UKESF partners with the Royal Institution to deliver masterclasses for young STEM enthusiasts
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) has partnered up with the Royal Institution to deliver a series of Computer Science masterclasses to year 8 pupils.
With the support of UKESF Scholars, pupils had the opportunity to get hands on with an interactive electronics session and participate in a drone competition. The masterclasses were held at a college in Hampshire.
“We are delighted that the students had such a positive experience at the masterclasses. Not only was there a fantastic atmosphere on the day, but pupils reported that they were inspired to learn more about the variety of careers that computer science can lead to, and that they were more likely to consider a career in STEM following the event.” Isabel Culmer, UKESF Education Outreach Advisor
The Insight into Electronics session was supported by UKESF Scholars Alexander Mills and Tao Zeng from the University of Southampton. Pupils were introduced to microcontrollers and sensors using an Arduino kit, and had the opportunity to ask their questions to the Scholars about their journey so far and experiences.
The drone competition was run by UKESF Scholars Shawn Poile and Efstratios Stamatopoulos, also from the University of Southampton, in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors. The pupils programmed drones to fly on an obstacle course, and learned that programming for hardware can come with challenges and unexpected outcomes.
Feedback following the session found that:
If you would like to find out more about Insight into Electronics, click here. For more information about RI Masterclasses, click here.
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), in collaboration with Apple, has launched its exciting Girls into Electronics programme for 2024. Girls into Electronics enables girls to gain insight into Electronics in an effort to address the skills shortage, reduce the gender imbalance and encourage more talented women to enter and remain in the industry. This year, participants will be offered the opportunity to join Apple’s Mentorship Programme and connect with Apple engineers who can provide advice as they further their studies in Electronics.
The award-winning initiative, now in its third year, continues to reach more and more girls and young women. In 2023, more than double the number of female students participated compared to the previous year. Building on last year’s success, the programme will provide opportunities for hundreds of girls between the ages of 15 and 18 to be inspired by electronics. The Girls into Electronics programme will run across twelve partner universities this summer; Aston University, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh), King’s College London, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, Queen’s University (Belfast), Royal Holloway University of London, University of Southampton and University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). The Apple Mentorship Programme will run for 3 to 6 months starting this autumn.
The success of the Electronics sector is crucial to the UK economy. The global semiconductor industry is the fourth largest industry in the world. The global semiconductor market has been forecast to reach $1 trillion, with the UK share being around 8%. In 2023, the UK Government pledged to invest up to £200 million into the UK semiconductor sector over 2023-25, with a total investment of up to £1 billion over the next decade.
Making advances in Electronics and semiconductors is critical to providing technological solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges, including climate change, improving healthcare and better connectivity and communications. Initiatives like Girls into Electronics are essential in encouraging more students from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in the sector.
We are now seeing the positive impact of Girls into Electronics programme as more female students are starting Electronics degrees. The support from Apple has been invaluable and has enabled us to grow this vital programme and I’m delighted to continue our partnerships with the UK’s leading universities in 2024. Girls into Electronics is shining example of what can be achieved when we work together on skills challenges.
Stewart Edmondson, CEO at UKESF
This programme is vital in challenging the gender imbalance in the Electronics industry, which is why we at Apple are thrilled to be part of the initiative again this year. With our sponsorship of last year’s programme, UKESF saw record participation, and we hope to go beyond those numbers in 2024. Excitingly, this year’s participants will be offered the opportunity to join Apple’s mentorship programme, giving them access to engineers who can provide advice as they further their studies in Electronics.
Mari-Anne Chiromo, Apple Inclusion and Diversity Partnerships Lead EMEIA
The events will take place in June and July 2024. Schools, students and parents can find out more, and register their interest, here
A strong Electronics and ‘deep tech’ industry is essential to the health of the UK economy but we know that the UK has a skills shortage in this critical sector. That’s why it’s great to see the work that the UKESF is doing encouraging more young people to pursue careers as Electronics Engineers. In particular, their Girls into Electronics initiative has the potential to make a real difference and it is something that we strongly support.
Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
Supporting our scholars to develop their professional network is central to the Scholarship Scheme. For the 7th consecutive year, the UKESF arranged for final year female scholars to attend the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Student Conference, their places were kindly sponsored by STMicroelectronics.
The conference, which took place in Leeds on 1 December 2023, comprised sessions on networking, resilience and presenting, alongside the opportunity to hear from women in the industry.
Some of our scholars share their thoughts and experiences following the event.
I had the pleasure of attending the Women’s Engineering Society Student Conference in Leeds. I left the event feeling super inspired, so I want to share some of the workshops and talks that made it such a memorable experience for me.
Overall, this was a great opportunity to connect with other talented women engineers and hear their stories. I learned that I’m not alone in many of the experiences that have characterised my journey up until now. Much of the advice extended beyond career and was applicable to many areas of personal growth and development. I learned how I can continue to hone my skills and pave a path into engineering and tech.
Events like the WES conference help women feel part of a wider community. They show us that we are not alone in our experiences and are a really good opportunity to learn how we can better navigate our professional lives. These sorts of events are crucial in retaining female talent in the industry.
Qali Mahamoud – Aston University/CSA Catapult
I think that most of the speakers at the WES Conference were and are genuinely supportive of young women finding their place within tech and engineering. I think that events for young women and minority genders are incredibly important across all industries but I also think there should be a greater focus on working together as a community. For instances, at the conference there were many questions about how to react to men when they talk over women, which is a very important topic especially with how it links with general confidence issues and imposter syndrome as a woman. However, the answers never commented on what is being done to stop men actually doing it in the first place. I think that these conferences should definitely cover these issues more and move away from creating a “us and them” environment between men and women in STEM.
Leane Ickes – Leeds University/Raspberry Pi
I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the WES conference. I was so inspired by the atmosphere that was held that day. The environment of working with other women during the bridge exercise is something I hope to see and feel in my future endeavours. From Vince Pizzoni’s amazing advice on cv creation, my peers’ brave one minute presentations, and Elizabeth Donelly’s incredible advice on how to be more confident in the workplace as a women, I learned a lot. I am incredibly grateful.
Sofiya Rahman – Aston University/CSA Catapult
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme is a fantastic initiative that I recommend to anyone studying Electronics
The UKESF Scholar of the Year 2023 has been announced at the annual TechWorks Awards and Gala Dinner in London. Matt Cossins is the talented UKESF Scholar who walked away with the top prize. There were so many exceptional entries this year, the judges found it too difficult to choose just one runner up so two brilliant UKESF scholars were recognised, Vasiliki Xiradaki and Calum Thow.
All three of the fantastic finalists received rave reviews from their sponsor companies for outstanding contributions during their work placements and they have also done brilliantly well on their degree courses.
TechWorks Scholar of the Year winner 2023 – Matt Cossins
Matt is currently studying for his Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Nottingham. In September, Matt completed his year long placement at his UKESF sponsor company Capgemini Engineering.
“I’m delighted to be the UKESF’s Scholar of the Year. It’s a perfect recognition of the hard work across my degree, my placement, my work for the Electronic Engineering Society at
the University of Nottingham, and my STEM outreach to my local school – Longsands Academy. It is especially rewarding to receive in my final year. I joined the UKESF Scholarship scheme back in 2019 when I started first year, so it has been a key part of my whole university experience. Simply having the scheme on my resume has opened doors and greatly expanded my network with like-minded, hard-working people within the Electronics industry.
“Completing a one year placement with Capgemini Engineering was an invaluable experience and a nice change of pace from university life. I got the chance to live in Bath, a lovely part of the country, whilst also working on interesting and varied projects. The culture at the office was very welcoming, and it was great to work alongside such friendly and talented people. On a technical level, I learnt skills and technologies that I had not previously touched, and on the soft skills side I had the opportunity to interview applicants to graduate roles at the company, and make full use of Capgemini’s library of online courses – such as courses in Project Management, and in AWS.
“The UKESF Scholarship Scheme is a fantastic initiative that I recommend to anyone studying Electronics. There are no downsides and there are numerous benefits – not least the UKESF Residential Workshop: an event that has been extremely helpful with working out my job interests post-graduation, and finding out more about Electronics Start-ups. Organisations like the UKESF make it very easy to promote electronics to young people, as many other similar STEM degrees simply do not have similar opportunities.”
TechWorks Scholar of the Year runner up – Vasiliki Xiradaki
Vasiliki, who is sponsored by EnSilica, is at the University of Birmingham studying for an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree.
“I’m incredibly thankful for the doors that UKESF has opened for me. It’s an honour to be the TechWorks UKESF Scholar of the Year runner-up, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support from my sponsoring company EnSilica, and more specifically my mentor, James Hawkes, my manager, David Tester, and all my amazing colleagues who actively supported me throughout this journey. I am looking forward to joining them as a full time engineer next year!
“The UKESF Scholarship Scheme has not only enhanced my technical proficiency but has genuinely changed my career trajectory. I am now more confident, more experienced, and more prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I wholeheartedly recommend the UKESF programme to aspiring students who are eager to dive into the world of electronics.”
TechWorks Scholar of the Year runner up – Calum Thow
Calum is completing his Masters in Robotics, Autonomous and Interactive Systems at Heriot-Watt University and his sponsor company is Allegro MicroSystems.
“The UKESF scholarship scheme is fantastic. I only discovered the UKESF last year whilst looking for a final year placement, so this last year has been a bit of a whirlwind for me. I am honestly floored to have been selected as one of the finalists for the scholar of the year award, it feels fantastic to be recognised for my hard work over the last few years. I want to extend a huge congratulations to Matt for coming first place and Vasiliki for being my fellow runner-up.
“I think the work the UKESF is doing is honestly one-of-a-kind. I can see from my fellow scholars that the scholarship scheme works, it’s evident that they excel in their fields. Beyond individual accomplishments, what truly stands out to me is the broader mission of the UKESF. I’ve noticed that, once at university level, opportunities abound for those willing to seek them out. However, at the school level, it can be challenging to gain exposure to or understand the importance of electronics engineering. UKESF is one of the few organizations actively addressing this issue, working to bridge the gap and make electronics engineering accessible and understandable at an earlier stage in education. ”
Watch highlights from the awards ceremony on 7 December 2023 here
The BrightSparks Awards celebrate some of the most talented young electronic engineers in the UK. The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) are delighted to announce eight of their scholars were BrightSparks Award 2023 winners at the Electronics Weekly Elektra Awards.
All the UKESF scholars are brilliant but it was Jasmine, James, Richard, Nyal, Vasiliki, Matthew, Raymond and Mary who walked away with a prize.
Read more about the BrightSparks Award winners here
And the winner is…the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF)!
The UKESF Girls into Electronics 2022 programme won the Educational Support Award at the Electronics Weekly Elektra Awards 2023.
Congratulations to the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) for their unwavering dedication to promoting and encouraging young girls to pursue careers in electronics. Your hard work and persistence in raising awareness is truly commendable!
Find out more about this year’s Elektra Awards here.
The UKESF would like to thank Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult for sponsoring the Girls into Electronics programme in 2022.
The Girls into Electronics events, hosted by leading UK universities, inspired girls aged 15-18 and encouraged them to pursue a career in Electronics.
Coventry University becomes the 28th leading UK university to work with the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF). Students* from the university will now have the opportunity to participate in the award-winning UKESF Scholarship Scheme.
Each year, prestigious electronics and technology employers offer UKESF Scholarships to undergraduates from the partner universities. Students awarded a scholarship are supported throughout their degree with opportunities for work placements to develop the skills they need to thrive in electronics, professional development, networking and outreach.
This new collaboration is great news for companies involved in the scholarship scheme as there will be even more talented and high-achieving students to connect with.
We know from our industry contacts that Coventry University produces exceptional engineering graduates. Their activity-led learning approach is excellent and provides their students with the opportunity to work on real-life problems and projects. They have first-rate facilities and a strong focus on outreach and schools engagement. Therefore, I’m delighted they are now a UKESF collaborator and we look forward to working together.
Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme, which has been recognised with a Princess Royal Training Award, is an exemplar of effective engagement between industry and universities.
Coventry University is thrilled to embark on this transformative collaboration with the UK Electronic Skills Foundation (UKESF). It represents a significant milestone in the university’s commitment to equipping our students with the technical, professional and personal skills and experiences necessary for success in the dynamic fields aligned with electrical and electronic engineering.
Our students will gain access to a wealth of opportunities, including bursaries, mentorship, and invaluable industry exposure. This collaboration will empower our engineering graduates to transition seamlessly into their graduate roles, armed with a diverse skill set.
Patricia Ashman, Associate Head of Future Transport Engineering at Coventry University
Find out more about the UKESF Scholarship Scheme here
* Students will need to be studying an undergraduate degree which contains a substantial amount of Electronics
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), in collaboration with tech giant Apple, has just wrapped up a very successful Girls into Electronics 2023. This year’s programme saw more than double the number of female students participating, 465 compared to 230 in 2022.
Encouraging the next generation of female engineers as 85% of participants are inspired by electronics
The Girls into Electronics events, hosted by leading UK universities*, inspired the students attending and encouraged them to consider a career in Electronics. Girls from over 100 schools, right across the UK, attended. The initiative is part of the UKESF’s wider work to address the skills shortage in the Electronics sector, whilst also tackling the gender imbalance. In 2022, in recognition of our work, the UKESF was given a Princess Royal Training Award special commendation for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
We’re thrilled at the success of this year’s Girls into Electronics programme. To more than double the number of female students participating is an amazing achievement. The UKESF is also striving to improve diversity and inclusion in the Electronics sector so we’re also pleased to announce nearly half of the students participating were from ethnic minority backgrounds. We’d like to thank all the universities involved for hosting such brilliant events. And a special thank you to Apple for supporting the programme this year. Stewart Edmondson, Chief Executive Officer at UKESF
Girls into Electronics gives KS4 pupils and sixth formers the unique opportunity to develop their interest in Electronics. At the heart of the programme is a one-day event at a leading UK university. 97% thought the event at their host university was good or excellent During the day participants find out all about Electronics, studying the subject at university and enjoyed an opportunity to get hands on with electronics kits. The students hear from female graduates working in the Electronics sector and, this year, engineers from Apple also shared their experience working on hardware technology.
Education can be a powerful force for equity, and help provide young women with the tools and opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in engineering. We’re thrilled to have worked with the UKESF on this important initiative, encouraging more women from all backgrounds to study electronic engineering and increase diverse representation in the field. Mari-Anne Chiromo, Apple Inclusion and Diversity Partnerships Lead, EMEIA.
It was a fantastic event at Aston University and the girls loved it. Organisers were brilliant and all communications were effective. One of the girls is now considering switching from a dentistry pathway to an electronics course. So the whole team behind Girls into Electronics made a great impression – well done! Alistair Clarke, Teacher from Hamstead Hall Academy
Find out more about the UKESF’s Girls into Electronics programme here
*Participating universities: Aston University Birmingham – University of Bath – University of Bristol – Heriot Watt University – Imperial College London – King’s College London – Lancaster University – University of Leeds – University of Liverpool – Newcastle University – Nottingham University – Queen’s University Belfast – University of Sheffield – University of Southampton – University of Strathclyde Glasgow Royal – Holloway University of London
The prestigious UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) Scholarship Scheme is growing fast and is celebrating its most successful year, since it was established in 2010. This year, there were 266 applications from undergraduates studying at one of the UKESF’s 27 partner universities.
The scholarship scheme, which has been recognised with a Princess Royal Training Award, is an exemplar of effective engagement between industry and universities. To date, over 750 students have participated and over 70% of companies involved have recruited UKESF Scholars, into permanent roles, at the end of their university studies.
“I am extremely grateful for both the opportunities I have been given and the experience attained all thanks to the support and generosity of both the UKESF and my sponsoring company.”
UKESF Scholar 2020-23 – Andrew (Lancaster University)
Highlights from 2022/23
More companies than ever joined the UKESF Scholarship Scheme this year and the employer survey satisfaction results are at their highest levels since the scheme began.
“The UKESF raises the profile of Electronic Engineering and provides the best students from the best universities to companies looking for interns. Students benefit from having a great experience in the workplace, so it’s a win-win for everyone.” Renesas
Tackling the gender imbalance
The UKESF strives to address the gender imbalance in the electronics sector and the scholarship scheme is making a real difference. This year, 28% of UKESF scholarships were awarded to female students. This is a record number and is an excellent outcome when only 13.5% of EEE undergraduates are female.
Building on this success, we know that over 90% of female UKESF scholars, who have graduated now work in the Electronics and Technology sector. There have been some fantastic young female Electronics Engineers succeed through the scholarship scheme, such as the UKESF Scholar of the Year 2022 Nishika.
“I hope that through my award I can inspire and motivate more young girls to study Electronics and showcase to them that we can do equally well as our male counterparts.”
Princess Royal Training Award
In 2022, the UKESF Scholarship Scheme received a Princess Royal Training Award. The award was given as testament to the valuable work experience that the UKESF network of employers provides, and the in-depth wrap-around support that helps undergraduates to thrive when they enter the workplace. The UKESF was also given a special commendation for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Scholarship Scheme 2023/24
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme is now open for employers to join for the 2023/24 academic year. If your organisation is interested in de-risking your graduate recruitment and connecting with amazing students, then find out more here or email [email protected].
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), in collaboration with Apple, has announced its exciting ‘Girls into Electronics’ programme for 2023. This initiative will provide opportunities for hundreds of girls between ages 15-18 to be inspired by Electronics and will be delivered in collaboration with 15 of the UK’s leading universities.
The Electronics sector is extremely important to the UK economy. The global semiconductor industry is the fourth largest industry in the world, and the global compound semiconductor market has been forecast to reach $136 billion by 2024, of which the UK have an 8% share. However, the demand for employable graduates is currently outstripping supply. UCAS figures show that only 3,245 students enrolled on degrees in Electronic and Electrical Engineering in the UK 2021, of which as few as 335 were women.
The UKESF and Apple have launched the initiative to support 400 girls to gain insight into Electronics, in an effort to address the skills shortage and to help improve gender imbalance in the sector.
Making advances in Electronics and semiconductors is critical to providing technological solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing society, including climate change, improving healthcare and better connectivity and communications. Initiatives like Girls into Electronics are important to encourage more students from diverse backgrounds to consider careers in this vital profession.
Speaking about Girls into Electronics, Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF said: “Many students touch upon Electronics in their Physics and Computer Science lessons at school, but the breadth, complexity and importance of the field is often not fully understood. This initiative will ensure that more young people get to experience this fascinating and creative subject, and learn about the worthwhile opportunities available in Electronics Engineering.
“We believe education can be a powerful force for equity, and help provide young women with the tools and opportunity to pursue a rewarding career in hardware engineering,” said Mari-Anne Chiromo, Apple Inclusion and Diversity Partnerships Lead EMEIA. “We’re thrilled to be working with the UKESF on this important initiative, to encourage more women from all backgrounds to study electronic engineering and improve the current gender imbalance in the field.”
Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) said, “A strong Electronics and ‘deep tech’ industry is essential to the health of the UK economy but we know that the UK has a skills shortage in this critical sector. That’s why it’s great to see the work that the UKESF is doing encouraging more young people to pursue careers as Electronics Engineers. In particular, their Girls into Electronics initiative has the potential to make a real difference and it is something that we strongly support.”
Some of the UK’s top universities are participating in the initiative, including Bristol, Imperial College London, Leeds and Southampton. The events will take place in June and July 2023, students can find out more and register their interest in attending here.
I hope that through this Award I can inspire and motivate more young girls to study Electronics and showcase to them that we can do equally well as our male counterparts. The work we do in this industry solely relies on our passion and skills, not our gender.
Nishika Chettry, Scholar of the Year 2022
The UKESF Scholar of the Year Award 2022 was announced at the annual TechWorks Awards and Gala Dinner in London on 8 December. We were pleased to recognise Nishika Chettry, Aston University/Renesas Electronics Europe, as Scholar of the Year, with Leon Brindley, University of Southampton/Qualcomm, as runner up.
Nishika was praised for her significant contribution during her work placement, her outstanding academic achievement, as well as her outreach and engagement work, which she has undertaken independently, and through the UKESF and her university. She has twice won departmental awards for achieving the top results, and has received external recognition as one of Electronics Weekly’s ‘BrightSparks’.
Nishika was selected from 122 current Scholars, and is the 6th female student to receive the prestigious Scholar of the Year Award since the programme was launched in 2010.
Nikisha commented: “Being awarded the Scholar of the Year feels like my hard work from the past four years at university has been recognised. It has acted as a confidence booster for me that I am on the right track and am doing the right things. I will continue to work and do my part in making space for women in the Electronics industry, all in an effort to bridge the gender and generational gap that we currently have in this sector. But most importantly, I hope that through this Award I can inspire and motivate more young girls to study Electronics and showcase to them that we can do equally well as our male counterparts. The work we do in this industry solely relies on our passion and skills, not our gender.
