Students in the 1st and 2nd years of Bachillerato from different schools in Pamplona have taken part in a practical workshop on engineering, organised by the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra. TecnunThe aim of this day is for the students to learn about the processes involved in developing a creative product and understand how to make it. "The aim of this workshop is for students to learn about the development processes of a creative product and to understand what an engineer does in each of the production phases", explains Mikel Arcelus, director of the Promotion Service at Tecnun. Based on concepts such as the balance between what is requested, its innovation and current needs, the students have carried out an automotive project driven by renewable energies.   

Throughout the day, and divided into teams, the students took on different tasks. Those pretending to be Industrial Design and Product Development engineers began by drawing the car and designing the parts that the client, in this case Professor Mikel Arcelus, had asked for. The students who assumed the profile of an Electrical, Electronic or Telecommunications engineer developed the functioning of the car, thinking about aspects such as aerodynamics, the electrical or electronic system. And the Industrial Organisation engineers have designed the production process by means of a diagram, in order to estimate and optimise time. They also analysed the incidents in the manufacturing process.

The group that simulated the work of a mechanical engineer was in charge of assembly, and the first to finish the car acted as consultants, advising their colleagues, just as an engineer dedicated to consultancy would do. 

Finally, with the aim of explaining the profile of a Biomedical Engineer, Arcelus asked them to make the diagnosis and the intervention that would have to be carried out in the event of the driver of the vehicle having an accident. "The Biomedical Engineer is the one who designs and plans what medical equipment is needed and how the intervention should be carried out," explains Arcelus, who holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and teaches at Tecnun. "The game gives them a practical understanding of all the different branches of engineering," he concludes.

The conference, which took place at the Faculty of Communication of the Pamplona campus of the University of Navarra, is organised every year in different cities such as Madrid, Burgos, Vitoria, Seville and Malaga.