sectors, in subjects related to their professional activity. "We want to gain notoriety in the School because we need to hire engineers trained by Tecnun", said the General Director , Carlos Martin. "We were also surprised by the quality of the projects presented by the students, especially considering the time pressure with which they work," he added.

"This practice is carried out in a professional context so that students learn how to meet different milestones to create a machine with pneumatic technology and make it work," explained professor Gorka Sánchez. "The members of the jury not only evaluate the final result of the works, but also make the students go a little further, asking them: 'and what happens if it fails?' And I thought it was very interesting that they had an impact on this aspect," said the professor.

The students use different programs from design in which they virtually create their project and the professors correct the different deliveries. They are divided into teams of 7 or 8 people and have just three months to develop the entire project. This year's winning team has built a recycling machine that separates soda cans from bottles and removes the caps from the bottles. "It has been the most robust project we have seen and that is why we have given it the award", concluded Carlos Martin. It should be noted that the winning students have received 600 euros in cash and a badge with the recognition of champions.