I had such a wonderful time on placement at Renesas. I worked with many experienced professionals and learnt so much about embedded systems and robust coding. Everyone in the team was always ready to help me with questions. My manager, Tim Hartley, created such a positive and friendly work environment and from HR, Noemi Fabian, encouraged me to work on outreach for promoting Electronics amongst young girls. My team knew that I was involved in a number of things at university, and they were so supportive. I felt welcomed and valued by them. Hence, I am joining them back as a graduate Firmware engineer next year!”
Speaking after the event, Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF said “The TechWorks Awards is always a fantastic occasion to celebrate the success of our Scholars with our partners and supporters. This year we were also delighted to see our former Scholar, Oisin Robinson, Picocom, as a finalist in the Young Engineer of the Year Award. Getting more diverse graduates into our sector is what the UKESF is all about.”
Also at the Awards, Leon Brindley was commended as the Scholar of the Year Runner-Up.
Leon commented: “The UKESF Scholarship Scheme has genuinely changed my life, and I’m incredibly grateful to both the UKESF and Qualcomm for their continued support and encouragement. Acquiring industry experience is a vital part of higher education, especially within such rapidly evolving fields as electronic engineering, so I’d wholeheartedly recommend applying for a UKESF Scholarship.
Through my UKESF Scholarship I completed two summer internships with Qualcomm Cambridge’s Power Management Unit Team, focusing on IC design and simulation in Cadence Virtuoso. It’s an honour to become the UKESF Scholar of the Year Runner-Up, as it amalgamates my academic results, internship performance and outreach activities.”
To view all the winners on the night, visit the TechWorks website. Find out more about the UKESF’s Scholarship Scheme here.
“We can not let historical imbalances allow young women to be deterred from such an amazing field.”
Supporting our Scholars to develop their professional network is central to the Scholarship Scheme. For the 6th consecutive year, the UKESF arranged for female Scholars to attend the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Student Conference. Five scholars attended the event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, their places were kindly sponsored by Enigma People Solutions. 
The Conference, which took place on 25 November 2022, comprised sessions on networking, resilience and presenting, alongside the opportunity to hear from women in the industry.
Speaking about their experiences at the Conference, our Scholars said:
“The STEM field is male-dominated, and we have poor gender ratios in our classes. Events like the WES conference provide us with an opportunity to network with other women in STEM and share our experiences and learnings. It is great to see so many women out there with similar aspirations.
Additionally, these events equip us with skills which would be useful throughout our careers such as networking tips, presentation and teamwork skills.”
Nishika Chettry, Aston University/Renesas Electronics Europe
“All my classes at university have had a strong male presence with very few female students in them. Due to this environment, I sometimes forget that there are many women working in the engineering sector, and that I am not alone. It was wonderful to hear about the early beginnings of the WES and the impact women have made in engineering in the past. It spurs me on to complete my degree and work as an engineer to continue in this legacy.”
Ayo Anifowose, Cardiff University/Sky
“The WES conference was a profoundly refreshing experience coming from a course where only 24% of students are women. The UKESF Scholarship has been a really good way to network and develop my career. I really enjoyed working with my sponsoring company this past summer. It’s also been great to meet a diverse group of fellow Scholars and make professional connections. The WES conference has actually been a highlight of the programme.”
Liza Potemkina, University of Cambridge/Dukosi
“We can not let historical imbalances allow young women to be deterred from such an amazing field. Everyone should be able to feel as though they can follow their dreams.”
Skye McConville, University of Liverpool/Qualcomm Technologies
Lynn has made a significant contribution to gender diversity in Electronic Engineering through her work at the UKESF. For over 10 years she worked tirelessly to promote Electronics amongst young people.
The prestigious IET Gender Diversity Ambassador Award 2022 has recognised Lynn Tomkins, co-founder of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF), for her outstanding impact in Electronic Engineering at The Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards.
Announced at a ceremony that took place at the IET’s Savoy Place on 1 December, the Gender Diversity Ambassador Award recognises the tremendous work being carried out by passionate individuals to change the perception of women in STEM.
Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF, said: “I am so pleased for Lynn to receive this Award; it is really well-deserved. It reflects more than 10 years of tremendous commitment by Lynn in support of the UKESF. As Co-Founder, Director and then latterly Chair of Trustees, she has worked tirelessly promoting Electronic Engineering among young people. During this time, she has been an outstanding ambassador for gender diversity and inclusion in the Electronics sector.”
Under Lynn’s direction, addressing the gender imbalance in the Electronics sector became central to the UKESF’s work. She was instrumental in the development of our award-winning Scholarship Scheme, and has championed a number of initiatives which has resulted in the number of Awards being made to females increasing from 15% to 24%. Lynn oversaw the introduction of Girls into Electronics, an initiative that helped to inspire over 300 girls between the ages of 15 and 18 with Electronics; and she supported the launch of our Award for Female Undergraduates, specifically for young women at the beginning of their undergraduate degree, which is now in its fifth year.
Engineering UK recently reported that between 2010 and 2021, the number of female Electronics Engineers had increased by over 12% to 15.4%. This is a significant increase and is, in part, down to the work of Lynn, who has been an exemplary ambassador of gender diversity in Electronics.
Further details about the IET Gender Diversity Ambassador Award are available here.
The growth in our Scholarship Scheme demonstrates a clear commitment from industry to develop the next generation of Electronics Engineers.
Stew Edmondson, UKESF
Our Scholarship Scheme is now in full swing for academic year 2022/23 and over two hundred students from our 27 partner universities have submitted applications. To date, there are more than fifty leading employers who have committed to provide scholarships to students, which includes 10 new companies this year as the Scheme continues to grow.
Our CEO, Stew Edmondson said “The growth in our Scholarship Scheme demonstrates a clear commitment from industry to develop the next generation of Electronics Engineers. By supporting undergraduates to gain experience and build their professional skills throughout their studies, companies are taking positive action to address the graduate skills shortage and build long term relationships with high-achieving young engineers”.
Designed in collaboration with Industry, our award-winning Scholarship Scheme has been operating for over 10 years. Employers interested in joining the scheme can find out more here or contact [email protected].
So far this year, the UKESF is delighted to welcome the following employers to the Scholarship Scheme:
“I would highly recommend the workshop to everyone, lots of new skills were learned and will be implemented in my professional career.”
UKESF Scholar
One of the most important aspects of the UKESF’s award winning Scholarship Scheme is the annual residential Workshop. This year, we brought together scholars from 20 different universities who had completed work placements at 35 different employers during the summer. The four-day residential course, held at the University of York, was once again packed with engaging presentations from expert speakers, interactive activities and lively discussion with like-minded peers. The programme focuses on supporting the students’ professional and personal development ahead of completing their studies.
“Completely surpassed my expectations, so many great talks, activities and exercises.”
“Thank you so much for the week, really motivating and inspirational.”
“I would highly recommend the workshop to everyone, lots of new skills were learned and will be implemented in my professional career.”
All of the participants rated the Workshop ‘good’ or excellent’ and they particularly valued the sessions on Utilising Professional Networks & CV Advice, Effective Negotiation, Managing Your Digital Footprint and Communication Skills. Participants also had the opportunity to hear from three former UKESF Scholars in a panel session, where they shared their experiences as graduate engineers and answered questions from the audience.
Stew Edmondson, CEO of the UKESF, said, “It’s been a real pleasure and genuine privilege to spend this week with our latest cohort of UKESF Scholars. They are amazing young people, who will make fantastic engineers. They are the future of Electronic Engineering in the UK.”
Throughout the four days, participants benefitted from the chance to socialise, get to know one another, and attend a formal dinner together on the final evening.
If you’re an undergraduate student, apply to become a UKESF Scholar here.
If you’re an employer and would like to find out how your company can benefit from connecting with a UKESF Scholar, get in touch by email at [email protected].
We’ve shown that there is considerable interest among students about PEMD, which is very encouraging. We now need to provide more opportunities for high-achieving undergraduates to gain work experience in the UK’s PEMD sector.
Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) Undergraduate Award 2022 recognised four outstanding undergraduate Electrical and Electronics Engineering students who have an interest in Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD).
Emily Dale, University of Manchester; Elaine Tian Galloway, University of Sheffield; Marcus Perrin, University of Sheffield; and James Taylor, Imperial College London were selected from over 50 applications for the Award.
The Award is a collaboration between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the UKESF, as part of the wider DER Challenge skills initiative, to raise awareness of PEMD among undergraduates and encourage them to pursue careers in the sector.
Marcus Perrin, James Taylor and Emily Dale, DER Award winners, with Connel Williams, ZF Automotive and Stewart Edmondson, UKESF
The UKESF was delighted with the overwhelming response to the Award, with applications received from undergraduates studying at 16 UKESF partner universities nationwide.
Speaking about the Award, Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF, said: “PEMD is so important for the future and we were really pleased to work with the DER Challenge team on this Award. We’ve shown that there is considerable interest among students about PEMD, which is very encouraging. We now need to build on this interest and provide more opportunities for high-achieving undergraduates to gain work experience in the UK’s PEMD sector.”
The four Award-winning undergraduates undertook work experience at one of two supporting companies, Collins Aerospace and ZF Automotive.
Philip Langley, Strategic and Business Development at ZF Automotive, said: “The entire process with UKESF was well supported and effective, we were given very high calibre applicants, narrowing these down to the three we took on the DER Award Scheme. The energy and intelligence they brought was outstanding, our challenge is to keep them in Engineering and more specifically PEMD.”
Emily Dale shared feedback on her experience: “I undertook a 10-week placement at ZF in Shirley Solihull. My project was heavily focused on modelling in MATLAB and Simulink, a major opportunity to develop new technical skills and work with tools I had never used before. I found the aspects of automotive engineering that I encountered at ZF provided complex challenges and worthwhile results. I am very grateful for all the support I have received from UKESF and it has built on my career aspirations massively.”
The Driving the Electric Revolution Undergraduate Award was successful in generating awareness and interest in PEMD among a diverse range of engineering students. It provided participants with valuable work experience at the start of their university studies and helped support their professional skills development. Read the full report here.
Prepare for further study and a career in the Electronics sector by exploring electronic technology in context
We are delighted to announce the launch of An Introduction to Electronic Engineering, a new, free online course designed to support 15-18 years olds develop their interest and expand their understanding.
The UK Electronics industry is one of the largest and most successful in the world, but what is it all about? Developed by the UKESF in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, this short course introduces the fundamentals of Electronics. Participants will explore key theoretical and practical concepts using interactive examples, including the basics of component level design from resistors to amplifiers, investigating how we power satellites in space and examining real-world control systems in action.
The course gives those with an interest in Electronics and Engineering the opportunity to examine real world Electronic systems and their components, experience how Electronics is used in the context of different systems and to develop their own skills in analysing, designing, and producing circuits.
Stewart Edmondson, CEO of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation said: “An Introduction to Electronic Engineering is a really good opportunity for sixth-formers to expand their knowledge and further develop their enthusiasm for Electronics. It will help them to make an informed decision about their degree subject, strengthen their university application, and support their preparations for further study.”
The course is available on the FutureLearn platform and takes three hours a week for three weeks to complete. To find out more and to begin the course, click here.
“Seeing all the possibilities of what you could do during an Electronics degree seemed to spark that sense of awe that a child would feel walking through a huge toy shop for the first time in me.”
This year, Girls in Electronics provided 230 girls between the ages of 15-18 with a unique opportunity to develop an interest in Electronics.
Hosted by 10 of our partner universities, and supported by CSA Catapult, we significantly scaled up our Girls into Electronics initiative to deliver 10 one-day events throughout the UK.
“The course was so insightful and made me consider a sector which I hadn’t necessarily thought about before. It was amazing talking to so many inspirational women in Electronic engineering”
The UK Electronics industry is a world leader and there is a significant skills shortage. This means that there are too few engineers and designers to develop the next generation of products and help produce the creative technological solutions needed by society.
The Equality, diversity and student characteristics data 2022 from the Office for Students1 found that just 17.9% of engineering, technology and computing undergraduate entrants were female. In 2021, UCAS data2 showed that as few as 335 female students started Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree courses in the UK.
Girls into Electronics to provided an opportunity to engage and inspire young people with Electronics.
“Seeing all the possibilities of what you could do during an EEE degree seemed to spark that sense of awe that a child would feel walking through a huge toy shop for the first time in me.”
The participants were given an in-depth insight into what it would be like to pursue higher education and a career in Electronics. They were given the opportunity to:
The events received fantastic feedback, with 97% of participants rating the day as ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ and 89% saying that they felt more enthused about Electronics after attending.
Perhaps most importantly, 84% of students who were not previously considering a career in Electronics, now are.
“As someone who’s finding it difficult to decide between engineering disciplines, today was extremely helpful in making me aware of the similarities and differences between them so that I can make an informed choice.”
Following the event, the participants received a number of additional resources to ensure they could continue to develop their interest in Electronics, as well as make the most of the Grove beginner kit for Arduino that they were given to take home. We are also working with CSA Catapult to provide participants with the opportunity to attend a careers focused session at the CSA Catapult Innovation Centre in Newport in Autumn 2022.
In 2023, the UKESF will aim to scale up even further, building on this year’s successful approach. If you’re interested in finding out more about the programme, or would like to register your interest in participating next Summer, get in touch by emailing [email protected]
Resources
Watch our interviews with five female engineers
Sign up to Insight into Electronics
If you’re a UK student between the ages of 14-18, or a teacher, find out more about our self-paced, interactive and FREE course that provides young people with a hands-on introduction to microcontrollers, Electronics and programming.
1 Office for Students report July 2022
2 UCAS Undergraduate sector-level end of cycle data resources 2021
“We are delighted to be joining the UK Electronics Skills Foundation as a partner University.”
Professor Anthony Gachagan, University of Strathclyde
We are delighted to announce a partnership between the UKESF and the University of Strathclyde. This new partnership means that more undergraduates than ever before will have the opportunity to benefit from the support of the UKESF, and employers involved in our Scholarship Scheme will be able to access a greater number of high-achieving students.
The University of Strathclyde becomes the 27th leading UK university to partner with the UKESF.
Speaking about the partnership, Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF said “It’s great to welcome Strathclyde as a new UKESF partner university and to further strengthen our presence in Scotland. Their highly regarded Electronic Engineering Department is research-led with global industry engagement. Their strong focus on providing work placements for their students to complement their academic studies very much aligns with our UKESF ethos.”
Professor Anthony Gachagan, Head of Department, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde said “The Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering is delighted to be joining the UK Electronics Skills Foundation as a partner University. Our motto is “The Place of Useful Learning” and this partnership with UKESF with its strong industrial links embodies this ethos and ensures that the University is developing the next generation of electronics engineers.”
We are delighted to have been awarded a prestigious Princess Royal Training Award 2022.
The Award honours organisations who have created outstanding training and skills development programmes which have resulted in exceptional benefits. This year, the Award has recognised the UKESF for our Scholarship Scheme, which provides professional education, development activities and work placements with leading employers for students from universities throughout the UK. It is an exemplar of effective collaboration between industry and universities to address the skills shortage in UK Electronics.
Electronics, and in particular semiconductor design and manufacture, is a growing and strategically important sector of our economy. However, the demand for capable graduates far outstrips supply.
Our Scholarship Scheme provides ‘wrap around’ support for undergraduates, from advice about applying and increasing their employability through to graduation with an alumni network. The key elements are paid employment with their sponsoring company through flexible work placements; professional and employability skills training to complement their academic studies; industry insights and networking opportunities; and confidence building through participation in STEM education and outreach activities.
To date, we have awarded almost 700 Scholarships to exceptional undergraduates. Of those graduated Scholars who have finished their studies, 91% now work in Electronics and Technology.
Speaking about the Award, Kirstie Donnelly MBE, Chief Executive of City & Guilds said: “The Princess Royal Training Awards demonstrate how training and development can open up opportunities and attract new talent to industries with significant skills gaps and labour shortages.”
Stewart Edmondson, CEO, UKESF said: “We are so thrilled to receive a Princess Royal Training Award. This is such a fantastic accolade for our UKESF Scholarship Scheme. It recognises our collective efforts, with our partner universities and industry sponsors, to nurture and develop the Electronics Engineers of tomorrow.
We will hold the Princess Royal Training Award 2022 for three years.
If you would like to find out more about how to get involved in our Scholarship Scheme, contact Stew Edmondson (CEO) on 07894 899544 or [email protected].
This is such a fantastic accolade for our UKESF Scholarship Scheme. It recognises our collective efforts, with our partner universities and industry sponsors, to nurture and develop the Electronics Engineers of tomorrow.
As we emerge from the COVID pandemic, this has been an outstandingly successful year for the UKESF Scholarship Scheme. Through the Scheme, we work with industry to nurture and develop the electronics engineers of tomorrow. In 2021/22 we have ensured that the very best undergraduates gain experience and develop their skills by connecting 38 companies with 68 undergraduates.
Exceptional Employer Satisfaction
More companies than ever joined our Scholarship Scheme this year, so we are delighted that sponsor satisfaction remains exceptionally high. Results from our recent survey include:
“Keep up the brilliant job.”
Encouraging Inclusivity
This year, we received around 250 applications from undergraduates from our 26 partner universities. We know that just 17% of engineering, technology and computing undergraduate entrants are female¹. However, our Scholarship Scheme continues to champion women in engineering, and 22% of scholars in 2021/22 were female. What’s more, 96% of our female scholars who have graduated have stayed within the Electronics and Technology sector.
Supporting the Electronics Sector
In the UK, Electronics, especially semiconductor design and manufacture, is a growing and strategically important sector of our economy. However, the demand for capable graduates far outstrips supply.
Our Scholarship Scheme has been running for over 10 years, and is now considered to be an exemplar of effective engagement between industry and universities. To date, almost 700 students have been awarded scholarships, and 92% of our graduated scholars are working in the Engineering and Technology industry.
“The UKESF Scholarship Scheme has quite literally changed my entire life… There could not be a better time to get involved with the Electronics industry than now, and there could not be a better way of doing so than through the UKESF.”
Working with the sponsoring companies and our partner universities we are tackling the skills challenge in the Electronics sector. We will be in touch with companies over the summer to discuss participation in the Scholarship Scheme for the next academic year. For employers interested in learning more, there is a Guide to the Scheme here or email [email protected] for a call back.
¹Office for Students report July 2022
As a growing charity, it is important that the UKESF has effective governance arrangements in place. Last year, our Board was strengthened with the appointment of two new Trustees, and we are delighted to have now appointed two Board Observers.
Joanna Taylor, Silicon Product Engineer at Graphcore, and Ricki Tura, Verification Engineer, Siemens Embedded Analytics, are both UKESF Scholars who graduated in 2017 and 2020 respectively and were awarded “Scholar of the Year”.
As Board Observers, Joanna and Ricki will attend UKESF Board Meetings to observe the proceedings and participate without the duties and rights of Trustees/Directors. The UKESF now has an alumni of close to 400 graduated Scholars and the Board is keen to ensure that we maintain close relationships with this growing community. The Board Observers will be able to contribute insight from their experience of the scholarship, as well as provide new points of view to benefit the Boards discussions and help to inform the UKESF’s strategic decisions.
Stew Edmondson, the CEO of the UKESF, said
“It is forward-thinking and progressive that the Directors have decided to appoint two graduated Scholars as Board Observers. The Chair and myself are delighted that Joanna and Ricki have accepted the invitation. They will be a great addition to our Board, and it should be ‘win-win’. For the UKESF, they will provide us with insight and input from a different and younger perspective. For Joanna and Ricki, it gives them an opportunity to continue their involvement with the UKESF, to make a positive contribution and to gain experience of charity governance”.
Profiles of Joanna and Ricki, the new UKESF Board Observers, can be found here.
“What separates EW BrightSparks from other high achievers is the commitment to helping other people as well.”
Richard Watts, Electronics Weekly
The UKESF is thrilled that this year’s BrightSparks Awards includes five of our Scholars. Proudly supported by the UKESF, the BrightSparks programme is run by Electronics Weekly in partnership with RS Grassroots, and aims to highlight the brightest young electronic engineers in the UK.
This years winners were recently invited to celebrate their success, and receive their award, at the IET in London. Read more about the event here. The Scholars were joined at the Awards by UKESF Chair Neil Dickins, who said, “It was great to attend the BrightSparks ceremony and see so many UKESF alumni and scholars receiving awards this year. This shows the value of the UKESF’s undergraduate Scholars Scheme in nurturing young Electronics Engineers.”
The winning UKESF Scholars are:
Also at the Awards was Richard Watts, Managing Director of emap and group publisher for Electronics Weekly. “What separates EW BrightSparks from other high achievers,” he said, “is the commitment to helping other people as well. All the worthy winners have engaged with a wider community, to help others.”
Today marks ‘International Day of Women and Girls in Science’, declared by the UN in 2015 to advocate full and equal access to science for women and girls, as well as supporting gender equality and empowerment.
