Steve Talbot: Year in Industry Achievements

During my Year in Industry I worked for North-East electronics company Lite-On Ltd.  Most of my time was spent in the Research & Development department, working on a project called "Design for Reliability".  Through secondments to other departments, I was also able to gain experience of many other areas of the business.

National Winner of the EEF "Contribution to the Business Award" 2000

The Engineering Employers' Federation (EEF) give an award to the Year in Industry student who they believe has made the greatest contribution to the business of his or her placement company.  As the winner of the Northern region competition, I was invited to London to represent the region at the national final.

In competition against the winners from the other twelve Year in Industry regions, I delivered a presentation about my main Year in Industry project, "Design for Reliability", and fielded questions about it from the panel of judges.  I described how I had researched, developed, documented, tested, implemented and improved a system of databases and compatible software applications and was able to explain how the project was able to save engineering time of over £700,000 to my placement company each year.

The judges were impressed not only by the monetary savings but also by the fact that I had been able to successfully develop then implement a project of such complexity.  I was delighted to be presented with the overall national award.

The photograph above, which appears courtesy of the Engineering Employers' Federation, shows me (right) receiving the national winner's trophy from Lord Paul (left).

National Runner-Up of the Young Engineers for Britain "Working in Industry Award" 2000

The annual Young Engineers for Britain competition recognises hard work and innovation of young people in the field of engineering.  The Working in Industry Award may be entered by any placement student or apprentice aged between 16 and 25.

I entered my main Year in Industry project, "Design for Reliability", for the Working in Industry Award.  Having won the regional final, I was invited to compete at the national final at the Millennium Dome.  The panel of judges were impressed by the amount of effort I had put into the project to ensure that it was a success and awarded me the national runner-up prize.

The photograph above, which appears courtesy of the Engineering Council, shows me (left) at the presentation of awards with HRH The Duke of Kent (centre) and Allan Chalmers of Taywood Engineering, who sponsored the award (right).

More information on the Young Engineers for Britain Competition is available from the Young Engineers web site.