On Wednesday 11 December, a group of A Level Computing students visited the Science Centre at Staffordshire University for the annual Christmas Lecture.
The speaker was Professor Kevin Warwick from Reading University, and he gave a fascinating lecture entitled ‘Robots, Cyborgs and the Ghosts of Christmas Future’. Professor Warwick gave an insight into the research he is undertaking, including demonstrations of robots that are learning to think for themselves, and some video clips of robots that have human brain cells implanted in them.
He also showed us a clip of the surgery that he underwent to have a silicon chip implanted into the nervous system in his arm, and then how he was able to communicate ‘brain to brain’ with his wife when she had a similar chip implanted into her nervous system. NULC students found this lecture fascinating, and it gave an insight into how research in the future will take us further into the realms of artificial intelligence.
Today AS and A Level Dance students and Level 2 Performing Arts students took part in a commercial street dance workshop.
The workshop was hosted by freelance dancer Nic Howell and learners got the opportunity to experience first-hand a commercial workshop by a professional working artist as well as ask questions on audition processes and the professional dance industry.
Nic was very impressed with the ability and dedication of the learners and is looking forward to working with the dancers again in future workshops.
Faye Matthews organised a bake sale called 'cakemas' with the A2 Theatre Studies students.
They raised an amazing £119.82 towards the cost of props and materials for their practical performance.
The students made their own cakes, worked together to promote and sell them - it is a fantastic team building exercise which is important to the success of their performance!
The students (from left to right) Meg Dale, Angelina Cliff and Paige Davis.
Newcastle-under-Lyme College (NULC) students made such a good job of designing fruit bowls that manufacturer KMF decided to present them each a gift of the final product.
The A Level Product Design students designed fruit bowls in four different styles and also a mobile phone holder as part of the design challenge with KMF Precision Sheet Metal Limited.
Students first visited KMF in November for a guided tour of the factory floor where production processes were demonstrated and explained. Armed with the knowledge of how to reduce costs, minimise waste and improve designs, students returned to College and selected six designs for prototyping.
Phil Heath, Programming Engineer at KMF said: “It was with genuine enthusiasm that the students came to KMF; armed with many designs and ideas on their first visit. We gave the students a tour of our facility so that they could see at first hand the production techniques that would be used on their designs.
“The students’ designs progressed from simple drawings and paper cut outs into professional CAD 3D Model File Data. It was a pleasure to work with them on this project.”
Andrew Snape, Curriculum Manager – Technology at NULC, said: “Working with KMF has given the students real world insight into exactly how their designs can be manufactured. The students have worked really hard on their product designs and are very excited to receive their finished items.”
The students took out a College Enterprise loan to fund the manufacture of their chosen products. Principal Karen Dobson will be presenting the final manufactured products to the student designers at the M.A.D.E Here shop in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre at 11am on Thursday 12 December. The products will shortly be on sale at M.A.D.E Here. Students hope to reinvest profits in order to further develop their product portfolio.
Karen Dobson, Principal at NULC, said: “Projects like this give students valuable experience and a chance to show off their skills. It’s this kind of opportunity that makes Newcastle-under-Lyme College a first choice for students. We are extremely grateful to KMF for investing in the product designers of the future.”
NULC offers art and creative related A Level courses in Art, Dance, Film Studies, Graphic Design, Media Studies, Music, Music Technology, Photography, Product Design, Textiles and Theatres Studies.
To find out more about courses visit www.nulc.ac.uk, call 01782 254254 or email info@nulc.ac.uk.
David Bell, JCB’s Chief Corporate Development Officer, visited NULC on Thursday 5 December. David met with engineering, product design and creative students including A2 film students who filmed the
visit and two A2 media students who interviewed
him.
David was joined by engineering and design specialists from JCB who provided workshops with students to discuss research, design philosophy and component details.
In addition the JCB Fastrac tractor also made a visit to the College with students having the opportunity to get a hands on tour of the vehicle.
A group of seven AS physics students from NULC sixth form were given a fantastic opportunity to attend a Particle Physics Workshop at University of Birmingham on Wednesday 4 December.
The day was for only 30 students from across the West Midlands and started with a lecture about Particle Physics by Dr John Wilson, who is a member of the University's Particle Physics Research Group. John followed on from the work that students are studying as part of their AS level course, and discussed the research that is taking place at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Students were then given hands-on demonstrations of particle physics detectors: from cloud chambers to spark chambers and cosmic ray measuring devices.
In the afternoon, they worked in pairs on computers analysing some data from the Atlas detector at CERN. This was an excellent introduction to physics at degree level, and it gave NULC students the opportunity to meet Birmingham University students, and look at the University campus.
Junction 15 Productions bought their national indie film festival, organised in collaboration with Newcastle Borough Council, to NULC - four award winning films were screened to NULC Film Studies students, who thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
Film Producer and former NULC student Suzanne James spearheaded the event and highlighted the criteria used from an industry perspective to pick the winning films.
Categories included Best Experimental -Rhombus, Best Documentary - Hitching the A1 and the winner for Best Fiction category was Rep 5091
Suzanne and Verica (curriculum leader for AS/A2 film studies and A2 media studies)also screened Paelistin, from the Experimental Category. Verica commented: "As a judge for the event it was my overall winner; a poignant and poetically lyrical film which centres upon the horrors of war."
Students voted at the end of the night and unanimously declared 'Rep 5091' as the overall winner.
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