Women make up just 12% of the engineering workforce in the UK, and only 24% of girls report that they would consider pursuing a career in the sector (EngineeringUK, 2020). Tackling the gender imbalance in Electronics is a strategic priority for the UKESF, which is why we are delighted to announce a new partnership with the CSA Catapult.
“Today we are announcing a massive scaling-up of Girls into Electronics,” said Stew Edmondson, CEO of the UKESF.
“Building on the success of our course in 2021, we are planning to hold ‘Girls into Electronics’ events at 10 of our partner universities, right across the UK. With the support of the CSA Catapult we expect to host around 400 female sixth form pupils this summer. This will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase Electronics and encourage more girls to study the subject at university.”
“We are lucky enough to employ many fantastic female engineers at CSA Catapult and we are delighted to be able to offer our support to the ‘Girls into Electronics’ scheme. We hope that with great initiatives like this one, it will encourage young women to pursue STEM subjects and careers. We look forward to supporting this scheme developed by the UKESF and the goal to reach over 400 potential female engineers 
of the future,” said Alexandra Leadley, Skills Academy Manager at CSA Catapult.
“It is tremendously rewarding for Aston University to work on this project with the UKESF. Electronics is such an important sector in the UK and globally, and requires core skills such as innovation, creativity and analysis. We have created material to support many more girls and roll out the hands-on activity across the country. It is great to see the UKESF taking a lead in this area to maximise the impact and reach,” said Prof Kate Sugden, Deputy Dean at Aston University.
“We are really looking forward to hosting the UKESF ‘Girls into Electronics’ at Royal Holloway this summer. The College has a distinguished history in the education of women and it is our ambition to encourage and welcome more females into the discipline of engineering!” said Dr Steve Alty, Head of Electronic Engineering, Royal Holloway.
Applications open today – click HERE to find out more and apply.
Girls into Electronics 2022 host universities: Aston University, University of Bath, Cardiff University, Heriot-Watt University, Imperial College London, University of Liverpool, Newcastle University, Royal Holloway, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton
Demand for Radio Frequency engineering and communications engineers continues to grow. With sponsorship from the Radio Communication Foundation (RCF) and support from Leonardo, we run an annual competition that highlights the work of students at UKESF partner universities who are focusing on RF engineering and communications in their final year. Entrants are required to submit a poster summarising their major individual project.
Patrick Hope (Surrey/R-P-R) won the competition for 2021 for his project titled ‘STAR XL Flight Radio X-Band Transmitter’. Max Rigby (Loughborough/non-Scholar) was named runner-up for his project, ‘A 3D Printed Anisotropic Superstrate for Circularly Polarised Satellite Antenna Arrays’. Patrick and Max were both guests of the UKESF at the TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London, on 9th December 2021, along with 2020’s winner, Matthew Bridges (Surrey/SEA), and runner-up, Jessica Kelly (Loughborough/non-Scholar).
“I’m really pleased to have won the UKESF’s RF Competition, especially against such strong competition. The UKESF provides great opportunities to showcase effort and achievements to the working world, and this prize is no different. Thank you also to R-P-R Ltd for their continued support of me as a UKESF Scholar.”
Patrick Hope, 2021 winner
Trevor Gill (RCF), Patrick Hope, Stew Edmondson (UKESF)
“Patrick spent his placement year at Richard Paul Russell Ltd and we are really pleased to hear that Patrick was the winner of the RF Engineering & Communications Competition at the TechWorks Awards. While he worked with us, he was able to contribute significantly to the development of our weather monitoring systems and we congratulate him and wish him all the best in the future.”
Richard Russell, R-P-R“I’m really pleased to have been named the runner up in the UKESF Radio Frequency Engineering & Communications Competition. It means a lot for my final master’s project to be recognised, particularly after the circumstances of the last couple of years.
“It’s so important to recognise the work of students, the next generation of engineers, and the UKESF do a fantastic job in promoting and rewarding achievement through their awards and Scholarship Scheme.
“Finally I’d like to thank Professor William Whittow and Dr Tom Whittaker for their invaluable tutelage over the duration of my project.”
Max Rigby, 2021 runner-up
Trevor Gill (RCF), Max Rigby, Stew Edmondson (UKESF)
“After an absence of two years because of the pandemic, it was fantastic to have such a great live, in person, awards ceremony, bringing together our Trustees, sponsors and partners to recognise and celebrate the success of some fantastic young engineers and Electronics students. They are the future of our profession. I was delighted that last year’s finalists were able to join us, so that we were able to recognise and acknowledge their achievements.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
Above image: UKESF Scholar attendees with guest speaker Piers Linney (centre)
On 9th December 2021 the UKESF attended the annual TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London, and announced the winners of the Scholar of the Year Award.
We had three tables at the event, one of which was kindly donated by Trustee Neil Dickins (Founder/Director, IC Resources). Our guests included three UKESF Trustees, nine former and current UKESF Scholars (including past winners of the Scholar of the Year Award and other UKESF competitions), as well as various representatives from some of the companies and organisations we partner with.
Oana Lazar (Southampton/Tessent Embedded Analytics, part of Siemens [formerly UltraSoC]) was awarded the 2021 Scholar of the Year, with David Kong (Edinburgh/onsemi) named runner-up. Many thanks to IC Resources, who sponsor the award. Three other Scholars were Highly Commended: Leon Brindley (Southampton/Qualcomm), Nishika Chettry (Aston/Renesas) and James Mutumba (Surrey/EDA Solutions).
Neil Dickins, Oana Lazar, David Kong, Stew Edmondson
Oana is a final-year student on a Masters of Electronic Engineering course at the University of Southampton. As well as exceeding expectations during her 12-month placement with Tessent Embedded Analytics, the Award judges applauded Oana’s exceptional academic performance, her technical skills and her advocacy for women in engineering. Oana was Highly Commended for this Award in 2020 and named runner-up in our Automotive Electronics Competition the same year. She also received Southampton Hub’s first ever ‘Southampton Hub Values Award’, and has been put forward by Tessent’s VP of Engineering, and Siemens’ Senior Director of Portfolio Strategy, to represent Tessent for the Global Semiconductor Alliance‘s ‘Female Up and Comer Award’.
“The UKESF Scholarship Scheme has quite literally changed my entire life. Therefore, it is an absolute honour and a true pleasure to receive the 2021 UKESF Scholar of the Year Award.
“I would like to thank my fantastic sponsoring company, Tessent Embedded Analytics (Siemens), whose brilliant Engineers have given me the best possible introduction to the industry. Through my 12-month industrial placement as part of my Master’s at the University of Southampton, I have discovered the immense breadth of opportunities available to Electronics Engineers and I have discovered my true calling as an Embedded Software Engineer.
“There could not be a better time to get involved with the Electronics industry than now, and there could not be a better way of doing so than through the UKESF.”
Oana Lazar, Scholar of the Year 2021
Click HERE to read Oana’s full quote in her guest blog post.
“Oana interned with the Siemens DISW Embedded Analytics team for the 2020-2021 year. In a very short time, we forgot she was an intern: she has been assigned significant, complex tasks, and has taken full ownership of those tasks, driving them through to completion.
“COVID has made life difficult for interns: much of the value of internships to the intern is found in ‘sitting behind the shoulder’ of more senior colleagues. Remote working makes this much harder and requires a level of self-reliance and commitment to get the best out of this. Oana’s entire year with us was done remotely, but throughout her time she remained committed to work and never lost focus on her responsibilities to deliver to a level of quality that far exceeded our expectations from her.
“In addition to this, Oana led the ‘Invent Plus’ project at her university, finding volunteers and funding to distribute activity packs to 600 9th grade girls to Electronic, Acoustical, and Mechanical engineering through building circuits from scratch on breadboards (again all remotely), and is now the president of Southampton Hub, an organisation that supports students to volunteer in placements in the local community.”
Jonathan Lucas, Engineering Director (Software), Embedded Analytics, Siemens Electronic Design Automation Ltd
“I’m delighted to hear that Oana has been named Scholar of the Year 2021, particularly after she was Highly Commended for the award last year. She is an excellent example of the many intelligent, motivated and inspirational students who are UKESF Scholars, and I’m thrilled that her success continues the long history of Southampton students receiving the award!”
Prof Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
“During my time as a UKESF Scholar, I have met so many talented engineers and I’m very happy to have been selected for the award. Many thanks to onsemi, my sponsoring company, who have provided me with some amazing placements where I have had the opportunity to complete projects in firmware, modelling, digital and analogue IC design for some truly state-of-the-art automotive image sensors.”
David Kong, runner-up Scholar of the Year 2021
“After an absence of two years because of the pandemic, it was fantastic to have such a great live, in person, awards ceremony, bringing together our Trustees, sponsors and partners to recognise and celebrate the success of some fantastic young engineers and Electronics students. They are the future of our profession. I was delighted that last year’s finalists were able to join us, so that we were able to recognise and acknowledge their achievements.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
“Electronics as a field appeals to me as it allowed the advancement of human society as we know it and will help with future problems such as climate change through continuous innovation.”
UKESF Scholar Felicia, Cambridge/Collins Aerospace
This Is Engineering Day 2021 coincided with the start of COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Held this year in Glasgow, the conference will welcome more than 190 world leaders to set goals to tackle climate change by 2050, with the aim of making the world net zero. As it says on the This Is Engineering Day website, “From how we heat and light our homes, to how we produce our food, how we build our houses and cities to how we travel around, our future daily lives will be shaped by engineers and engineering.”
The UKESF firmly believes that our Scholars are the future, and many will be making a positive impact on the world and sustainability through their work in the field of Electronic Engineering. To mark This Is Engineering Day 2021, we therefore shared some inspiring quotes from our Scholars studying and working in the Electronics sector on our social media channels, as well as releasing a video interview with graduated female UKESF Scholars from our virtual ‘Girls into Electronics’ course 2021.
The interview was one of the most highly rated sessions of the course, with attendees reporting they found it motivational to hear about the experiences of female engineers.
UKESF Scholar quotes to celebrate This is Engineering Day 2021:
“Electronics is such a vast field that touches almost every corner of modern society… This gives the opportunity to improve the quality of life for many across the world, and hopefully work towards creating a sustainable future.”
UKESF Scholar Ryan, Nottingham/Vison4ce
“Applying theories that I have spent many years studying, to a subject with so much diversity, challenge and societal impact as Electronics is rewarding and fulfilling!”
UKESF Scholar Daniel, Edinburgh/Leonardo
“Everything new and exciting always boils down to cutting edge electronics … I was sold into Electronics by the desire to design, build and work on the future, and be a part of the industry which is defining the modern world.”
UKESF Scholar Louis, Surrey/Chess Dynamics
“Electronics is incredibly exciting, shaping the future through innovation. It’s constantly evolving, offering infinite opportunities at university and beyond.”
UKESF Scholar Oana, Southampton/UltraSoC
“Electronics as a field appeals to me as it allowed the advancement of human society as we know it and will help with future problems such as climate change through continuous innovation.”
UKESF Scholar Felicia, Cambridge/Collins Aerospace
“In the UK, we are seeing a renewed focus on technology and innovation, for instance around electrification. This means that our work connecting universities with industry is now even more vital.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The UKESF has just published its Annual Review for 2019/20 – read it HERE.
UKESF award and competition finalists of 2020/21
“From the outset our aim for the Foundation has been to build the future by inspiring and supporting students and Scholars into the Electronics industry. The pandemic has meant that this has been another challenging year for all of us. However, I am very pleased to report that the Foundation has been able to continue successfully. We have been able to launch a new ‘Insight into Electronics’ project this year, which has already proved incredibly popular. I am also pleased that we are working hard to address the gender imbalance in the sector through our ‘Girls into Electronics’ initiative.”
Lynn Tomkins, Chair, UKESF
“While a downturn in the global economy is clear, it’s encouraging that Electronics has fared better than most sectors; indeed, demand particularly for semiconductors is high as major markets accelerate into a recovery. In the UK, we are seeing a renewed focus on technology and innovation, for instance around electrification. This means that our work connecting universities with industry is now even more vital.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
Read the full Annual Review for 2020/21 HERE.
Following a year’s break due to the pandemic, the UKESF Scholars’ Workshop was back this September and more successful than ever, with 98% of attendees rating it as ‘Excellent’. Over 50 undergraduates from leading universities across the UK met at the University of York for four days of professional and personal development, which included hearing from a range of speakers, taking part in group exercises and networking with like-minded peers.
Stew Edmondson, CEO of the UKESF, said, “I’ve just had the pleasure and privilege of spending four days with our current group of undergraduate Scholars. The professional skills workshop is a unique part of our UKESF programme. It was really inspiring to be with so many impressive and highly motivated young Electronics engineers again, full of energy, ideas and intellectual curiosity. The future is bright!”
Group exercises
Attendees gained an insight into leadership, negotiation, ethics, neuro-linguistic programming, and cyber security, as well as receiving CV and career advice. Four former UKESF Scholars joined the Workshop virtually for the ever-popular panel session, where they spoke and answered questions about their experiences as graduate engineers.
Across the Workshop, attendees also benefitted from the chance to socialise and bond with other engineering undergraduates and enjoyed a formal dinner together on the final evening.
To find out how to get involved and how your company could benefit from connecting with a UKESF Scholar, click HERE.
Read a selection of the overwhelmingly positive feedback below:
“Fantastic week! Surpassed all expectations and it has changed the way I think about my career and the way I interact with the people around me.”
“I really don’t know how I can express how great and what an amazing opportunity this has been. I believe everyone will benefit from the work being done by the UKESF.”
“Didn’t know what I was expecting going into the Workshop but I have really enjoyed it.”
“I’ve learnt a lot more than anticipated and now appreciate that technical ability isn’t the most significant part of being an engineer – there are so many more skills that I have developed this week and will be incredibly useful to take into the workplace.”
The supplement includes the story of our creation in the words of the people who were there, an overview of our education activities and work to encourage more girls to get involved the sector, as well as profiles of some of our high-achieving graduated Scholars. Read the full feature HERE.
Pages 16-17 of the supplement
Many thanks to Mathys & Squire for their support.
Developed in collaboration with the University of York’s AudioLab (part of their Department of Electronic Engineering), the UKESF is delighted to announce the launch of the Explore-a-Synth teaching tool.
As part of the expansion of our “Electronics Everywhere” portfolio, Explore-a-Synth relates directly to aspects of the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum in England (covering wave theory), including Music, Physics and Computing.
The tool demonstrates the relationships between music, science, technology and engineering, encouraging creativity and exploration, through use of an online synthesiser. Pupils can experiment, compose and learn by creating a variety of sounds to download and use in compositions.
Follow the links below to find out more and try out the synthesiser:
~ Students click HERE to read the quick start guide and access the Explore-a-Synth synthesiser interface.
~ Teachers click HERE for project resources.
Explore-a-Synth was made possible thanks to support from the Engineering Education Grant Scheme via The IET and IMechE.
We organised another highly successful Girls into Electronics in July. Over the three days, attendees of the virtual course sponsored by onsemi had the opportunity to learn from female engineers and interns working at Electronics companies, as well as female lecturers and students at UKESF partner universities. They took part in discussions and Q&A sessions, in addition to gaining hands-on experience of microcontrollers and problem solving with the Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino.
Of the Year 12 attendees, 25% were of an ethnic minority and 80% were from state schools. Feedback was very positive, with 85% stating that the course had persuaded them to seriously consider studying Engineering at university, and 80% saying that their interest in Engineering in general had increased after completing the course. 85% of attendees would recommend the course.
The content of the course scored an impressive average of 84% approval, with the most highly rated sessions being ‘Using Electronics to Solve Real-World Problems’ and the Q&A with graduated female UKESF Scholars. In their written feedback, attendees praised the variety of activities that kept them engaged throughout each day, as well as how inspiring they found hearing about the experiences of female engineers.
“I am thankful for everyone who spoke on the course, the people who supported us and the kit provided to us as I learnt a lot from it! It was a refreshing experience and has really made me consider studying Electronics at university.”
“I’d just like to thank everybody involved in this course. I honestly would have never thought of Electronics as something that I could do without this. Thank you so much!”
“I would like to say thank you to all the staff and guest speakers as they were really supportive all along the course and the speeches were really thought-provoking!”
Below are two videos of sessions included in this year’s course. The first is a presentation by Dr Sohini Dasgupta, Principal Design Engineer at onsemi:
The second video features Dr Sohini Dasgupta in discussion with Eleftheria Safarika (UKESF Scholar sponsored by onsemi):
Girls into Electronics 2021 was organised with help from university partners Aston University and Royal Holloway and with support from The Smallpeice Trust.
Last week we launched an exciting new initiative called ‘Insight into Electronics’, a collaboration between the UKESF and Aston University. We have already received an astounding response from keen students in Years 10-13 – over 650 sign-ups in the first week!
The course is self-paced, interactive and FREE, and aims to provide young people with a hands-on introduction to microcontrollers, Electronics and programming. The activities within the course can be completed flexibly to fit around other commitments and study at a pace that suits individual circumstances. The course is aimed at those students who are thinking about studying Engineering, Electronics or Computer Science at university, or college.
As well as an extensive guide and informative videos, participants will also receive a free Grove Beginner Kit including an Arduino.
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson commented, “It has always been part of our UKESF mission to make more young people aware of the potential of Electronics, and with the launch of this course, we hope to encourage many more young people to choose a career in the Electronics industry”.
We plan to scale-up the project in the coming months and to add more ideas for projects and activities using the kits. To find out more about the course and to sign up to our waiting list, young people should visit our webpage here Insight Into Electronics.
“The fact that the UKESF is still around and going strong is testimony to its value to industry, universities and other stakeholders.”
Indro Mukerjee
Co-Founder of the UKESF Indro Mukerjee has stood down as Chair of the Steering Board due to his new role as CEO of Innovate UK, following 11 years of service to the Foundation.
Indro said, “The UKESF was started as a project to do something practical to address the skills gap in the industry. The skills gap has been a well-known thing in the UK and much discussed, but doing is better than just discussing so the intention was to take a practical step of action.
It took a lot of hard work and determination to get things going, but it was very satisfying when we were able to launch what was effectively a private/public partnership, to link industry with universities.
The aim was to create something which would work in practice, become relevant and be long lasting, which is why the term ‘Foundation’ was used in the name.
I’m very pleased and proud of what’s been achieved over the last decade. The original aims have certainly been achieved.
The Foundation works well in practice, and feedback that’s been rigorously tracked from all stakeholders has been positive throughout. It’s certainly relevant in the industry, very well connected with all parts of it and often consulted and involved by both industry and government on skills matters.
The fact that the UKESF is still around and going strong is testimony to its value to industry, universities and other stakeholders. That’s the most pleasing thing of all.”
The UKESF is pleased to announce the appointment of Lynn Tomkins as the new Chair of the UKESF Steering Board. Lynn has been involved with the UKESF as a founding Trustee since its inception in 2010, as well as contributing her time and knowledge as a facilitator and speaker at the yearly UKESF Scholar Workshop.
Lynn said, “I am delighted to be taking over as Chair of the UKESF, Indro will be a hard act to follow, however, I am passionate about the work of the UKESF and am looking forward to supporting the team, who have done a brilliant job despite the challenges of the pandemic. We have a brilliant community of supporting companies, universities, partner organisations and an expert board and a network of over 600 former UKESF Scholars.”
The UKESF is working hard to support the Electronics Sector. Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, we are delighted to report another successful year for our Scholarship Scheme. Through the Scheme, we continue to help employers connect with undergraduates from leading universities.
The UKESF’s relationship with sponsor companies is at the heart of our Scholarship Scheme, so it is reassuring to know that employer satisfaction remains exceptionally high. In a recent survey, 96% of respondents said that they would recommend the UKESF. Also,
“A very beneficial scheme which has attracted some very talented undergraduates.”
We now have 26 partner universities right across the UK, and continue to attract high-quality students from these leading universities. This year we received over 250 applications from undergraduates. In our survey, 90% of employers said the quality of applications was ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Our Scheme promotes inclusivity and we know that over the last six years:
“We had a higher proportion of female applicants through the UKESF compared to our direct intern programme, which proved to be valuable to us.”
Helping our industry tackle its skill shortage and encouraging more young people to pursue careers in Electronics is what the UKESF is all about. Enabling students to gain experience through work placements is so important. Our Scholarship Scheme is well established and we have supported over 600 students.
Of those who have completed their studies, 91% work in the Electronics and Technology sectors and 59% of graduated Scholars in employment work for a UKESF sponsor company.
“The UKESF has been really helpful to me – the bursary is of course lovely, but the work placements were incredibly valuable and the Workshop taught me new stuff!”
“I have found the Scheme very beneficial and it has contributed both to my studies and future career.”
We really appreciate the engagement from our partner universities and all the support from our sponsors. We will be in touch with companies over the summer to discuss participation in the Scholarship Scheme for the next academic year. For employers interested in learning more, there is a Guide to the Scheme here or email [email protected] for a call back.
