December 2019

In December, 12 Ryde Academy students participated in a Robotics project hosted by Johnson Electric, a global electronics engineering company. They specialise in a number of different applications, of particular interest is their work with major automotive companies on different circuits.

Dominic Ward, Operations and Project Engineering Director for Johnson Electric brought along 2 engineers with him to work with Mr John Nicholson (STEM Lead and teacher of Computer Science) and Mr Jon Dallimore (Design Technology Teacher). One of the engineers was a former student at the Academy.

Students were given hands on experience building their own Raspberry Pi controlled robot, linked to a system of motors and cameras. The robots were sophisticated enough to be linked via WiFi to a mobile phone and controlled using the touch screen.

At the end students competed to see which of them could navigate their team’s robot most effectively around a designated course.

Students learnt valuable engineering skills such as how to wire up motors and batteries in the correct order along with understanding the different materials used.

It was a great opportunity for them to work with industry experts and gain an insight to possible engineering careers on and off the Island.

Main image: (l to r) Emma Vodden, Louis Paxton (age 11), Lewis Parkinson (age 13), James Nettleton (age 13)