Useful Information - Extra-curricular Engineering

Engineering Outreach

The Outreach programme at the Department aims to introduce school children to the fun and excitement of engineering within a university research environment. Teams of student volunteers are given the chance to make engineering more accessible through activities such as public lectures, workshops and summer schools. In 2011, nearly 5000 young people and parents participated in one of our Outreach events.

Typically, volunteers help small groups of young people in a 'design, build and test' activity. In 2011, over 140 undergraduates registered to become Outreach volunteers. Students get involved:

  • to share their enthusiasm for engineering and science
  • to act as a role model for the next generation of engineers and scientists
  • to help to dispel the popular image of scientists and engineers
  • to give something back to the local community
  • and because participation is rewarding, worthwhile and fun!

All outreach volunteers become Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Ambassadors. This is part of a national programme to enhance young people's scientific and technical capabilities and raise awareness of the importance of these skills to society. Participation in this programme counts towards the Engineering Institutions' Continuing Professional Development schemes.

Further details of the Outreach programme and a current calendar of events can be found on our Outreach website.

Engineers Without Borders

An EWB student team installing solar light system in Nepal.Engineers Without Borders UK (EWB) is a dynamic student charity, which began in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge. The organisation now has branches in universities across the UK, with Cambridge remaining one of the most active.

One of EWB's main aims is to interest students in development issues and projects during their time at university. Its training courses are a great opportunity to get your hands dirty, meet other like-minded students, and learn about appropriate technologies.

In collaboration with local non-governmental organisations, EWB-UK organises summer placement opportunities overseas each year. These involve challenging and stimulating engineering work, with a clearly visible humanitarian impact. Current Cambridge-based branch projects include the CamCam partnership, working with Cameroonian charity OK-Clean Water, and the Eco-House Initiative, working with Latin American charity Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof for My Country).

To find out more, visit the Cambridge branch website, visit the EWB national website or contact the Cambridge branch at cambridge@ewb-uk.org.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team

The University of Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (CAUV) team is a student-run society. The team designs and develops autonomous vehicles to compete in the annual Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge. This is a Europe-wide competition aimed at university-level students in which the teams must design and build their own AUVs to complete an underwater assault course. While this is CAUV's immediate focus, their ultimate goal is to deploy an AUV to inspect the underside of Arctic pancake ice flows in 2014.

The project incorporates many areas of expertise and research from computer vision to hydrodynamics and is a great way to learn more about cutting edge technologies by putting engineering theory learned in lectures into practice.

For more information, see the CAUV website. To follow CUAV on Twitter: @CambridgeAUV

Cambridge University Eco Racing

In 2008, Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) designed and built the UK's first road-legal solar car. Ever since, the 80-strong CUER team has been striving to win the World Solar Challenge (WSC), a 3000km marathon across Australia. Their latest car, which entered the biennial WSC in 2011, is capable of travelling at 60mph on the power of a hairdryer. In 2013, CUER will enter the race with a radically different design, which industry partners and academics believe could break the current land speed records for a solar vehicle.

Designing and building the car has proved an exhilarating experience for all involved, with many ups and downs, late nights and breakthrough moments, culminating in a month-long trip to Australia. In addition to the core racing activities, CUER also runs outreach events, ranging from a national competition to day trips to visit local schools.

For more information, please visit the CUER website. To follow CUER on Twitter: @cuerSolarTeam

Full Blue Racing

Founded in 2006, Full Blue Racing (FBR) is a team of Cambridge students working to produce an entry for the Formula Student competition, which challenges universities to design and build a single-seated autocross-style car. This is put through its paces in sprint, acceleration, skid pan and endurance events. Competitors' business skills are also tested, with 'Dragon's Den' style business pitches and cost reports.

Formula Student cars are quick (doing 0-60mph in 4 seconds), agile and, most of all, fun to drive. FBR achieves all this on a budget of just £8000, proving that hard work and ingenuity can far outweigh large budgets.

For more information, please visit the FBR website. To follow FBR on Twitter: @fullblueracing

Cambridge University Spaceflight

CU Spaceflight (CUSF) is a student-run society developing space and near-space projects. We've launched high altitude balloons to over 40km, collaborated with the European Space Agency to test parachutes, and are designing a balloon-launched rocket to reach outer space (100km).

Current projects include lots of embedded electronics development for rocket and balloon flight computers, testing high-powered model rockets, refining our own rocket design and a variety of related side projects. We've also worked with local schools to encourage interest in space, and are developing an Android app that will run on a satellite in Earth orbit as part of our outreach activities.

For more information, please visit the CUSF website. To follow CUSF on Twitter: @cuspaceflight

Engineering World Health Cambridge

Engineering World Health (EWH) Cambridge is a rapidly expanding and evolving student-run design group. Their primary aim is to use their engineering skills to help NGOs, charities and other organisations meet healthcare needs in developing countries. To achieve this, they work with organisations who are able to effectively assess a healthcare need and highlight a problem, or set of problems, for EWH Cambridge to try to solve. On the projects the students collaborate with experts in many other fields, for example: lactation consultants, orthopaedic surgeons, social anthropologists and other engineers.

EWH Cambridge is currently working on several projects, including a collaboration with the JustMilk team on a drug delivery device for infants in sub-Saharan Africa, and a novel device for treating fractures of the femur in parts of the world where surgery is not possible.

For more information, please visit the EWH Cambridge website.

Cambridge University Autonomous Flight

Cambridge University Autonomous Flight (CUAF) is a student-run society, aiming to design and build a micro autonomous air vehicle, initially to compete in international competitions but with the long-term goal of creating a cheap UAV to survey structures and ecosystems.

It is a great way of practically putting the Cambridge course into action, to have fun and sharpen your skills in the fields of embedded systems, control theory, aerodynamics, machine vision, project management, teamwork and lots more along the way.

For more information, please visit the CUAF website.

Cambridge University Engineering Society

Cambridge University Engineering Society (CUES) was founded in 1901 and is today the largest student academic society in Cambridge with over 1200 members. The society has two main aims. The first is to organise informative engineering-related presentations and visits. The second is to provide a variety of enjoyable social events, including a black tie annual dinner and a May Week garden party. Other CUES events include the largest student-run annual Careers & Placements fair and a jointly run CUES/Staff-Student Joint Committee project Expo. CUES also produce a free termly magazine to which members are encouraged to contribute, and provide grants for members to do engineering-related activities.

For more information, please visit the CUES website.