“Between them they have an excellent range of relevant experience, from marketing to business management, which will be very relevant as the UKESF develops into the future.”
Indro Mukerjee, Chair, UKESF Steering Board
The UKESF is delighted to welcome two new Trustees to the Steering Board, Heather Macdonald and Rupert Baines.
Heather has been working in the Electronics industry for 20 years. She has held marketing and communications roles in both SME and corporate semiconductor companies, supported the growth of early stage start-ups in raising their profiles and building their teams, and has ‘front line’ experience of M&A activity. Heather holds a Masters in Marketing from the University of the West of England, and a BA Hons in English Literature from Queen Mary, University of London.
Rupert is a 30-year veteran of the global semiconductor industry and experienced deep-tech entrepreneur. Most recently he was CEO of UltraSoC, and has previously held senior roles in both start-ups and prominent trans-national companies in the UK, USA and Europe. Rupert has a BSc and Diploma in Electronic Engineering from Hull University, an MBA from IESE, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the IET.
Indro Mukerjee, Chair of the UKESF Steering Board, said,
“The UKESF has always benefitted from dedicated Trustee Board members who’ve shared the advantage of their deep and varied experience to support the Foundation. We’re now delighted to welcome Heather Macdonald and Rupert Baines as two new Trustees. Between them they have an excellent range of relevant experience, from marketing to business management, which will be very relevant as the UKESF develops into the future.”
At King’s we are determined to address diversity through staff and students, so we are particularly excited by the directed support for female students on offer.
Professor Barbara Shollock, Head of Department of Engineering, King’s
The UKESF is very pleased to announce partnerships with two new universities, University of Liverpool and King’s College London, taking our number of partner universities to 26. This means that sponsor companies will be able to connect with even more high quality undergraduates, and more students will have the opportunity to benefit from involvement with the UKESF.
Stew Edmondson, CEO of the UKESF, commented,
“We know that Engineering is changing and that great advances are being made in fields such a robotics and automation. Both King’s College and Liverpool recognise the synergies between conventional Electronic & Electrical Engineering and computer science. They are at the forefront of innovation in engineering education and are helping to produce engineers with the knowledge and skills required in the 21st century. It’s great to now have them both as UKESF partners.”
“King’s College London is thrilled to join UKESF as a partner institution to support Electronic Engineering in the UK. Many will recognise our long-standing reputation in Robotics and Telecommunications which we are now expanding to new areas of research and education within Engineering. Joining the UKESF allows us to continue to develop exciting opportunities and collaborations for students and staff as we work to promote the UK electronics sector to a new generation.” Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE, Executive Dean of Faculty, King’s College London
“The University of Liverpool is delighted to join the UKSEF as a partner and to help support their aim of promoting Electronic Engineering more widely. We have long established programmes in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotic Systems as well as one of the few Avionics degree programmes in the country. We passionately believe in embedding electronics across the curriculum for all children and invest in our facilities and outreach programmes to help achieve this. Joining the UKSEF enables us to continue this mission as well as providing exciting new opportunities for our current and future students.” Professor Alan Marshall, Head of Electrical Engineering & Electronics Department, University of Liverpool
“It gives women a better chance, changing it from a man’s world to anybody’s world.”
Lydia Moore, University of Southampton
The UKESF continues to work to improve the gender balance in the Electronics sector. For the fifth year, the UKESF supported the final-year female Scholars to attend the annual Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Student Conference, with places kindly sponsored again by Enigma, a recruitment company that specialises in the UK technology sector.
Hosted online for the first time, the annual WES Student Conference took place on 20th November 2020 and brought together students, academics and young engineers. The conference supports young women to progress in engineering and allied sectors by providing access to employer perspectives, development opportunities and networking. This year it brought together some 150 students, academics and early-mid career engineers and colleagues from supporting industry to explore pathways to technical leadership.
The theme this year was ‘Shape the World’ and, in these unprecedented times, the event was devised to inspire students with talks, conversations, webinars, panel sessions and online ‘meeting spaces’. The online sessions enabled students to learn and hone useful personal and career development skills at this critical time in the jobs market.
The event programme began with a welcome from Alexandra Knight (Founder & Director, STEMAZING Ltd; Board Member & Trustee, WES) and Elizabeth Donnelly (Chief Executive Officer, WES), and continued with the keynote speech ‘Shape the World’ from Dame Judith Hackitt (Chair, Make UK).
With presentations ranging from ‘Shaping a Sustainable Future’ to ‘Being an Engineer Today: Emerging Engineers Perspective’, attendees were treated to a variety of more personal development sessions including ‘How To Master Your Budgeting’, ‘Online Interviews: Top Tips’, ‘Leadership and Personal Brand’ and ‘Chartership and Professional Registration’. There were also networking and chats hosted by various WES Members.
The UKESF attendees commented on the event:
“During the day I learned several things I wasn’t aware off, and I believe all women should be aware of this.” Ala Bochnacka, University of Southampton
“I believe that conferences like this one are important to show university age students and below the different skills they need to get far in industry, such as the personal statement and interview advice given.” Ellie Jones, University of Bristol
“These events are great for connecting women so that we can share our experiences of studying and working in a very predominantly male field. I found it motivating to hear that women who are now at the top of their field have followed similar paths to me and that one day I could follow in their footsteps. It was comforting to learn that even very successful women in Engineering sometimes experience imposter syndrome and learn techniques to combat this. Additionally, these events provide women student engineers with helpful advice and skills for applying to jobs and internships and emphasise the importance of our applications to create diverse teams of engineers.” Emily Wayland, University of Southampton
“WES gives us a chance to look into different areas of engineering which we may not have thought about beforehand and gives us confidence to give it a go.” Frances Hu, University of Manchester
“It also provides a lot of support, and gives confidence for women to step up and take on roles they may have previously backed away from. By allowing women the chance to network, it gives them connections and links to other women who have experienced the same issues and can help, which supports them in their role. It gives women a better chance, changing it from a man’s world to anybody’s world.” Lydia Moore, University of Southampton
Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, there was strong competition for the prestigious Scholar of the Year Award. Kindly sponsored by IC Resources, the prize for 2020 was awarded to Emily Wayland, with Airam Perez Guillen coming in a close second. Emily studies at University of Southampton and is sponsored by ARM, whilst Airam is studying at the University of Manchester and is sponsored by EDA Solutions.
For the first time in the 10 years that this award has been running, a special commendation was also awarded to Oana Lazar (University of Southampton and sponsored by UltraSoC, now acquired by Siemens) for her outstanding entry.
Emily commented about receiving the award, “I feel so honoured to be selected as 2020’s UKESF Scholar of the Year, particularly out of so many other inspiring students that I have met during my time at university and as a scholar. I chose to study electronics, because I was fascinated with technology and I wanted to learn more about how things work. I am so grateful that I have been able to share my passion for electronics with school students and to inspire the next generation of engineers, particularly girls who are interested in STEM.
“As one of the many opportunities provided by the UKESF, I attended the WES Student Conference this year, to learn from inspiring women in the technology industry what I could achieve with hard work. I would also really like to thank my sponsoring company, Arm, who went above and beyond to give me the best summer internship experience possible, in a rather difficult year.
“I feel so proud to be recognised not only for my academic achievements, but also for my contributions to my university community and to the promotion of electronics, both of which have been such an important part of my four years at university. I never expected to win this award, but it has been such a boost to my confidence and will really help to kickstart my professional career!”
Airam said, “Since I was small I saw many things I didn’t understand. I then learnt that everything in engineering has a purpose, and I wanted to be part of the revolution. Engineering has taught me so many skills that are incredibly valuable to make the world a better place, and despite living a year that will go down in history, all the good I can do with my career in engineering has remained the strongest motivation. I will strive to keep learning, sharing and finally contributing my grain of salt to help protect the environment and the World with innovation.”
Dr Paul Wright, Course Director of Electronic Engineering at The University of Manchester said, “Airam is a very able and hard-working student, who also does a lot for our student body. I’m delighted to see these qualities of individual excellence and team contribution being recognised through a UKESF award.”
Airam completed his work placement at EDA Solutions Ltd where Khalid Teama, Technical Support Manager, said, “Since day one of joining EDA Solutions for his sandwich year internship, Airam has demonstrated great enthusiasm, despite being a completely new world of knowledge to him, his sheer will to learn and apply were clear from the start and as he embarked on advanced topics. With his commitment to learn and succeed, and his diligence, hard work and initiative, Airam makes a highly successful engineer and I am delighted for him being runner up in this award.”
Also, the judges decided to give a Special Commendation to another applicant, Oana Lazar, for her outstanding contribution, commenting that this years entries had created a tough decision with the top entries being very closely matched.
Oana commented of her special award, “In the past two years as a Scholar, the UKESF has taught me that becoming an engineer is about much more than knowledge and good grades, setting me on a path to joining a far greater community of people who are, in the most literal of terms, changing the world.
“My summer internship with UltraSoC provided me with a taste of being a ‘real’ engineer, and my 12-month placement is helping me continue on this incredible journey. Moreover, the UKESF has encouraged me to give back to my community, be it through national campaigns with Electronics and Computer Science, or by leading workshops in local schools through ‘Invent Plus’, inspiring schoolchildren to pursue engineering much like I was inspired when I was their age. I am extremely grateful to the UKESF for providing me with the opportunities, connections, and confidence to develop myself as a student, engineer, and a member of the community, and I am truly honoured to receive the judges’ first ever High Commendation for the UKESF’s Scholar of the Year award, in 2020.”
Rod Boyce, Principal Software Engineer at UltraSoC, also commented, “Oana proved herself to be an invaluable and productive member of the development team. She has also proven herself to be a diligent and excellent code reviewer. She is self-motivated, proven that she can work with minimal supervision, and demonstrates an indefatigable thirst for knowledge.”
“Many congratulations to Emily and Oana on their successes, which are very well deserved. I’m also delighted that this continues a long list of successes for Southampton in the Award’s history, with one of our students being named Scholar of the Year in 7 out of the 10 years that it has been running!”
Professor Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Congratulations Emily, Airam and Oana!
“With Dialog’s generous support, we are encouraging the country’s brightest female engineering prospects to choose Electronics for their university studies.”
Stew Edmondson, UKESF CEO
The Dialog Award for Female Undergraduates is a collaboration between Dialog Semiconductor and the UKESF. It supports a number of female undergraduates who are commencing the first year of their studies on Electronics-related degree courses at leading UK universities.
Each year two female recipients of this award are supported with a bursary, a paid summer work placement at Dialog, and a student membership of Women’s Engineering Society (WES) for the duration of their degree.
2021’s recipients of the Dialog Award for Female Undergraduates are Lubabah Hossain and Emma Onah. Lubabah is studying General Engineering at Durham University, and Emma is studying Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
Lubabah said, “What I like about electronics is that it is integrated into almost every part of our modern-day lives; developments and progression we can make for society, using this field of study, are practically limitless. My goal with this degree is to be able to fruition any ideas that come to mind and execute them, be it by writing some code or producing a physical product.
“Wanting to go into a profession that is very male-dominated as well as studying at a competitive university, it is very easy to develop feelings of imposter syndrome. This award, however, has instilled me with a lot of confidence in myself, which I imagine will only be further reinforced when doing my placement over the summer with Dialog Semiconductor. The placement will also allow me to gain further clarity on what sort of field and position I would like to work at upon graduating, which to me feels like a vital insight.”
Emma added, “My name is Emma Onah, and I am a first year undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, studying Engineering. I am also the owner and editor of my own tech blog, www.craetif.blogspot.com. This award means so much to me, especially as it will underpin my career as an electronic engineer, and provide me with deeper insight into this field. In a career where female representation is scarce, it feels so good to be recognised. I cannot wait to start my internship at Dialog Semiconductor this summer, and I am extremely grateful to be in receipt of this award.”
Both students will complete a work placement at Dialog Semiconductor this summer. Congratulations Lubabah and Emma!
The 2020 recipients of this award, Carol Kwok and Husna Fathiah Zulkarnain, have been unable to complete their placements at Dialog due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but will do so this summer. However, both girls have continued their first year studies at Imperial College, London.
“It was an honour to be awarded this award and offered a summer placement in Dialog Electronics. Although due to the pandemic, placement was not being able to happen this year, I am looking forward to the experience that I will gain in it.
“Studying in electronic engineering is always my passion, and my study at Imperial College strengthens and enhances my knowledge in this subject, varying from circuits filter to Verilog coding.
“It has also been a stereotype that male is taking up the majority in the engineering field. And this award allows me to build a stronger identity as a female engineer, and raise awareness of the power of the female in engineering. I would like to continue to pursue my interest in electronic engineering, especially in computer architecture.”
Carol Kwok, Imperial College, Dialog Award recipient 2020
“I am beyond honoured to be awarded the highly-coveted Dialog Award for Female Undergraduate 2019. Coming from a country where women rarely pursue engineering due to stereotypes, there are times where I am scared opportunities will be dismissed from me. This award gives me an assurance that there is always space in the industry for anybody of any background to pursue their dreams. Since I received the award, I have been pursuing my studies in Imperial College London and I am grateful that I was given a chance to study Electrical and Electronic Engineering there and meet so many talented people. There are days that are harder than the others undeniably, however the prospect of understanding the subject is more than enough to fuel my passion. The fluidity and expansion of electronics innovation mesmerized me as it proves that humans’ intelligence increases with more challenges. For instance, troubleshooting seems like a small word, however I feel content when I manage to solve a problem by investigating the source of the disturbance. This kind of knowledge is not only essential for electronics, it certainly relates to our life. I believe that electronics engineering correlates to our real-life ethics and that is how I grow my love for it.
“Due to the ongoing pandemic, I have deferred my internship to summer of 2021 and I really look forward to interning with Dialog Semiconductor and applying my skills in a thriving electronics company. I believe that the road to mastering electronics will be long and tedious, especially as it is currently a male-dominated industry, but when something is important enough, we will strive to do it – even if the odds are not in our favour. I hope that I can be a source of inspiration for any undergraduates in the technological field to study electronics passionately. I have four sisters that are personally looking up to me, and with millions of girls globally, certainly the importance of doing the best that I can is paramount”.
Husna Fathiah Zulkarnain, Imperial College, Dialog Award recipient 2020
Applications for the award will open at the beginning of June 2021– click HERE for full details, including eligibility and how to apply.
“I thoroughly enjoyed designing and working on my project so the opportunity to be recognised for the success I achieved is especially rewarding.”
Richard Carter, runner-up
The UKESF are delighted to announce the results of the 2020 Embedded Systems Competition. Unfortunately, we were unable to hold an event to present the awards, but are hoping to hold a virtual event later this year.
With considerably more entries than in 2019, the judges announced Jack Sampford as the winner, and Richard Carter as the runner-up. Jack, who studies at Loughborough University received £1,000, and Richard Carter, studying at University of Southampton, received £500.
UltraSoC, now part of Mentor, a Siemens business, sponsors the UKESF in running the competition, which aims to raise awareness about and interest in embedded systems among undergraduates studying Electronics. The competition highlights excellence in students completing their major individual project on embedded systems and enables understanding of how to architect and implement future complex embedded systems in the UK.
The national competition was open to engineering undergraduates studying at one of the UKESF’s 24 partner universities who were completing their major individual project with a principal focus on embedded systems. Entrants were required to submit to a summary of their project on an A1 printable poster, including the aim, results, impact and next steps.
Jack’s entry was titled ‘Exploration of Embedded Cryptography for NoC-Based Multi-Core Architectures’ and he said, “Winning this award represents a wonderful end to a challenging year, and will be an asset in my ongoing career working with embedded electronic systems.”
Dr Chinthana Panagamuwa MEng, PhD, FHEA, Lecturer in Photonic Systems and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Electronics based Programmes, commented “That is fantastic news!”, as Jack is the first winner of a UKESF Competition from Loughborough University.
Richard Carter, who is a UKESF Scholar, was placed as the runner-up with his entry ‘Development of Bicycle Wheel Mounted Persistence of Vision (PoV) Display’. Richard said “I am delighted to be selected as the national runner-up of the 2020 UKESF Embedded Systems Competition. I thoroughly enjoyed designing and working on my project so the opportunity to be recognised for the success I achieved is especially rewarding. As with many embedded systems, there are many things from my project that I would like to improve on, and I have already started working on the next iteration of my PoV Bike Wheel Display. My thanks go to UltraSoC and UKESF for sponsoring, organising, and judging the competition.”
“Many congratulations to Richard, it’s great to see Southampton students being successful in the UKESF Competitions yet again. This is a testament to the excellent quality of our students, and particularly in the domain of embedded systems.”
Prof Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
“As a leading provider of embedded analytics, we were incredibly impressed with the standard of entrants in the Embedded Systems Competition and we are delighted to have been involved. I’d personally like to congratulate both Jack and Richard, the worthy winners of this award, and to thank Stewart and the team at the UKESF for organising. The standards of the student projects confirm our belief that companies like ourselves benefit significantly from building closer ties with academia and why our University Program is an important and on-going initiative for UltraSoC.”
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer, UltraSoC
Despite all the disruption caused by the pandemic, we were able to run the 2020 RF Engineering & Communications Competition, and we were delighted to receive many more entries than we anticipated.
This annual competition, run in partnership with the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) and with support from Leonardo, highlights the work of students at UKESF partner universities who are focusing on RF engineering and communications in their final year. Entrants are required to submit a poster summarising their major individual project.
The first place prize of £1,000 was awarded to Matthew Bridges for his outstanding project: ‘8×8 MIMO Antenna Design for 5G Sub 6GHz Smartphone Applications’; a unanimous decision by the judges. Matthew is a UKESF Scholar who studies at the University of Surrey and is sponsored by SEA.
Matt said, “I was extremely excited to win the RF Engineering & Communications Competition and very thankful to the organisers and judges of this event!
“When I first spoke to my supervisor about this project, I would never have imagined the opportunities that would come from it. Getting the chance to learn about new innovative technologies that are shaping the future of 5G communications was exactly why I chose to do electronic engineering at the University of Surrey. Taking this project from the requirements all the way to validating the prototyped measured results against those obtained in simulation and modelling made it the highlight of my degree.
“As a UKESF scholar, I have seen the help and support that UKESF provides to electronic engineers in their degree. This competition is another example of what this Foundation offers and for that, I am enormously grateful. Receiving these opportunities and the scholarship during my degree only furthers my enthusiasm to pursue a career in this field which I know I will find both really interesting and rewarding. I would also like to thank my supervisors for the support they gave me and my head of department for the encouragement to enter this competition.”
Dr David Carey, Head of Department at Surrey, commented: “Surrey is the leading university for 5G and next generation communication systems and the Department has always prided itself on being able to expose our students to cutting edge research topics as part of their degree.”
The two runners-up each received £500: Tom Moody from University of Southampton, another UKESF Scholar who is sponsored by Meggitt, entered his project ‘Frequency Reconfigurable Patch Antennas’.
Tom said, “I love working and studying in the field of RF and I am thrilled my work has been recognised by the UKESF and RCF.”
Jessica Abbey Kelly, studying at Loughborough University, entered her project on ‘The design and analysis of low pass stepped impedance filters with multi-material and 3D substrates’.
Jessica said, “I am grateful for the recognition of my hard work and the support of my supervisor and his team that has resulted in expanding the possibilities for use of additive manufacturing in RF devices. I found the process of submitting my work straightforward, an extension of the university project requirements. It is affirming to know that despite many events and awards being cancelled this year, this competition ran in a similar format to previous years, with more partner universities being brought on board.
“In RF engineering I have found that there are few female role models, this award increases the visibility of women across engineering, who are equally able to achieve in this field as men.”
Jessica’s Project Supervisor, Will Whittow, Professor of Radiofrequency Materials at Loughborough University said, “Jess worked exceptionally hard all year. She integrated some complex RF concepts with excellent fabrication/measurement skills. To achieve as much as she did in a year when COVID closed the labs is very impressive. She basically completed her project two months early. We will try to submit her work as a conference paper in due course. She thoroughly deserves her award.”
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson commented, “We were delighted to receive so many entries into this competition in such a disrupted year for studies. The standard of the entries seems to be improving year on year. Congratulations to our three finalists, I look forward to seeing them all go on to achieve great things in the future.”
Many thanks to our judging panel: Trevor Gill of RCF, Dr Merv Haynes of Leonardo and Dr James Hopgood from University of Edinburgh.
We are still hoping to hold a virtual prize giving ceremony in the New Year.
“I hope to learn vital tools that will help me in achieving my career goals, to become a leader like those I’ve met, and to increase my self-confidence. I can’t wait to start!”
Lydia Moore
2020’s winner of the Skills 4 Scholar’s Award is Lydia Moore (UKESF Scholar 2016–present), who is studying for a MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton and is sponsored by AWE.
