Bloodhound Inspires the Next Generation of Engineers
Richard Noble calls it “education by stealth.” He originally met with the UK minister of education to see if he would help get a jet engine for Bloodhound‘s quest to break the land speed record. He didn’t get the engine but he walked away from that meeting with an even more important goal: impact the next-generation of engineers. Richard is project director of the Bloodhound SSC Engineering Adventure and spoke yesterday at PLM Connection.
Richard shared some of the “bigger need” stats that the UK, like other countries, face in the near future. In four years, they’ll need to fill 730,000 jobs requiring analytical people with science, technology, engineering and mathmatics (STEM) skills. And a total of 2.4 million of those jobs within 10 years.
Their mission as stated on their website:
To confront and overcome the impossible using science, technology, engineering and mathematics
To motivate the next generation to deal with global 21st century challenges
While Bloodhound’s attempt to break the land speed record with a 1,000 miles-per-hour vehicle is more than a year away, they already have impacted 4,000 schools in the UK and another 500 around the globe. They do that by keeping their data open and sharing all that they are learning in their innovative quest.
View my video interview with Richard to find out more:
If you want to learn more about Bloodhound’s use of NX on the design of the vehicle, check out this case study: Faster Than a Bullet.
Richard shared several examples of how the online community has supported their efforts. They’ve reached out through their website, Facebook and Twitter. Richard calls the online outreach “like talking to a good friend in a pub.” Bloodhound is a good social media case study in that regard. By reaching out and building online relationships, they’ve developed the kind of good friendship that is helping finance their quest.
With keynote speeches by Richard and Steve Nevey of Redbull Racing, attendees left PLM Connection rev’d up.
