AESSEAL furthered its commitment to develop the engineers and industry leaders of the future as Gold Sponsor of Get Up to Speed with STEM (GUTS) for the ninth consecutive year.
More than 7,000 students from across the region attended the two-day event – the largest of its type in the region – at Magna Science Adventure Centre.
Organised by The Work-wise Foundation, Get Up to Speed provides a platform for young people to connect with businesses, explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers, engage with industry professionals, and interact with some of the UK's most exciting innovations.
Held on March 18th and 19th, this year’s theme was Stronger Together: The Power of Collaboration – People, Robots & Productivity.
Wednesday’s event was attended by secondary school aged people and above, with primary school pupils aged eight and over and children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) touring the exhibition and attractions on Thursday.
The Army Band entertained throughout the event, Rotherham Titans Community Foundation gave visitors the chance to test their fitness and speed, Accu brought its robotic football game, while visitors explored the world of AI and learned through movement with Onboard Skate Park.
AESSEAL head of UK learning and development Darren Jones said:
We have around 26 different apprenticeships available at any one time. This is about giving young people the opportunity to look at these roles and see if they are a good fit. Employment should be for everybody and we want to tap into the local talent pool and give everybody the chance to have a successful career.
"I would encourage businesses to come to this event because you are going to be able to access local talent. We have a lot of people asking about roles and it is all about putting yourself out there and giving yourself the exposure."
During Thursday’s Business Breakfast event, opened by Master Cutler Professor Keith Jackson and hosted by Alex Gardner, attendees heard from The Work-wise Foundation CEO Peter Edwards, and Professor David King gave a talk entitled Robots That Save Lives.
AESSEAL IT machine learning developer Elliot Fisher told attendees how AI can save time and increase production through working with humans.
At AESSEAL when we talk about AI we talk about it as if it is just another member of the team. We want to give it a clear role with clear borders and transparency with human oversight. It will only do the job we have told it to do and know when to hand control back. AI will do the heavy lifting, and I think that’s what ‘stronger together’ means. It isn’t going to be humans or AI. It is going to be humans and AI.
AESSEAL CAM mechatronics engineer Lewis Hardy said there was a huge skills crisis in engineering, but AESSEAL had invested £4.3m in robotic cells, and added: “As people we are very good at making decisions and carrying out manual tasks, and a robot is only as good at making decisions as the engineer who programmed it. We are at the very early stages of adapting automation into manufacturing.”