Lydia will receive a place on Skills 4’s award-winning EMPOWER: Career Development Programme. The programme is designed to help women further their careers and has already encouraged over 8,000 women to advance professionally during the eight years since its inception. It reports that 97% of participants have a more proactive approach to career progression upon completion of the sessions, and 88% have higher levels of self-confidence.
Lydia said, “I feel extremely honoured to have won this award. Throughout the 20-months experience I’ve accumulated with my sponsoring company through UKESF, I’ve met and worked alongside so many inspirational, female leaders in both STEM and the wider industry. They’ve all pushed me to be the best that I can be, showing me what I can accomplish during my career. For example, I would never have thought I could achieve professional registration at 20 if it were not for my first Task Manager – who herself had achieved it – and helped me believe I could too.
“Therefore, this Skills 4 award and subsequent developmental course will be invaluable. I hope to learn vital tools that will help me in achieving my career goals, to become a leader like those I’ve met, and to increase my self-confidence. I can’t wait to start!”
The Skills 4 Scholar’s Award takes into account academic performance, placement feedback and STEM-awareness contribution. Congratulations Lydia!
Launched in October 2020, the Code is a commitment to work toward common goals to increase the diversity and number of young people entering engineering careers. To achieve these goals, signatories, including the UKESF, have made pledges about their approach to funding, designing, delivering, and learning from engineering-inspiration activities, including STEM programmes dedicated to inspiring young people into engineering.
Engineering is a varied, stimulating and valuable career and we need to work harder than ever to ensure that it is accessible for this generation of young people – for their own life chances and so that we have a diverse and insightful workforce that enables the UK to thrive.
Being collaborative is one of the core values of the UKESF; therefore, we understand that a more joined-up approach and working collectively will be beneficial to help young people understand what engineering is, how to get into it, and be motivated and able to access the educational and training opportunities on the way.
To find out more, visit the Tomorrow’s Engineers website and follow on Facebook and Twitter.
This year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it is really heartening to see even more companies joining our Scholarship Scheme. This growth shows the tremendous strength and resilience of the Electronics sector in the UK. It also reflects the ongoing challenge for employers to tackle their graduate level skills gaps. Our Scheme helps employers connect with students from the UKESF’s 24 partner universities.
The UKESF welcomed a further seven new Company Partners to the scheme: Caterpillar, Clas-SiC, CSA Catapult, Jaltek, Seagate, SingMai, and Ultraleap.
“Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Operating from 50 countries around the globe, the Caterpillar brand has developed into a symbol of strength, respect, and integrity. The organisation has a clear vision to be the global leader in providing customer value in the markets in which it operates.”
“Clas-SiC Wafer Fab is the world’s first dedicated open Foundry to manufacture Silicon Carbide power semi-conductors. We operate from our custom built and fully fitted out Class 100 clean room facility, with State of the art 150mm semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Silicon Carbide (SiC) wafer and compound semiconductor technology is fast emerging as the key enabler in smaller, lighter and more energy efficient power systems of the future.”
“CSA Catapult was established to help the UK become a global leader in compound semiconductors through collaboration with both large companies, and start-ups to develop and commercialise new applications utilising this technology.”
“Jaltek Systems, based in Luton, Bedfordshire, is a leading AS9100 and ISO 13485 accredited UK contract electronics manufacturer with over 30 years’ experience. We offer a comprehensive range of integrated design and manufacturing services adapted to meet our customer’s varied requirements.”
“From the videos, music and documents that we share with friends and family on social networks, to servers that form the backbone of enterprise data centres and cloud-based computing, to desktop and notebook computers that fuel our personal productivity, Seagate products help more people to store, share and protect their valuable digital content.”
“SingMai design and manufacture products for video processing markets. We design everything ourselves, so if we want a tiny microprocessor we design our own one. We sell IP (intellectual property) cores to customers who are maybe designing cameras for high end car manufacturers (parking assist etc) or security cameras, or we sell video processors for subsea or pipeline inspection or to drone manufacturers.”
“Ultraleap have brought together the world’s most powerful 3D hand tracking with the only mid-air haptics technology to change the way humans and machines interact, solving some of the most challenging and practical problems on the way.”
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme provides the most dedicated Electronics undergraduates from UKESF Partner Universities with an annual bursary and paid summer work placement, in addition to a range of other benefits. Each company will interview a number of relevant applicants and go on to provide sponsorship and professional support to one one or more successful scholars. Employers interested in joining the scheme can find out more here.
“I am humbled to be amongst the list of previous worthy award winners.”
Prof Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng
Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi, UKESF Trustee and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, has been awarded the prestigious Faraday Medal by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Founded in 1922, and named after Michael Faraday, this international award is given for notable scientific/industrial achievement, for services rendered to the advancement of engineering/technology or for lifetime achievement in science, engineering or technology. Professor Al-Hashimi was chosen to receive the medal in recognition for seminal contributions to semiconductor manufacturing test of system-on-chip, pioneering new test data compression and low power methods.
Commenting on the award, Professor Al-Hashimi said: “The IET Faraday Medal is one of the most prestigious awards worldwide to recognise contributions to engineering and science and I am humbled to be amongst the list of previous worthy award winners.”
The UKESF is pleased to announce the finalists of the 2020 Automotive Electronics Competition, run in partnership with AESIN and with generous support from UltraSoC (now acquired by Siemens): winner Suzanne Candanedo (Warwick) and runner-up Oana Lazar (Southampton).
Entrants from partner universities were asked to turn their thoughts to the future of cyber security for connected and autonomous vehicles and to write a short ‘think piece’. UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson said, “This is the second year that we have run this competition. I am very grateful for UltraSoC’s sponsorship and support. We received more entries this time, which is really heartening given all the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The winners produced thoroughly readable and thought provoking pieces; well done!”
Winner Suzanne Candanedo, University of Warwick, received £1,000. She said, “My parents have always instilled in me to show curiosity and question things; and this blog was a good outlet. It was fun sharing my thoughts and reflections on the future of cybersecurity in autonomous vehicles. Hopefully, those who read it found themselves reflecting on something new too! This award was a fantastic way to end my undergraduate career and culmination of my aggregated experiences. So I would like to finish by thanking my professors, coursemates, friends, and family.”
Read Suzanne’s entry here.
Runner-up Oana Lazar (UKESF Scholar, sponsored by UltraSoC), University of Southampton, received £500. She said, “Automotive electronics has grown from a futuristic concept to a key field of engineering in just a few short years, and the UKESF Automotive Electronics Competition has inspired me to follow this exciting development! Through lectures by the IET, webinars by the IEEE, and projects such as UltraSoC’s Secure-CAV, I have been learning how this novel industry is changing almost all aspects of engineering, and especially software safety through standards such as MISRA. It is an incredible honour to have been able to take a small part in this revolution by being selected as this competition’s finalist, so I would like to give my warmest thanks to the UKESF, AESIN, and UltraSoC for offering me this amazing opportunity, and to Professor Geoff Merrett for encouraging me to apply. Finally, I want to thank my late boyfriend Dan Colmer for introducing me to the world of cars and sharing his incredible enthusiasm with me, I hope he would have been proud of how far I have come.”
Read Oana’s entry here.
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer, UltraSoC, said, “Once again I’ve been really impressed not just with the number but also the quality of the entries to this year’s competition. It’s great to know that the emerging generation of engineers show such awareness and insight into the issues facing the automotive industry, and the socio-economic impact of our activities as engineers. I’d like to offer a big thank you to all of the entrants, who had clearly put a great deal of time, energy and thought into their submissions; also to the UKESF for their continuing commitment to developing our skills base in the UK. And finally, say ‘congratulations’ to Suzanne Candanedo and Oana Lazar, whose contributions came out top in such a high-quality field of entrants.”
Neon is a new website for teachers, careers co-ordinators and school leaders that aims to inspire students through experiences and resources
The UKESF is delighted to be involved with new Engineering education initiative Neon, which features “Electronics Everywhere” as one of its experiences.
Neon is a new website for teachers, careers co-ordinators and school leaders. Launched in September 2020, it is powered by the team behind Big Bang and Tomorrow’s Engineers and has partnered with the Engineering community to inspire students through experiences and resources.
The experiences have been curated to meet key quality criteria to be fully inclusive, articulate learning outcomes and meet health and safety and data protection standards. All experiences are aligned to careers information, help teachers hit careers education benchmarks and really help schools showcase real-world applications to Engineering.
To find out more, visit the Neon website and follow on Facebook and Twitter.
The UKESF has just published its Annual Review for 2019/20 – read it HERE.
“This has been a difficult period but our whole team has responded magnificently; I have been heartened by the support that we have continued to receive from our partners from both industry and higher education. In particular, I would like to thank our volunteer Trustees, who have provided me with invaluable advice and support. As a result, I am pleased to say that we have been able to ‘steady the ship’ and can now look ahead to 2020/21 with a fair degree of confidence. This is important, as our work is now even more vital as the UK emerges from the crisis with a renewed focus on technology and innovation.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
Click HERE to read the full Annual Review.
“It is vitally important to have a national platform for these ‘role models’ in order to help inspire more youngsters to study Electronics and to pursue careers in the sector.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The UKESF is delighted to report that the recently released EW BrightSparks list for 2020 includes one current and two graduated UKESF Scholars. It is always heartening when Scholars receive public recognition, and the UKESF is extremely proud of the quality and high calibre of the students that join our undergraduate Scholarship Scheme.
The EW BrightSparks programme is run by Electronics Weekly in partnership with RS Components, and aims to highlight the brightest young electronic engineers in the UK. The three UKESF Scholars being celebrated this year are:
Congratulations Yanislav, James and Dominic!
“The kit features hands-on activities with a circuit board that teach core electronics concepts to A-level Computer Science students.”
An article by UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson has been featured in the latest edition of Hello World, a computing and digital making magazine for educators. The article explains how “Electronics Everywhere” kits are helping students develop the computing skills required for future careers.
“We know that computing is an increasingly popular A-level subject with 10,000 students nationwide sitting the exam in 2018; this was up 23 per cent on 2017. Despite this, there are few hands-on teaching resources available to schools to teach fundamental computer engineering. Therefore, working closely with academics from the University of Southampton’s prestigious School of Electronics and Computer Science, the UKESF has developed a Logic and Arithmetic Kit. The kit features hands-on activities with a circuit board that teach core electronics concepts to A-level Computer Science students.”
Read the full article HERE.
“Electronics Everywhere” is a collaboration between the UKESF and the University of Southampton, with support from the Institute of Physics and Computing at School. It is focused on raising attainment in the A-level subjects (Physics and Computer Science) and promoting Electronics by providing classroom sets of resources linked directly to the curriculum and by training teachers – find out more about the projects here.
So far, 175 schools/teachers have been involved, with over 700 boards distributed to schools. Extremely positive feedback has shown the approach to be effective and to resonate with teachers. In summary, “Electronics Everywhere”:
If teachers/schools would like to register their interest, they should contact the UKESF at [email protected]
#ISOLATIONINTERN is helping UK startups recruit students and researchers during COVID-19
The UKESF is proud to be supporting Blackfinch Ventures’ #ISOLATIONINTERN movement, designed to help UK startups recruit students and researchers for remote working opportunities during COVID-19. The movement is backed by a number of leading universities and top venture capital firms, and seeks to support companies in their early stages and contribute to keeping the economy on track in this difficult time, as well as providing opportunities for the bright minds currently unable to work.
The UKESF is helping to generate interest and raise the profile of #ISOLATIONINTERN amongst our 24 Partner Universities by utilising our well-established connections and asking our academic contacts to publicise the jobs on offer to their students and researchers. We are also reaching out to our large network of graduated Scholars, many of whom are now part of startups themselves and may know of opportunities for interns, as well as drawing the attention of our Sponsor Companies to the movement.
#ISOLATIONINTERN opportunities are available in various STEM areas and on a short-term, part-time basis. All listing fees are being donated to charities that help talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access education from top UK universities.
Find out more and post or apply for a job HERE.
The #ISOLATIONINTERN launch partners are:
94% of companies praised the quality of applicants for the UKESF Scholarship Scheme
The UKESF’s relationship with sponsor companies is at the heart of the Scholarship Scheme, so as it expands it is reassuring to know that employer satisfaction remains exceptional high. In a recent survey[1]:
The UKESF now has 24 partner universities, from right across the UK. With these partners, we continue to attract high-quality students to the Scholarship Scheme. This year we received over 230 applications from undergraduates, with a noticeable increase in the percentage of female students applying; indeed, over a quarter (28%) of Scholarships were awarded to female students.
“We had a higher proportion of female applicants through the UKESF compared to our direct intern programme, which proved to be valuable to us.”
Gaining experience though work placements is at the heart of the Scholarship Scheme. We had some great feedback on the value gained by students from their placements:
“I absolutely loved my placement, it was nothing like any job I have done before; it was intellectually stimulating, exciting and really fun.”
Helping the industry tackle its skill shortage and encouraging more young people to pursue careers in Electronics is what the UKESF is all about:
Graduated UKESF Scholars have continued to receive national recognition:
Thank you to our university partners and sponsor companies for their support this year, and to our corporate sponsors: Arm, AWE, Dialog Semiconductor and Qualcomm. It is very much appreciated.
The UKESF hopes everyone is keeping safe and well, and we will be in touch over the summer to discuss participation in the Scholarship Scheme for the next academic year.
[1] A survey undertaken in March/April 2020, with responses from 21 companies.
“It is vitally important to have a national platform for these ‘role models’ in order to help inspire more youngsters to study Electronics and to pursue careers in the sector.”
Stew Edmondson
The UKESF is now an official supporter of EW BrightSparks. The annual EW BrightSparks programme is run by Electronics Weekly in partnership with RS Components, and aims to highlight the brightest young electronic engineers (aged 18–30) in the UK who are already making a difference in the Electronics sector.
“Electronics Weekly’s BrightSparks competition has quickly become the premier competition for showcasing young professionals working in the Electronics sector; for celebrating their success and importantly for highlighting their potential. It is pleasing that many of the those selected as BrightSparks have studied at one of the Foundation’s partner universities and even more so that some have actually graduated through the UKESF’s undergraduate Scholarship Scheme. It is vitally important to have a national platform for these ‘role models’ in order to help inspire more youngsters to study Electronics and to pursue careers in the sector. Therefore, this shows that there is complete alignment between the aims of the competition and the UKESF’s charitable purpose. Consequently, the Foundation is delighted to be formally recognised as a supporter of the BrightSparks competition. We look forward to helping the competition grow and becoming even more successful.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
Read about the UKESF Scholars who made the EW BrightSparks list in 2019 here.
To nominate yourself or a colleague for EW BrightSparks 2020, click here.
The UKESF is pleased to welcome the University of Warwick as our 24th university partner, meaning company sponsors are able to connect with even more high quality students and Warwick undergraduates will now have the opportunity to benefit from our ever-expanding programme of scholarships, internships and competitions.
“Warwick University is delighted to partner with the UKESF and support their mission to promote Electronic Engineering more widely. We have long-standing offerings in Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering as well as our newer programmes in Electrical & Electronic and Biomedical Systems Engineering. We strongly believe in embedding electronics and programming into every engineer’s curriculum and have invested heavily in our start-of-the art facilities and inspiring teachers to achieve this. Joining the UKESF allows us to continue to develop opportunities for current and future students as we work together with industry to showcase the variety and importance of Engineering careers.”
Prof David Towers, Head of School of Engineering
“I’m ever so pleased that Warwick are now a UKESF partner university. They have a vibrant, research-led, Electronics Department with strong links with industry. I really like their approach, with an initial focus on general engineering and then majoring on learning Electronics through projects and practical work.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The University of Warwick’s School of Engineering features consistently in the top ten of all UK league tables and provides a solid engineering background before undergraduates specialise in their chosen area. Warwick offers an impressive range of workshops and labs with cutting-edge equipment, and academics at the forefront of their subjects. The location in Coventry places undergraduates close to many of the UK’s biggest names in the engineering.
“Multiple opportunities to network with both companies and other female engineers, which was both informative and empowering, and many of these I now happily call my friends.”
UKESF Scholar Megan
For the fourth year in a row, the UKESF supported the final-year female Scholars to attend the annual Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Student Conference with all-expenses-paid places. Attendance was kindly sponsored by Enigma, a recruitment company that specialises in the UK technology sector.
The University of Warwick hosted the annual conference, taking place from 8th to 9th November and bringing together students, academics and young engineers.
Megan Goodsell (University of Southampton/Sky) wrote on her LinkedIn blog, “This weekend I had the fantastic opportunity to attend the Women’s Engineering Society conference 2019 through my UKESF Scholarship. The theme this year was ‘Transform the Future’, which after the panel sessions we attended I feel even more inspired to do exactly that. Over the course of two days we had various inspiring speakers, panel discussions with the WES YMB and professionals in the industry and CPD workshops, of which the leadership one was a particular highlight for me, making me more determined to achieve the very best. Multiple opportunities to network (including at a formal dinner) with both companies and other female engineers, which was both informative and empowering, and many of these I now happily call my friends.”
UKESF Scholar Megan Goodsell (left)
The Scholars who attended had a brilliant time and are sharing their thoughts with Enigma in a series of interviews about the event, their experiences in the Electronics industry and what excites them about the future of technology.
First up was Agnes Nagy (University of Nottingham/vivaMOS, now acquired by Nordson): “Most people consider electronics as just a magic black box, they accept it works, and they expect it to work and I could never do that. I wanted to know why they work and how they worked, and I just wanted to do my own project … Personally, I’m looking to go into medical electronics, which has huge potential right now. So hopefully, with the help of that, I will be able to help people directly.” Full her full interview here.
The second interview was with Megan Goodsell (University of Southampton/Sky): “I get annoyed by the fact that there aren’t many women in it [Engineering], and I want to prove the point that there’s no reason we can’t do it. There’s also the stigma that it’s a guy’s job; I completely disagree with that! … it was very nice to see other female students who have the same interests as me, and we can relate to each other because we know what it’s like being in a room of all guys.” Read her full interview here.
Watch this space for more interviews!
“Winning this award means a lot to me. There is always room for me to improve my confidence and professional development and Skills 4 UK are experts in diversity and inclusion. I am very excited to learn from them.”
Rachel Howard
2019’s winner of the Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award is Rachel Howard (UKESF Scholar 2017–20), who is studying for a MEng in Computer Science and Electronics at the University of Bristol and is sponsored by Altran (now Capgemini).
Rachel will receive a place on Skills 4 UK’s award-winning Career Development Programme, as well as additional coaching. The programme is designed to help women further their careers and has already encouraged over 4,000 women to advance professionally during the eight years since its inception. It reports that 97% of participants have a more proactive approach to career progression upon completion of the sessions, and 88% have higher levels of self-confidence.
Rachel said, “In year 9 I started to have this strong predilection for a career requiring practical skills. I thought about learning a trade. In the end I decided to take A-levels first then make a decision afterwards. At a college open day I saw some coursework produced by the students and I decided to take the Electronics A-level.
“I was one of two women who took the full A-level in a full class. I have never felt excluded or minoritised as a woman in STEM. Since going to university, to study Computer Science and Electronics, and becoming a UKESF Scholar, I have been given a lot of support and, along with my male peers, have been taught the important skills I need to succeed.
“Winning this award means a lot to me. There is always room for me to improve my confidence and professional development and Skills 4 UK are experts in diversity and inclusion. I am very excited to learn from them.”
The Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award takes into account academic performance, placement feedback and STEM-awareness contribution. Congratulations Rachel!
“Taking part in the competition made me think deeper about the road ahead for automotive cybersecurity.”
David Kong, Automotive Electronics Competition winner 2019
This year the UKESF, in partnership with AESIN and with generous support from UltraSoC (now acquired by Siemens), launched a new competition. Students from partner universities were asked to turn their thoughts to the future of cyber security for connected and autonomous vehicles and to write a short ‘think piece’. The standard of entries was impressively high and the students produced some fascinating pieces, demonstrating their strong engagement with the subject. Judges selected two finalists from a substantial number of entries, and the prizes were presented as part of the 2019 AESIN Conference.
The AESIN Conference 2019
UKESF Scholars at the conference
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson spoke as part of the conference welcome, supported by UKESF Scholar Tom. They were joined by a group of Scholar volunteers, who networked with delegates and helped promote the UKESF throughout the conference. Stew also took part in the Executive Panel Discussion.
Stew speaking at the conference
Stew with the UKESF Scholar volunteers on the UKESF stand
Competition winner David Kong, UKESF Scholar (sponsored by onsemi) and undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, received £1,000 prize money. He said, “I’m honoured to have been selected as the winner of the UKESF Automotive Electronics Competition. Taking part in the competition made me think deeper about the road ahead for automotive cybersecurity. As we work towards releasing Level 5 autonomous vehicles, it is crucial that engineers consider cybersecurity from both software and hardware perspectives. I am very grateful to my UKESF scholarship sponsor company, ON Semiconductor, for providing me with the summer work placement that opened my eyes to the world of automotive cybersecurity. Thank you to the UKESF, AESIN and UltraSoC for organising the competition.”
Finalist James Leyland, University of York, received £500. The winning entries are re-produced HERE.
Finalist James Leyland with Aileen Ryan (UltraSoC) and Stew
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer from UltraSoC, on presenting the award at the AESIN Conference, “Following a strong and substantial number of entries, there were two very strong finalists in David and James, so well done to both! David’s winning submission on cybersecurity and its impact on functional safety, including addressing issues of industry standards, was very insightful; and James’ analysis of data generated by autonomous vehicles and questions of passenger safety – these functional safety and cybersecurity topics are a major focus for us here at UltraSoC. Congratulations to David and to James; and thank you to AESIN and the UKESF for organising the award.”
The finalists of the inaugural Embedded Systems Competition were awarded on 6th November 2019 at the annual TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London. Both students at the University of Southampton, Yanislav Donchev was announced as the winner and received £1,000, with runner-up Torran Green receiving £500.
L–R: Stew Edmondson, Torran Green, Aileen Ryan (UltraSoC), Yanislav Donchev
UltraSoC supports the UKESF in running the competition, which aims to raise awareness about and interest in embedded systems among undergraduates studying Electronics. The competition highlights excellence in students completing their major individual project on embedded systems and enables understanding of how to architect and implement future complex embedded systems in the UK.
“I worked hard for my third-year project and being the national winner of the Embedded Systems Competition 2019 is extremely rewarding. I am thankful to the judges for recognising my work and to UltraSoC and the UKESF for organising and sponsoring the award. Today embedded systems are found in almost every electronic device and motivating students to leverage their experience in this field is of great importance.”
Yanislav Donchev
The national competition was open to engineering undergraduates studying at one of the UKESF’s 23 partner universities who were completing their major individual project with a principal focus on embedded systems. Entrants were required to submit to a summary of their project on an A1 printable poster, including the aim, results, impact and next steps.
The University of Southampton has produced an article about Yanislav’s project, including a video demonstrating his ‘drumless’ concept – find it here.
“Many congratulations to Yanislav for his excellent individual project on ‘air drums’. I am delighted that his hard work has been recognised through this award, and also that both of the finalists are from Southampton! This recognises the excellent quality of our students, and particularly in the domain of embedded systems.”
Prof Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
“As a leading provider of embedded analytics, we were incredibly impressed with the standard of entrants in the Embedded Systems Competition and we are delighted to have been involved. I’d personally like to congratulate Torran and Yanislav, the worthy winners of this award, and to thank Stewart and the team at the UKESF for organising. The standards of the student projects confirm our belief that companies like ourselves benefit significantly from building closer ties with academia and why our University Program is an important and on-going initiative for UltraSoC.”
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer, UltraSoC
“The UKESF has provided me with the opportunity to meet many marvellous people.”
Hugo McNally, joint Scholar of the Year 2019
On 6th November 2019 the UKESF attended the annual TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London, to announce the Scholar of the Year Award winners and hold a Fundraising Raffle in aid of our vital work in the Electronics sector. This year the event coincided with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s This is Engineering Day, making it an extra special industry celebration.
L–R: Stew Edmondson, Mary Bennett, Hugo McNally, Neil Dickins (IC Resources)
The raffle raised almost £3,000 for the UKESF, so huge thanks go to all the attendees who participated and congratulations to the prize winners! The funds raised will be channelled into hands-on STEM activities for children, summer schools for A-level students, professional development for UKESF scholars, and much more.
The UKESF had three tables at the event this year, one of which was kindly donated by Neil Dickins of IC Resources. Our guests included five UKESF Trustees, 15 former and current UKESF Scholars (including the 2019 Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award recipient), the Embedded Systems Competition finalists and various representatives from some of the companies and organisations we partner with.
Stew Edmondson with Aileen Ryan (UltraSoC) and the Embedded Systems Competition finalists
The UKESF Scholar of the Year Award went to joint winners: Mary Bennett (University of Surrey/Embecosm) and Hugo McNally (University of Southampton/onsemi). Many thanks to IC Resources, who sponsor the award.
“My sponsoring company, Embecosm, has strongly encouraged my work as the Group Chair for the RISC-V foundations University and Open Source Outreach task group. As part of this role, I have created two awards promoting and celebrating the teaching and learning of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science across the world. Embecosm has also encouraged me to present some of my work with them at several international conferences. I am very proud of my achievements and am honoured to be named 2019’s UKESF Scholars of the Year.”
Mary Bennett
“The UKESF has provided me with the opportunity to meet many marvellous people. Not only the people at my sponsoring company and the UKESF, who have taught me immeasurable amounts, but also the network of other high-achieving scholars.”
Hugo McNally
“We are delighted that Mary has been selected as a UKESF Scholar of the Year. Mary has been sponsored by Embecosm since July 2017, where she joined us for a year working in industry and then each subsequent summer in our head office in Lymington.
During Mary’s time with us she has been a key player in Embecosm’s contributions to the open source community and is currently leading a research program using mathematically formal descriptions of computer processors in association with Cambridge University Computer Laboratory.
Mary has also worked to support the next generation of engineers by leading a variety of workshops and is the Champion of the RISC-V Foundation’s Academia and Training Special Interest Group (SIG). It is a great honour for us to be able to play a small part in her success.”
Dr Jeremy Bennett, Chief Executive of Embecosm (Mary’s sponsor company)
“Hugo demonstrated outstanding technical ability, communications skills and enthusiasm during his internal project execution, his mentoring of two new UKESF interns and through his outreach activities. Of special note was his support of the UKESF’s ‘Girl’s into Electronics’ event.”
Dr David Burrows, Head of ON Semiconductor’s Bracknell (UK) Design Centre (Hugo’s sponsor company)
“Many congratulations to Hugo for this excellent result, acknowledging the contributions that he has made to his sponsoring company and in promoting the Electronics sector. Hugo is Southampton’s 10th finalist, and 7th winner, in the 9 years that the Scholar of the Year Award has been in existence. This is a continued testament to our consistently high-quality students, and the excellent and longstanding relationship that we have with the UKESF.”
Prof Geoff Merrett, Head of Centre for IoT and Pervasive Systems, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (Hugo’s university)
The 350 attendees of the sold-out TechWorks event enjoyed a black tie three-course meal, a speech by special guest Penny Power OBE and, later, entertainment from a live party band. Penny founded a professional network called Ecademy in 1998 (pre-dating LinkedIn by four years) and was awarded an OBE in 2014 for her contribution to entrepreneurship in the social digital sector. Penny announced each of the TechWorks Award winners, and her inspiring talk received a standing ovation.
Stew Edmondson speaking at the event
Read the University of Southampton’s article on Hugo and the Embedded Systems Competition finalists here.
“This is a fantastic initiative; supporting and encouraging students is really important for Dialog, as a business.”
Ian Kent, Senior Director IC Package Engineering, Dialog Semiconductor
The UKESF works collaboratively with a number of organisations and companies to tackle the gender imbalance in the Electronics sector. This year, we teamed up with The Smallpeice Trust to hold a hugely successful ‘Girls into Electronics’ course, and developed our association with Dialog Semiconductor, a long-standing corporate partner, to launch the Dialog Award for Female Undergraduates.
Stew Edmondson, CEO of the UKESF, and Kevin Stenson, Chief Executive of The Smallpeice Trust, recently visited Dialog Semiconductor in Swindon to meet the recipients of the inaugural Dialog Award during their work placements. Click HERE to read our article about their experiences and why the Award is so important.
L–R: Stew Edmondson, Katie, Ian Kent, Alice, Kevin Stenson
“Fantastic four days, can’t believe I got paid for that! Many thanks!”
2019 Workshop attendee
The UKESF Scholar Workshop is an annual highlight of the Scholarship Scheme, encouraging both personal and professional development through a range of sessions delivered by a team of renowned facilitators and guest speakers. It took place 1st to 5th September this year, at the University of York, and included a work-based group project, opportunities to network with industry professionals and a celebratory formal dinner on the final night.
Stew Edmondson introducing the Workshop
As usual, feeback was overwhelmingly positive:
“Loved the entire week. It’s a brilliant opportunity to interact with like-minded people and the content covered is very useful and interesting.”
The ice-breaker activity
“This workshop 100% exceeded my expectations! I have had the best time over the past few days not only learning about different skills and information that I will use in the future but also making great friends along the way. I was so surprised after seeing the amount of scholars and thoroughly enjoyed talking to them about their experiences during placements.”
Session on cyber security
“A fantastic 4-day crash course on how to become a successful engineer. The lectures were captivating, the workshops were fun and educational, and overall it was a great opportunity to form both business connections with other students, and make lifelong friends!”
The panel discussion
“The previous interns at our company said that this workshop was really good but it still exceeded my expectations. I had a really good time and enjoyed all the talks given. All the speakers were lovely, never forcing us to talk but encouraging it. I would be happy to encourage anyone to be part of UKESF, especially to do Electronic and Electrical Engineering, it’s a great community.”
The formal dinner
Many thanks to the faciliators from Think Eleven Ltd, Team Massive Results, Skills 4 UK and Lean Practice, and to The IET, Cyber Security Associates Ltd, IC Resources and Mathys and Squire for their support.
Teams working on their projects
The UKESF connects the most capable Electronics undergraduates with leading companies in the sector
The UKESF is delighted to welcome a further three new Company Partners to the Scholarship Scheme ahead of applications opening: Chess Dynamics, Graphcore and SEA.
“Chess Dynamics Ltd is a medium-sized UK company that provides electro-optical (EO) solutions within the defence and security sectors, including sophisticated optical surveillance, communications and stabilised radar platforms and systems for land, maritime and off-shore applications.”
“Graphcore has created a completely new processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), specifically designed for artificial intelligence … Our team is at the forefront of the artificial intelligence revolution, enabling innovators from all industries and sectors to expand human potential with technology. What we do, really makes a difference.”
“SEA, founded in 1969, provides engineering and software design services to Government agencies, industrial prime contractors and academia. We employ high-calibre staff and place our emphasis on quality of service, innovation, flexibility and a creative approach to problem solving.”
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme provides the most dedicated Electronics undergraduates from UKESF Partner Universities with an annual bursary and paid summer work placement, in addition to a range of other benefits. Each company will interview a number of relevant applicants and go on to provide sponsorship and professional support to one or more successful scholars. Employers interested in joining the scheme can find out more here.
Swansea University is internationally renowned for research into power electronics, telecommunications, nanotechnology and biometrics
Swansea University is the 23rd leading academic institution to partner with the UK Electronics Skills Foundation, joining 22 other universities working with the UKESF and meaning that, as the scholarship programme expands, industry sponsors will be able to connect with even more high quality students.
“Swansea University celebrates its centenary in 2020 and the founding ethos of ‘established by industry to work in partnership with industry’ is a key principle that we have followed ever since. As a university, we are very proud of our record of preparing our graduates for careers in industry and we are delighted to join the UKESF, which will further extend these valuable opportunities. The collaboration with a prestigious body like the UKESF will really help us to further develop links with industry and schools to the benefit of the entire Electronics sector.”
Prof Cris Arnold, Deputy Head of College and Director of Learning & Teaching
There is a thriving Electronics sector in Wales and so it is great to have Swansea join the UKESF as our 23rd partner university. Their new facilities at the Bay Campus are first class and they have created some exciting programmes for students.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
Swansea University is internationally renowned for research into power electronics, telecommunications, nanotechnology and biometrics, which feeds back into their Electrical Engineering degree courses to keep them up-to-date and relevant to industry. The Electronic Systems Design Centre (ESDC) is known for its ground-breaking research into Power IC technology and is a world-leader in semiconductor device modelling, FEM and compact modelling.
The UKESF is delighted to welcome Queen’s University, Belfast, to the Scholarship Scheme. The addition of Northern Ireland’s only Russell Group university means that the UKESF is now truly covering the whole of the UK, partnering with a total of 22 leading academic institutions nationwide. As the scholarship programme continues to expand, company sponsors are able to connect with even more high quality students.
“It is great to finally have Queen’s as a UKESF partner university. Their School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has some fantastic facilities, they are undertaking cutting-edge research and they have a large number of undergraduates, so they are a most welcome addition to our network.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF
The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University has been awarded the royally sealed Regius Professorship for its pioneering work in the field of cyber security. Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen’s is ranked in the Top 10 in the UK for research, with 93% of research rated as either ‘World-leading’ or ‘Internationally Excellent’. Students benefit from a research-led education and the opportunity to undertake final-year projects related to cutting-edge technologies.
“At Queen’s University, Belfast, we have had a strong reputation in producing highly practical engineers who can directly engage with industry. We have long recognised the importance of electronic systems and value the interaction with companies. The UKESF Scholarship Scheme is therefore ideally suited to expose our students to sponsorship opportunities.”
Prof. Roger Woods, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen’s University, Belfast
As the annual Scholarship Scheme application window draws closer, the UKESF is delighted to welcome two new Company Partners: Collins Aerospace and RN Electronics. The total number of companies offering scholarships has now passed 40, with further new additions expected before applications open.
collins-aerospace, a unit of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX), is a leader in technologically advanced and intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defence industry. Created in 2018 by bringing together UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins, Collins Aerospace has the capabilities, comprehensive portfolio and expertise to solve customers’ toughest challenges and to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global market.
RN Electronics test electronic products to ensure compliance with worldwide standards. We are an independent test laboratory, accredited for testing of the RF performance of wireless devices and their electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). Our clients come from industries such as automotive, audio-visual and medical. We are rapidly expanding our capabilities for testing of 5G base stations, fixed-wireless access points and other latest technologies.
The UKESF Scholarship Scheme provides the most dedicated Electronics undergraduates from UKESF Partner Universities with an annual bursary and paid summer work placement, in addition to a range of other benefits. Each company will interview a number of relevant applicants and go on to provide sponsorship and professional support to one or more successful scholars. Employers interested in joining the scheme can find out more here.
Hosted by Royal Holloway, University of London, and run in conjunction with The Smallpeice Trust, the UKESF’s first ‘Girls into Electronics’ course has been a tremendous success. Over three days, 24 girls aged 14–16 had the opportunity to experience hands-on electronics in a laboratory, attend lectures, meet graduate engineers and develop professional skills – getting a first taste of university life while finding out what Electronic Engineering is all about.
80 girls from The Smallpeice Trust’s ‘Girls into Physics’ course joined those from ‘Girls into Electronics’ on 9th July for UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson’s talk, ‘Opportunities and Careers in the Electronics Sector’. Also speaking were Leesa Kingman (Network Manager, NMI and Power Electronics) and UKESF Scholars Lauren and Megan, who shared their experiences studying and working in Electronics.
Beko and Meggitt
Following the talks, all 104 students attended the networking with companies session in the foyer of Royal Holloway’s new Beatrice Shilling Building, the state-of-the-art home of the Department of Electronic Engineering. Eleven of the UKESF’s Company Partners supported the hugely successful event, with feedback including: “Students were amazing and full of confidence”, “Lots of insightful questions” and “Great to have so many interested young people”.
IDEX Biometrics and vivMOS
Anne McAleer, Director, Intellectual Properties, IDEX Biometrics, said, “IDEX Biometrics was very pleased to support the Girls into Electronics 2019 event. My colleague and I met a fantastic crowd of young women who were enthusiastic, smart and incredibly confident. They really grilled us with probing questions about how our fingerprint sensors worked and they were excited to see our demonstrations of how biometric technology will be applied in smart cards. It was great to be involved and I hope we inspired them to consider a career in electronics.”
UKESF Partner Company representatives, Leesa Kingman, UKESF Scholars Lauren and Megan, with Stew Edmondson
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF, said, “We were delighted to work with Royal Holloway, University of London, and to support the “Girls into Electronics” course. We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to explore their own interests and talents, unencumbered by society’s expectations of them.”
STFC and Stew Edmondson with ITDev
Prof David Howard, Head of Department of Electronic Engineering, Royal Holloway, University of London, said, “It has been a pleasure to host the event here at Royal Holloway and I look forward to future years.”
Moortec and Renishaw
Many thanks to all the companies who came along: AWE, Beko, IDEX Biometrics, ITDev, Meggitt Avionics, Moortec (now part of Synopsys), onsemi, Renishaw, STFC, Swindon Silicon Systems and vivaMOS (now acquired by Nordson). Thanks as well to Leesa, Lauren and Megan.
“Agreement by the Government for this Standard … is a significant milestone and it offers a major opportunity for employers.”
The UKESF is delighted to announce the publication of a new Apprenticeship Standard for the Electronics Sector. The Standard, at Level 7, is for the occupation of ‘Electronic Systems Principal Engineer’; it is aimed at post-graduate engineers and has been developed with a group of major employers. It has been approved for delivery, with a funding allocation of £14,000, by the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education, as Stew Edmondson (CEO, UKESF) explains:
“The Government has been encouraging employers to take ownership of the skills agenda for some time. We have been helping employers engage with apprenticeships and, in conjunction with TechWorks, have been working with a group of leading employers to develop this new apprenticeship standard. As the Standard is a post-graduate qualification, it reflects what the Electronics industry in the UK really wants and needs. It will provide a way for those Levy-paying employers to channel their payments into skills development and for non-contributing companies to access Levy funds to fund the development of their engineers.
“Agreement by the Government for this Standard, with a funding allocation of £14,000 per apprentice, is a significant milestone and it offers a major opportunity for employers. We are now encouraging universities to offer programmes aligned to this Standard and for a widespread uptake across the Electronics industry.”
Details of the Standard can be found HERE.
Employers can find out more by contacting the UKESF ([email protected]) and via this Degree Apprenticeship Factsheet.
On 26th June the UKESF celebrated the three finalists of the 2019 RF Engineering & Communications Competition as part of the Cambridge Wireless International Conference in Hinxton, Cambridgeshire.
This annual competition, run in partnership with the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF) and with support from Leonardo, highlights the work of students at UKESF partner universities who are focusing on RF engineering and communications in their final year. Entrants are required to submit a poster summarising their major individual project.
L–R: Stew Edmondson, Trevor Gill, Calum, Edward, Andrey, Prof Kevin Morris
The first place prize of £1,000 was awarded to Andrey Miroshnikov for his outstanding project: ‘Exploration of Under-Sampling PA Output for Efficient Digital Pre-Distortion’, a unanimous decision by the judges. Andrey is a UKESF Scholar who studies at the University of Bristol and is sponsored by Dialog Semiconductor.
Stew Edmondson with winner Andrey
Andrey said, “Electronics is something I started studying long before university and I’m glad for the opportunities I’ve been given. During my level 2 BTEC and A-levels I was introduced to real, practical applications of Electronics. At university I learned how to apply physics and maths to solve real-world problems efficiently.
“UKESF is an organisation that helped a great deal during my degree by connecting me with an employer who I’ve had three successful internships with, providing me with annual bursaries, as well as connecting me with fellow graduates and people in the industry during the UKESF Workshop.
“This RF award was an incredible surprise, and I am ecstatic to have won. It’s great to know that the time I have spent researching and writing lead me to conclusions that other people may use in the future. This wouldn’t be possible without the guidance of my supervisor, feedback from my assessors and fellow class mates, moral support of my friends and parents.
“What happens next? I will use the award prize to upgrade my lab at home and continue tinkering with personal projects during my spare time!”
Runners-up Edward and Calum with their posters
The two runners-up each received £500: Edward Lewis (Lancaster University) for his ‘Variable Aperture Horn Antennae for Millimetre wave Wireless Communications’ project and Calum Bolland (University of Edinburgh) for his ‘Transmit Receive Module Testing Using Radome Bounce’ project.
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson said, “With entries from undergraduates studying at twelve of our partner universities this year, it is clear that the RF competition is growing stature. It was great to be able to present the finalists with their prizes at the prestigious CWIC.”
Many thanks to our judging panel: Trevor Gill of RCF, Dr Merv Haynes of Leonardo and Prof Kevin Morris of University of Bristol, and to CW for kindly inviting us to be part of their conference.
“Many of the students came and thanked me and said how much they enjoyed it”
Eddie Ball, Reader in RF Engineering, University of Sheffield
The 2019 UKESF-Headstart Summer School was hosted by the University of Sheffield, from 16th to 20th June. Almost 70 final-year A-level students attended the residential course, which provided an opportunity to learn more about studying Electronics at degree level and take part in a variety of lectures, labs, visits and networking events, as well as a first taste of university life.
Stew Edmondson with the students
The networking with companies session was particularly successful, with an excellent level of interest and engagement from the students. Thank you to the UKESF Company Partners who came along to support the event: Arm, AVL, AWE, Qualcomm, Sky, UltraSoC (now acquired by Siemens) and Waters. Many thanks as well to UKESF Scholars Peter and Andrey, who gave talks to the attendees.
Winners of the Robot Challenge with their prizes – digital radios kindly donated by PURE
“I think it has been a significant success – the project went really well, with most of the students getting the sensor PCBs and robot working sufficiently for the competition … Afterwards, many of the students came and thanked me and said how much they enjoyed it, which is credit to us all … Thank you for the opportunity to host such an important event.”
Eddie Ball, Reader in RF Engineering, University of Sheffield
“I was ever so pleased with the Electronics Summer School and would like to say a massive thank you to all the UKESF colleagues. The UKESF provided the catalyst to deliver the Electronics Summer School, which has been an aspiration of mine for a number of years as it is a fantastic discipline that is still unrecognised by the younger generation. I’m keen for the department to continue delivering some form of Electronics & Electrical Engineering summer school next year and hopefully beyond!”
Gemma Greenup, Recruitment Manager, University of Sheffield
The Robot Challenge in action
Dr Gavin Williams demonstrating how to make a light-emitting diode in the Clean Room
“I really enjoyed the course, there was a good mix of lectures and practical workshops. The social activities were also really enjoyable and the ambassadors were all friendly.”
“I enjoyed the Clean Room looking at the science behind LED lights, I enjoyed soldering and programming a robot, making friends, I may have found a new passion.”
“Some of the talks with people who have done engineering degrees and are now working in engineering job roles explaining what they do and what paths they took, this really sparked some more of my ambition and now I aspire to be like some of them.”
“The course made me realise that there are people similar to me in STEM, I made some really good friends and it has definitely confirmed for me that this is what I want to do.”
The UKESF has been featured in an article on the CW (Cambridge Wireless) website, ‘Are you missing out on the best graduate talent?’.
…Committed to addressing this issue, the UKESF is a not for profit whose mission is to encourage more young people to study Electronics and to pursue careers in the sector. Led by CEO Stew Edmondson, the team works collaboratively with major companies, leading universities and other organisations to tackle the skills shortage in the Electronics sector. A number of CW’s members are already engaged with their programmes, including Arm, Qualcomm, IC Resources and Plextek.
UKESF would like to see more engineering firms offer student work placements and supporting undergraduates in their professional development, so that when they graduate these students are equipped with work-ready skills and experience.
“We firmly believe that we, as an industry, need to do more to support those studying at university. The IET reports that only 37% of respondents to their survey on Skills & Demand in Industry provided work placements to engineering and technology students. This is disappointingly low percentage; investing in undergraduates to give them practical real-world experiences that complement their academic studies is a real ‘win-win’.”
Stewart Edmondson, CEO of UKESF
Placements are a mutually beneficial process that offers invaluable return to both employer and student. For the business, placements offer a low-risk talent pipeline through which you, secure in the knowledge of an individual’s performance and capabilities, can offer graduate contracts; it also creates opportunities through which you can train future managers (line-managing a work placement student is a great first step on the managerial ladder), and it ensures that your organisation plays its part in nurturing the future of the UK’s engineering skills base…
Read the full article here.
Over 95% of respondents to a recent survey said that they would recommend the UKESF Scheme to another company
With the participation of our sponsor companies, we are delighted to say that the UKESF Scholarship Scheme has become even more successful this year. We really appreciate their support and wanted to share some highlights from the current academic year…
As our Scheme grows and more employers join, we are extremely pleased that employer satisfaction remains exceptionally high. A recent survey[1] told us:
We have 21 partner universities right across the UK, and we continue to attract really high-quality students from these leading universities.
This year we received over 280 applicants from undergraduates, and the number of UKESF Scholarships awarded to rose by 26% compared to the previous academic year. It is pleasing that 16% of Scholarships were awarded to female students, a 5% increase.
Gaining experience though work placements is at the heart of our Scholarship Scheme. We have had some great feedback on the value that students have gained from their placements:
“My experience as a UKESF scholar has been fantastic, and I recommend the scheme to anyone considering a career in the Electronics industry.” Ricki (University of Southampton/UltraSoc, now acquired by Siemens)
“I absolutely loved my placement, it was nothing like any job I have done before; it was intellectually stimulating, exciting and really fun.” Brendan (University of Southampton/VivaMOS, now acquired by Nordson)
Our graduated scholars have continued to receive national recognition. Electronics Weekly selected four former UKESF Scholars as part of the group of ‘BrightSparks’ for 2019. In November, Emma Curati-Alasonatti (University of Southampton/Arm) became the TechWorks’ Young Engineer of the Year.
Helping the industry tackle its skill shortage and encouraging more young people to pursue careers in Electronics is what the UKESF is all about.
Since 2012, over 220 students have completed a UKESF Scholarship. Of these, more than 83% are employed by Electronics or Technology companies; a further 14% are studying for a PhD or doing research at a university. Around half of graduates are working for a UKESF sponsor company.
[1] A survey completed by 21 scholarship supporting companies in April/May 2019.
The EW BrightSparks 2019 have just been announced, and the UKESF is delighted to congratulate the four scholars who made the list this year. This is a fantastic result; double the number selected in 2018. We are extremely proud of the quality and high calibre of the students that join our undergraduate Scholarship Scheme – one of the reasons the value of the scheme is increasingly recognised by companies right across the Electronics sector – and it is heartening when they receive public recognition.
The EW BrightSparks programme is run by Electronics Weekly in partnership with RS Components, and aims to highlight the brightest young electronic engineers in the UK. This year’s winners were celebrated at an event at The IET in London on 2nd May.
If you would like your company to join our Scholarship Scheme and connect with exceptional undergraduates like Emma, Nathan, Louisa and Ricki, details can be found here or by contacting [email protected].
The UKESF is delighted to announce a new competition to raise awareness about and interest in embedded systems among undergraduates studying Electronics. Kindly sponsored by company partner UltraSoC, the competition will highlight excellence in students completing their major individual project on embedded systems and enable understanding of how to architect and implement future complex embedded systems in the UK.
This national competition is open to engineering undergraduates studying at one of the UKESF’s 21 partner universities who are completing their major individual project (3rd or 4th year; 4th or 5th year in Scotland) with a principal focus on embedded systems. Entrants are required to submit to their university contact a summary of their project on an A1 printable poster by Friday 28th July 2019 – for full details of what to include, along with eligibility requirements, please see the competition webpage.
The winner will receive £1,000, with a runner-up receiving £500. The prizes will be awarded at the TechWorks Gala Dinner & Awards in London, Thursday 21st November 2019.
“At UltraSoC we believe that strong links with the academic world provide multi-faceted benefits to everyone involved – an opportunity for students to learn about and use state-of-the-art commercial products, an opportunity for UltraSoC to stay abreast of the latest academic developments in many related relevant fields, and the ability for us all to advance our industry together. We are delighted to sponsor this UKESF project and very much look forward to reviewing the entries.”
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer
Find out more on the Embedded Systems Competition webpage.
“The Automotive Electronics industry is going through unprecedented change, and the security challenges we face … will be solved by the next generation of engineers and scientists…”
lan Banks, Chairman, AESIN
The automotive sector is changing radically. Integrated Electronic Systems (ES) are becoming increasingly important and sophisticated, totaling as much as 40% of the components of some vehicles. Electronics accounts for 80% of in-vehicle innovation, and ES continues to have a hugely positive impact on car safety, security, economy and control. The UK already has a strong presence in the automotive sector globally, but the race is now on for automotive companies to embrace open innovation practices and focus on accelerating the delivery of advanced ES into their vehicles.
Therefore, the UKESF is delighted to announce a new Automotive Electronics Competition, which aims to raise awareness about and interest in automotive electronics and security among undergraduates. The competition is being run in partnership with AESIN (Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network) and is kindly sponsored by company partner UltraSoC.
Entrants are required to produce a ‘thought piece’ about the future of cyber security for connected and autonomous vehicles and submit it to the UKESF. The piece should be along the lines of a blog post in style, rather than a formal essay, and be submitted by Sunday 1st September 2019. For full details of what to include, along with eligibility requirements, please see the competition webpage.
The winner will receive £1,000, with a runner-up receiving £500. The prizes will be awarded at the AESIN Conference on Tuesday 1st October 2019, taking place at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull. Both finalists will be invited to the conference and dinner as guests of AESIN/TechWorks, and both winning entries will be published.
“AESIN are delighted to be able to support the Automotive Electronics Competition. The Automotive Electronics industry is going through unprecedented change, and the security challenges we face both now and in the future with Connected and Autonomous vehicles will be solved by the next generation of engineers and scientists who truly understand the challenges of Digital Resilience and Cyber Security in the new Automotive space.”
Alan Banks, Chairman, AESIN
“At UltraSoC we believe that strong links with the academic world provide multi-faceted benefits to everyone involved – an opportunity for students to learn about and use state-of-the-art commercial products, an opportunity for UltraSoC to stay abreast of the latest academic developments in many related relevant fields, and the ability for us all to advance our industry together. We are delighted to sponsor this UKESF project and very much look forward to reviewing the entries.”
Aileen Ryan, Chief Strategy Officer
“Different types of people have different types of thinking… having a different way to approach something is useful.”
Khadijah Ismail to the BBC
A recent article on the BBC website has drawn attention to the lack of girls studying Electronics, as well as the difficulty of finding an academic institution offering the A-level, regardless of gender.
Khadijah Ismail always had a passion for Maths and Physics, and at age 16 won an Arkwright Engineering Scholarship. When it came to choosing her A-levels, however, she was disappointed that Electronics was not offered at her all-girls school. As few as 5% of the couple of hundred students who undertake A-level Electronics each year are girls, and the subject is now only offered by one exam board. Rather than give up, Khadijah elected to study the subject at the boys’ school next door, becoming the only girl in the class. Despite the initial shock of the “boys’ armpit smell” and not having “the confidence at the start to talk in class and contribute usefully”, she got stuck in and soon found her enthusiasm returning for this “amazing” subject.
Khadijah is now in the midst of a five-year degree apprenticeship in aerospace engineering, which attracted her because of the opportunity to gain practical experience alongside her degree. She was again the only girl in her year to opt for an apprenticeship; in the UK, only 8% of engineering apprentices are female. The UKESF recently highlighted degree apprenticeships in Electronics with a factsheet for employers – download it here.
The Smallpeice Trust, who the UKESF partner with to run STEM days and university taster courses, also featured in the article, as Khadijah volunteers with them by giving talks in schools and mentoring teenagers with engineering potential. Smallpeice Chief Executive Dr Kevin P Stenson said, “[We] need to recruit as many people as we can which means you need to recruit from 100% of the population. Female students, state school children, black and minority ethnic students, they are all under-represented, and engineering is for everybody in the UK, so we have to show and reflect that in our programmes.”
Read the full article over on the BBC website.
The number of UKESF Scholarships awarded to Electronics undergraduates at partner universities for 2018/19 has risen by 26% compared to the previous academic year.
Applicants were able to apply to up to four of the 39 leading companies in the Electronics sector offering UKESF Scholarships. Each scholarship includes an bursary, a paid summer work placement and a paid-for place at the residential UKESF Scholar Workshop, among other benefits.
The successful applicants are now being introduced to their buddies (established or graduated scholars), who will share their experiences and provide support as the newly awarded scholars enter the workplace, take part in outreach activities and start to set objectives for the future.
The scholarships vary in duration and company-specific requirements. Employers interested in joining the scheme can find out more here.
“[It] was the first time I’d been in a room with so many successful women so that was really empowering.”
Eve, UKESF Scholar
For the third year in a row, the UKESF supported the final-year female scholars to attend the annual Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Student Conference with all-expenses-paid places. Attendance was kindly sponsored by Enigma for 2018, a recruitment company that specialises in the UK technology sector.
Five scholars travelled to the University of Warwick for the tenth annual conference, which had a theme of ‘Building Sustainable Cities and Communities’ and took place from 23rd to 24th November. The conference brings together over 150 students, academics and young engineers, and provides the opportunity to network with role models, gain insight into societal challenges, improve technical skills and self-confidence, and develop career–life balance strategies.
The scholars who attended had a great time and shared their thoughts with Enigma in a series of interviews about the event, gender diversity in the Electronics industry and future career plans.
First up was Eve McGlynn, who is in the final year of a MEng degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Glasgow University. On the conference, Eve said, “I’m used to going into university and maybe being the only girl in the lecture theatre or one of only a few and, although I know there are lots of women in engineering at all different levels, that was the first time I’d been in a room with so many successful women so that was really empowering.” Read the full interview here.
Next was Andie Bejarano Carbo, in the fourth year of a MEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol. On her scholarship, Andie said,”I’ve been able to work at Dialog Semiconductor for two years, thanks to the UKESF, which I’ve really enjoyed. Getting industry exposure has been one of the best experiences as I’ve been able to build on my theoretical knowledge from university.” Read the full interview here.
Lastly, Lauren Page was interviewed. Lauren is in the final year of her BEng degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of Surrey and was the 2018 recipient of our Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award. On the opportunity to attend the conference, Lauren said, “I just appreciate so much that things like this are funded and are run; and that people recognise that putting all these people together in the same room is a positive thing and is worth the time and effort that it takes.” Read the full interview here.
Offering apprenticeships can help companies tackle their skills challenges; however, we need to do more to raise awareness about degree-level apprenticeship programmes among employers. Therefore, the UKESF has created a new factsheet, for TechWorks and NMI members, specifically about Degree Apprenticeships in Electronics.
“Apprenticeships are only for entry level – they are for low skilled employees.”
“Apprenticeships cannot be used for existing staff.”
Both of these statements are incorrect. Indeed, they are two of the most frequent myths about apprenticeship programmes.*
Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes, which allow people of all ages, from school leavers to experienced workers, to work and learn at the same time by combining technical training with workplace assessment. Apprenticeships have been around for a long time but degree apprenticeships are a recent innovation in England.
Did you know that there are degree apprenticeship programmes in Electronics? And that companies with an annual payroll of £3m+, and therefore paying the Apprenticeship Levy, will be able to fund up to 100% of a degree apprentice’s tuition costs from their Levy contribution?
Find out more with our Degree Apprenticeship Factsheet.
*See more myths in the National Apprenticeship Service’s Top 7 Myths about the Apprenticeship Programme.
“This award will not only benefit myself, but also those I work with now and in the future.”
Lauren Page
The recipient of the 2018 Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award is Lauren Page (UKESF Scholar 2016–19), who studies at the University of Surrey and is sponsored by Renesas.
Lauren will receive a place on Skills 4 UK’s award-winning Career Development Programme, as well as additional coaching. This award takes into account academic performance, placement feedback and STEM-awareness contribution.
Lauren said, “To me, winning the award represents an opportunity to engage with the wider Engineering and Electronics community as well as allowing me to meet some wonderful and inspiring people. Not only was it a lovely opportunity to dress up and celebrate the achievements of individuals and companies within the industry, it was also a chance to see my UKESF mentor Emma Curati-Alasonatti celebrated with her win of Young Engineer of the Year!
“I hope to use the experiences offered by the award to continue to inspire myself within Engineering, and to use the skills it offers to be a better role model for the next generation of STEM students. Meeting the wonderful people at the UKESF and at the TechWorks event, who have nothing but encouragement to offer to myself and others in my position, has made me further realise the importance of supporting and raising up others. This award will not only benefit myself, but also those I work with now and in the future.”
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson said, “We really appreciate all Skills 4 UK’s support for all our female scholars and especially for this award. It is fantastic that Lauren has been selected this year; it’s a brilliant opportunity which should help her make the transition into industry. Diversity is such an important issue for the whole of Electronics sector, that is why I am pleased this collaboration with Jayne Little and Skills 4 UK; we are doing something specific and beneficial.”
Congratulations Lauren!
On 22nd November the UKESF attended the annual TechWorks Awards & Gala Dinner, London, to announce the Scholar of the Year Award winner and launch a new national campaign to make more schoolchildren aware of Electronics.
During the summit, UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson launched the #TurnOnToElectronics campaign to an audience of over 300 leading figures in the Electronics sector. The multi-platform campaign includes a manifesto and video, and is fronted by Gadget Show presenter Georgie Barrat.
Stew said, “We need to do more to raise awareness about Electronics among young people, as they simply don’t associate Technology with Electronics. This is what our campaign is all about – raising awareness, promoting Electronics and providing resources to teachers and schools.”
Find out more about #TurnOnToElectronics here.
L–R: Stew Edmondson, Ricki Tura, Luke Bussell
Following the launch, the winner of the UKESF Scholar of the Year Award was announced as Ricki Tura (University of Southampton/UltraSoc, now acquired by Siemens). Ricki received £500, a trophy and a certificate. Runner-up Luke Bussell (Imperial College London/Renishaw) received £250 and a certificate.
Ricki said, “I am delighted to be named 2018’s UKESF Scholar of the Year. It feels great to be recognised not only for my achievements in academia and industry, but also for my contributions in promoting Electronics in the community. My experience as a UKESF scholar has been fantastic, and I recommend the scheme to anyone considering a career in the Electronics industry.”
Many thanks to IC Resources, who kindly sponsor the award.
“One of the highlights of my year is judging the UKESF Scholar of the Year award. The valued contribution that the scholars make to their companies, and the industry as a whole, always reinforces my admiration for the upcoming generation of ‘tech stars’. This year Ricki and Luke’s efforts really stood out, and I’m looking forward to hearing about their successes in the future,” said Neil Dickins, Director/Owner of IC Resources.
L–R: Neil Dickins of IC Resources, Ricki Tura, Luke Bussell, Stew Edmondson
As well as Ricki and Luke, there were more UKESF scholars in attendance than ever before. Winner of the Young Engineer of the Year Award Emma Curati-Alasonatti (University of Southampton/ARM and UKESF guest blogger) and one of the award shortlisted candidates, Ashley Robinson (University of Southampton/Qualcomm) were both there, along two scholars sponsored by Embecosm and one from Dialog Semiconductor.
The evening segment, hosted by John Sergeant, included further awards, a black tie three-course meal and a silent auction in aid of the UKESF, with a variety of unique experiences up for bids. Funds raised from the auction are channelled into hands-on STEM activities for children, summer schools for A-level students, professional development for UKESF scholars, and much more.
John Sergeant hosting
Two UKESF Scholars from the University of Edinburgh recently travelled to India to lead practical electronics workshops with children, contributing to the ground-breaking work undertaken by the Familia organisation near Kolkata.
In April we reported on scholars Ben, Justas and Kasper, who went above and beyond the outreach obligations of their scholarships by developing and running their own hands-on electronics workshop, including building a custom-designed Arduino-based kit and writing supporting documents. The UKESF was delighted to provide funding for the project, which enabled the scholars to purchase enough hardware to take the kit into local schools and run the workshop with students in Scottish Years 4–6 (Key Stages 4 and 5). They also wrote a blog post for us about the experience.
Ben and Kasper teaching in India
In July Ben and Kasper visited Familia in India, an organisation bringing education and care to children (and some elderly people) through a commune of four foster families. They took a total of 60 students aged 14–16 through the workshop, which comprised of three hour-long sessions: a lecture on the underlying theory and concepts, a practical kit-building session, and finally a programming session in the computer lab. The students worked in groups of three, with everyone successfully completing the workshop and many going on to add extra features.
Pupils taking part in the workshop
Ben said, “The exchange was as rewarding for us as it was for the students; STEM outreach has given us valuable skills in communication and organisation, in addition to the unique opportunity to benefit from the enthusiasm of the young students and be invited into another culture. The students were very welcoming and engaged fully with the project, which was facilitated by the staff and teachers who supported our initiative. We had a lot of fun, and from the number of happy faces and hands shaken, we believe everyone else did as well.”
Kasper demonstrating the kit
Kasper said, “Thank you again to the UKESF for the support of the kits. The kids really liked the practical aspect of the workshops (something they don’t often get to do), they were very engaged and the feedback was positive.” The reusable workshop kits were donated to the school with detailed instructions, allowing the workshop to run again in the future. The scholars received funding for the trip and some of the kits through the University of Edinburgh’s Innovative Initiative Grant, while the UKESF supported the scholars by providing resources and advice.
The Familia school
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson said, “At the UKESF, we encourage our scholars to help us promote Electronics in schools. This project by three of our Edinburgh-based students is an exceptional example; I thoroughly applaud their initiative and commitment.”
Ben and Kasper have put together a short video about their trip:
On 25th July the UKESF held an award ceremony for the finalists of the RF Engineering & Communications Competition at the University of Bristol. This annual competition, run in partnership with the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF), highlights the work of students at UKESF partner universities who are focusing on RF engineering and communications in their final year.
L–R: Merv Hayes, Scott, Trevor Gill, Jonathan, Andy Nix, Max, Stew Edmondson
Jonathan Rawlinson (Imperial College London) was named the winner for his project, RF Signal Classification Utilising Neural Networks – ‘SignalDoctor’, and received £1,000. He said, “I had a wonderful time meeting the other participants and to see so much exciting work by students in the RF area. It is great to see RF being promoted by the UKESF and RCF as it is such an important subject for modern life! In addition I was very impressed by the Bristol EEE department facilities. I would like to thank the UKESF, RCF, Bristol University and Leonardo for organising such an exciting and informative event.” Find out more about Jonathan’s project here.
Two runners-up also received £500 each: Max Landles (Heriot-Watt University) for his Satellite Propagation at Millimetre Wave Bands project, and Scott Dearnaley (Lancaster University) for his Low Cost Flexible Antenna for Body Area Network project.
L–R: winner Jonathan and runners-up Scott and Max with their project posters
Max said, “The competition was a fantastic experience. It was fascinating to hear what people outside of university thought of the work I had been doing and getting listed as one of the top three entries for this year was a huge surprise to me that gave me a lot more confidence in myself. It is encouraging to see that companies are prepared to dedicate time and money to run this competition as I believe it shows a willingness to invest in the future of the RF industry and will hopefully encourage more students to consider doing their major projects in this area.”
Scott said, “The competition gave me a great opportunity to display my work and be rewarded for it as well as giving me the opportunity to meet industry professionals. The event was well organised and gave a useful insight into the current and future state of RF engineering.”
Prof Andy Nix’s presentation
Finalists, judges and guests enjoyed lunch and networking followed by a series of presentations from speakers: UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson, journalist Nick Flaherty, Bristol’s Dean of Engineering Faculty Prof Andy Nix, Merv Hayes from Leonardo, the RCF’s Trevor Gill, and UKESF Founding Chairman Indro Mukerjee. Trevor, Indro and Andy presented the awards, after which Andy led a tour of the university labs.
Stew Edmondson said, “Our aim in organising this competition is to encourage the study of RF and communications engineering among undergraduates. Therefore, it was very heartening to see the high quality of the entries submitted this year; the judges selected worthy winners from a strong shortlist of finalists.”
Many thanks to the national judging panel, and the University of Bristol for hosting the event.
Three UKESF scholars from the University of Edinburgh have gone above and beyond the outreach obligations of their scholarships by developing and running their own hands-on electronics workshop, including building a custom-designed Arduino-based kit and writing supporting documents. Ben, Justas and Kasper wanted to show how easy and affordable it is to start electronics and share their passion for the subject in a fun and interactive way.
The UKESF was delighted to provide funding for the project, which enabled the scholars to purchase enough hardware to take the kit into local schools and run the workshop with students in Scottish Years 4–6 (Key Stages 4 and 5). This included a demonstration session at Earlston High School and four 2-hour workshops at Trinity Academy, which gave the scholars the chance to pilot the project and fine-tune the details. Information on the kit itself can be found in their guest blog post.
Feedback from the schools has been extremely positive and the scholars have already been asked to return. Callum MacLellan, Curriculum Leader of Science, Trinity Academy, said, “Pupils enjoyed the approach to constructing the circuits which allowed them to get something going within a reasonable amount of time. They then had fun exploring how to customise their circuits. The extension sheet that the team produced helped to make this exploratory phase more focused, especially for younger classes. There was a good balance between exposition and activity and the classes all enjoyed Kasper’s obvious enthusiasm for his ‘disco boxes’.”
The scholars have written a guest blog post for us about their project; read some snippets about their experiences below:
Ben: “The students were encouraged to use their creativity – especially in the additional task sheet – which helped them engage with the task.”
Justas: “Probably the most rewarding part of this initiative was seeing the positive reactions, excitement and interest we managed to spark in numerous young people.”
Kasper: “Coming into contact with practical electronics in high school is something I wish I would have had the chance to experience and I am proud to be able to provide this opportunity for others.”
Stew Edmondson, CEO, UKESF, said, “We know that providing children with ‘hands-on’ experiences works really well in promoting their interest in Electronics. At the UKESF, we place a great focus on getting our undergraduate scholars to help us inspire the next generation. This project is a fantastic example, from three inspirational students, of how the UKESF can make a real difference. Really well done to Ben, Justas and Kasper.”
Looking ahead, the graduating scholars are planning to hand custodianship of the project over to ongoing Edinburgh UKESF scholars. The UKESF will continue to support the project by providing guidance and financial backing, with the intention of making it available as a resource to other scholars in the future.
“UKESF has already provided me with excellent opportunities but to have this additional career development support as well is invaluable!”
Kathryn Frankland
The 2017 winner of the Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award has been announced: Kathryn Frankland (UKESF Scholar 2016–18), who studies at the University of Nottingham and is sponsored by Imagination Technologies.
Kathryn will receive a place on Skills 4 UK’s award-winning Career Development Programme, as well as additional coaching. This award takes into account academic performance, placement feedback and STEM-awareness contribution.
Kathryn said, “I am thrilled to be the recipient of the Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award. UKESF has already provided me with excellent opportunities but to have this additional career development support as well is invaluable! I am really looking forward to taking part in the Skills 4 UK programme in the new year.”
Kathryn follows Keerthi Mukku, winner of the inaugural Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award last year. Since then, Keerthi has graduated and now works at Qualcomm; she has written about her experiences here.
UKESF CEO Stew Edmondson said, “We really appreciate Skills 4 UK’s support for all our female scholars and especially for this award. It is great that Kathryn has been selected this year, it’s a brilliant opportunity which should help her make the transition into industry. Diversity is such an important issue for the Electronics sector to address, that is why I am pleased with this collaboration; we are doing something specific and beneficial.”
Congratulations Kathryn!
“It is far more effective than being lectured to and brings out key skills, such as negotiation and communication, in a very safe environment.”
Keerthi Mukku
In 2016, UKESF Scholar Keerthi Mukku was named winner of the inaugural Skills 4 UK Scholar’s Award and received a place on Skills 4 UK’s award-winning Career Development Programme, as well as additional coaching.
Keerthi, who studied at the University of Surrey and was sponsored by Renesas for her scholarship, now works as an Embedded Software Engineer for Qualcomm, a world leader in next generation mobile technologies, where she is developing software to test Bluetooth chips for headphones and other audio technology.
One year on from receiving the award, Keerthi has shared her experiences in a case study on the Skills 4 UK website:
“It was fantastic to work alongside 12 other women who had much more experience than me. As the youngest, I was privileged to hear women working in the same sort of field as I recount very personal stories of mistakes they had made and the obstacles they had overcome. These real-life examples and all the exercises which followed around self-analysis proved invaluable. It is far more effective than being lectured to and brings out key skills, such as negotiation and communication, in a very safe environment.
“Another valuable lesson learnt was to both showcase your achievements and to let the people you work with know what you want to achieve. I have only been working for a month, so I have not come across any issues yet but the programme has helped me set goals and increased my confidence. I am currently working in a product-based role and I want to quickly move to a customer-facing role and the company is already helping me toward achieving my aim.”
On 3rd July 2017 the UKESF held a Celebration Event at The IET, Savoy Place, to mark five years since the graduation of the first cohort of scholars. The Scholarship Scheme has grown considerably in this time and there are now more than 300 students, 18 universities and 40 companies involved.
Warren East CBE, Rolls-Royce CEOThe event brought together a number of UKESF scholars and stakeholders, along with industry influencers and the finalists of the RF Engineering & Communications Competition.
The afternoon began with an introduction from Stewart Edmondson, UKESF CEO, and included presentations from Indro Mukerjee, UKESF Founding Chairman, and Merv Haynes from Leonardo. Joining them were UKESF university partners Joyce Lewis from Southampton, Kevin Morris from Bristol, Steve Watts from Cardiff and Geoff Merrett from Southampton, in addition to two of the first scholars, Fergus MacGarry and Tom Dell. The UKESF were also delighted to welcome leading industrialist Warren East CBE, CEO of Rolls-Royce, as the keynote guest speaker.
The RF Competition finalists
The announcement of the inaugural RF Engineering & Communications Competition winner was made by Trevor Gill and Don Beattie from the Radio Communications Foundation (RCF). The overall winner was Mihnea Trifan, who studies at the University of Sheffield and completed a FSS Antenna project, and the runners up were Samantha Heyes (Loughborough University), who produced her entry on Recognising People Using Smart Phone Antennas, and Robert Astill (University of Bath), with his Miniature Wireless Channel Sounder for UAVs project. They were all applauded for their work and received certificates and prizes of £1000 and £500 respectively.
Networking at the Celebration Event
James E. Green, lecturer at the University of Sheffield, said, “The University of Sheffield is proud of the hard work and achievement of our students both when they are with us and after they graduate. We believe the quality of a Sheffield education can be measured by the success of our graduates and of the companies who employ them.
Indro Mukerjee
“We fully support and contribute to the UKESF, an excellent scheme which helps prepare students for careers in the engineering profession in ways that would be much less accessible if a purely academic approach to engineering was taken. The UKESF acts to foster collaboration between academia and the engineering industry. We believe students taking UKESF placements and then graduating are much more likely to remain in the engineering profession long term, which is highly desirable and a credit to the scheme.”
He also congratulated the runners up in the competition, “Many congratulations on your success today, well done!”
UKESF Scholar Workshop facilitators Lynn Tomkins (Skills 4 UK) and Darren Race (Think Eleven)
At the networking drinks reception following the event, Mihnea, the RF competition overall winner, commented, “I really enjoyed the day. For me it wasn’t only the outcome of the day (which was fantastic!) but also the whole networking experience that put me in contact with amazing engineers from the industry. The keynote speaker and other guests offered highly professional presentations which gave me insight into their day job and an overview of the companies which they are currently working for. The overall experience was memorable and is something which I hope to repeat in the future.”
The competition was held in collaboration between the UKESF and the RCF, with support from Leonardo.
Stew Edmondson
Stew Edmondson, UKESF CEO, said, “I am delighted with how the celebration event ran and have received some encouraging messages of thanks and congratulations, with the overall view that there was just the right balance of content and information. We are now looking forward to taking the UKESF on its next journey – see you at the tenth anniversary celebration!”
The UKESF also produced a booklet that was launched at the event, looking back on the Scholarship Scheme to see how it has evolved and celebrate the achievements of the scholars who have graduated so far. The booklet is available for download here.
The UKESF would like to thank the following for their support: Radio Communications Foundation, IC Resources and Leonardo.
“Not only do bright and well educated undergraduates make a valuable contribution to our engineering projects we also benefit from their sharing of their own ideas and fresh perspectives with the rest of the business.”
Karen Oddey, C-MAC MicroTechnology
In an IET Engineering & Technology magazine interview Karen Oddey, C-MAC MicroTechnology CEO for Aerospace and Defence Electronics, talks about why they have got involved with UKESF. Its first UKESF scholar, Dominic Lane, who is studying an MEng degree in Space Technology & Planetary Exploration at the University of Surrey, explains that he was interested in holding a scholarship with C-MAC as he could get involved in their work in supplying solutions to the European Space Agency.
“The biggest success stories in any industry come from organisations that nurture talent at grass roots level.”
Bill Parsons, ARM
The Universities of Cardiff and York have joined the UK Electronics Skills Foundation, which seeks to reverse the decline in the number of graduates entering the electronics industry by linking electronic engineering degree students with companies for sponsorship and work experience placements.
The UK electronics industry is estimated to be worth £23 billion per year and employs 250,000 people1. Yet, the 47 percent decline2,3 (2002-2008) in those entering the subject at degree level has made it difficult to source engineers domestically with the requisite skills and experience.
York and Cardiff join the five founding university members Bristol, Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Southampton and Surrey.
Prof Karen Holford, head of Cardiff’s School of Engineering said, “Here, in the School of Engineering we are extremely proud of our laboratory facilities and ability to ensure our students receive excellent pastoral care as well as the education, training and inspiration required to enable them to become future industry leaders. UKESF membership will facilitate further industrial interaction, beyond our extensive existing industrial partnerships, enhancing Cardiff University’s high quality degree provision.”
Professor John Robinson of the University of York’s Department of Electronics said, “We share in the UKESF’s enthusiasm for encouraging young people to study electronics and enter exciting and challenging careers. Our BEng, BSc and MEng programmes are aligned with industry needs and can be taken with an industrial placement year. The number of students choosing the industry placement route is growing and being a partner in UKESF increases the connections between our students and electronics companies even further.”
Bill Parsons, executive vice president of HR at ARM and a member of the UKESF strategic advisory board commented: “The biggest success stories in any industry come from organisations that nurture talent at grass roots level. These additions to the list of UKESF partner universities will help ensure the best students are given the opportunities they need to develop; and this is a solid step in maintaining the UK electronics industry’s global competitiveness.”
Founded in January 2010, the UKESF aims to have 160 new undergraduate scholarships each year, with 10 UKESF partner universities and 100 sponsor companies signed up by 2014.
[1] Electronic System Design: A Guide to UK Capability 2009/10 Edition, BERR/UKTI
[2] Engineering and Technology Board, “Engineering UK 2007”, Research Report, Dec 2007 – section 3.9.4
[3] Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data show a continued decline in UK acceptances to 2,689 for 2008
UKESF was founded by a collaboration of public bodies, private companies and UK universities to address the threat of the rapidly diminishing skills base in the UK electronics sector.
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) has reported strong industry commitment to its university scholarship programme since it launched in January. Within the first four months nine electronics businesses had signed up to provide over 30 scholarships and work experience opportunities. The scheme is aimed at undergraduates studying for electronics degrees at leading UK universities.
UKESF was founded by a collaboration of public bodies, private companies and UK universities to address the threat of the rapidly diminishing skills base in the UK electronics sector. Its principal aims are to increase and sustain the supply of industry-ready graduate engineers and boost career take-up in the sector. A new dedicated UKESF website has just gone live and undergraduates are now applying for the first UKESF scholarships.
Derek Boyd, CEO of the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) and UKESF founder board member said, “This is a great start to tackling a serious industry issue. The UKESF scholarship scheme was designed to be attractive to companies of all sizes in helping them to engage with some of the most promising engineers of the future. The initial uptake by a range of companies clearly demonstrates just how fit for purpose the scheme really is and that our industry is passionate about encouraging young people into the exciting and challenging careers that it offers. I invite all UK electronics companies, large and small, to get involved in the scheme.”
James Collier, a non-executive director and co-founder of CSR plc said, “It’s essential that our sector continues to nurture its own young talent to maintain the country’s global competitiveness and its position as one of the world’s leading innovators. The UKESF scholarship scheme will do this by helping UK universities produce the country’s next generation of engineering innovators.”
Paul Double, founder and managing director of EDA Solutions said, “It is important that all electronics businesses, including small companies like mine, should have very clear requirements and real expectations for their graduate engineering intake and it’s vital that industry works together with the universities to ensure that engineering graduates arrive with the pre-requisite skills set that are needed.”
UKESF has formed a strategic advisory board to guide its vision, growth and sustainability. Indro Mukerjee, founder chairman of UKESF and CEO of C-MAC Technology commented, “I believe strongly in nurturing skills and capability as a basis for sustainable sector performance and in order to achieve this, it is important that broader national initiatives are complemented by focused and tangible mechanisms such as the UKESF. We have made a great start yet UKESF has a long-term role, and I look forward to overseeing its immediate impact and enduring contribution.”
The UKESF’s operational plan aims to have achieved the following levels of engagement with undergraduate students, companies and universities within five years:
Members of the UKESF Strategic Advisory Board have been explaining how UKESF fits with Government and sector skills council initiatives in an article in New Electronics.
Members of the UKESF Strategic Advisory Board have been explaining how UKESF fits with Government and sector skills council initiatives in an article in New Electronics this week. In advance of their first Board meeting, they have been talking about initiatives to improve the level of skills in the UK electronics sector and the contribution that UKESF will make.
Lynn Tomkins the Operations Director for the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (Semta) raises current concerns over the supply of graduates to the sector, a driver behind the establishment of UKESF. Indro Mukerjee, the Chairman of the UKESF Strategic Advisory Board and member of Semta’s Board, talks about how he has been heartened by the way that the founding members have funded UKESF. Derek Boyd, Chief Executive Officer of the National Microelectronics Institute, adds how proud he is that UKESF has already achieved commitment from nine companies to support over 30 scholarships.
“For me, one of the key components of the UKESF programme is the school liaison. To start to turn the decline around you have to develop the excitement about the electronics industry early on.”
Dialog Semiconductor sponsors its first UKESF Scholars from the Universities of Bristol, Southampton and Surrey
From Dialog, Andy Repton (Senior Engineering Director, Advanced Technology) and Rebecca Fradley (Global Head of Learning and Development) explain how UKESF works for them in an Electronics Weekly interview, and we hear from one of their UKESF Scholars, Adam Malpass from the University of Southampton in the Electronics Weekly magazine.
The UKESF Industry Founders are offering over 20 scholarships to undergraduate students at our Partner Universities.
Over 20 undergraduate scholarships for 2010/11
The first UKESF scholarships
The UKESF Industry Founders are offering over 20 scholarships to undergraduate students at our Partner Universities. The scholarships will be awarded in the year 2010/11 to the successful candidates and are being sponsored by our Industry Founders:
The scholarships are available to talented undergraduates at the UKESF Partner Universities:
Students can apply for a scholarship in any year of their study except for the final year.
The scholarships on offer vary in duration from one to five years and include annual bursaries and summer work placements across the UK and in Europe. The sponsoring companies will also be supporting their scholars through mentoring and sponsorship to attend UKESF professional development workshops. Some are also offering one-year sandwich placements and industry-based projects in addition to the UKESF scholarships.
UKESF is also talking to other companies interested in sponsoring scholarships starting in 2010/11 and these will be advertised on this website over this summer.
Find out more about Scholarships.
“Forward-looking electronics companies need to sign-up to the UKESF programme and help address what is a national concern of strategic importance.”
Indro Mukerjee
UKESF created to tackle dramatic decline in UK electronic engineering degrees
The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) has announced the creation of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) to address the threat of diminishing skills in the UK electronics sector. The foundation aims to increase and sustain the supply of industry-ready graduate engineers and boost career take-up in the sector.
NMI CEO Derek Boyd said, “The dramatic decline in the numbers of Electronic Engineering graduates will present the country with a long-term issue if left unchecked. We’ve identified the underlying problems in the existing skills pipeline which undermine the future prospects of the industry and UKESF has been created to tackle the major issues. Its goal is to ensure that the sector is supplied with the quality of talent to enable it to continue to be innovative, competitive and able to provide high-value jobs to support the wider economy.”
UKESF is a collaboration of public bodies, private companies and leading UK universities and has been launched with initial start-up funding from founder partners NMI, BIS (Department for Business Innovation and Skills), SEMTA (The Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies), ARM Ltd, Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd, C-MAC MicroTechnology, Dialog Semiconductor and Imagination Technologies. Founder university partners are Bristol, Edinburgh, Imperial College, Southampton and Surrey.
Indro Mukerjee, Chairman and CEO of C-MAC MicroTechnology and Chair of SEMTA’s Electronics Sector Strategy Group said, “It has taken a lot of hard work and collaboration to get UKESF off the ground and I now look forward to it becoming an integral part of the UK Electronics scene. The foundation has set itself realistic goals yet to achieve them more private enterprises need to support it. Forward-looking electronics companies need to sign-up to the UKESF programme and help address what is a national concern of strategic importance.”
UKESF will initially focus on:
Minister for Higher Education David Lammy said, “It is essential that we raise awareness of the rewarding careers available to young people in our growth industries, such as those in the electronics sector and this new foundation will help provide the high quality industry-ready graduates we need for economic success.”
The UKESF operational plan aims to have achieved the following levels of engagement with school and undergraduate students, companies and universities by 2015:
Estimated to be worth £23 billion a year, the UK electronics industry is currently the fifth largest in the world. The UK sector employs about 250,000 people in 11,500 companies,1 with design accounting for 52,500 engineers across 5,200 sites.2 The UK is also acknowledged as the European leader in independent electronics system design, making up approximately 40% of the market. UK companies lead electronic design in multiple niche market application areas,such as communications (e.g. NFC, Bluetooth, Basestation, cellular and satellite), microprocessor design, video, graphics, audio and many other areas.
Despite the UK’s position in the market, it is widely recognised that the industry is finding it difficult to source engineers domestically with the requisite skills and experience for the design sector. There are particular concerns over the supply of graduate engineers, the low level take-up of careers in the sector, and the decrease in students enrolling on electronics degree courses. The ETB report ‘Engineering UK 20073 reveals that Electronic and Electrical Engineering degrees saw a 45% decline in UK acceptances of places to 2,824 between 2002 and 2006, and that only one third of recent graduates in this discipline move on to professional engineering careers. More recent UCAS4 data show a continued decline in UK acceptances to 2,689 for 2008. A 2008 report for SWRDA5 also reflects the common concern from industry that the “pipeline of graduate engineers is drying up” particularly in view of the “ageing population” of engineers.6
1 Electronic System Design: A Guide to UK Capability 2009/10 Edition, BERR/UKTI
2 New Electronics Census 2008
3 Engineering and Technology Board, “Engineering UK 2007”, Research Report, Dec 2007
4 Universities and Colleges Admissions Service
5 Microelectronics Sector Development Framework, Report presented to SWRDA, September 2008
6 UK Electronics Alliance, “Submission to the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Major Inquiry into Engineering”, March 2008
