Hi, for those of you that don't know me, I'm Marcus, and have been working with Farnell up in Leeds for the past 3 weeks on a 6-week placement. I have recently completed my third year at the University of Leeds studying Mechatronics and Robotics and will be going on to do my Masters in the coming year. My first blog will be just a short introduction to myself, and the work that i am doing in my 6-week placement at Farnell. I'm am working with another Student on my placement, Sam Fryman, who is also based in the electrical and electronics department at Leeds University.
The main details of our placement is the creation of a 5-Lecture Series on the electronics industry, which will hopefully be adapted by several other universities and companies, and will be downloadable from the Element-14 website. The aim of the lecture series is to help introduce students to the electrical and electronic engineering industry after graduation, and to let them know what kind of opportunities and work are available. The lecture series will be used by the department of electrical and electronic engineering at the University of Leeds as a 10 credit 4th year module to help introduce future graduates to the electronics industry and working life.
Following the first week of the placement, the 5-Lecture series had developed into a 10-Lecture series, which dramatically increased the workload, and reduced the time that could be spent doing other tasks in our placement. Other than the Lecture series, we will also be helping out in the introduction of a student ambassador program to help introduce the Element-14 brand to students and to help them get more involved on the Element-14 website. Another one of our duties is to help in the design and development of the student section of the Element-14 website. One of the function of being a student ambassador would be to try and get engineering students more involved on the Element-14 student page to try and create a student engineering community. If there is any time left in our placement, after the lecture series has been completed, we will be helping out in the development of a Farnell graduate program.
I have thouroughly enjoyed working at Farnell so far and have learned a lot about the electronics industry, Farnell, and how a global electronics component distributor works. Within my first 3 weeks I was also given the opportunity to visit tech support, the call centre and the warehouse to find out what else goes on in the company, and how a distributor runs. Working at Farnell has been my first ever job, and has given me a fantastic introduction to working life. It isn't all just work though! Farnell in Leeds offers the use of a Nintendo Wii for employees who are looking for a quick break during the day, and have a running Wii bowling tournament! Farnell also offers various other activities on the odd weekend. The latest was the 3 Yorkshire Peak hike last weekend. Unfortunately i couldn't make it as i was attending the Stockton-on-Tees River Rat Race the following day.
I will be posting details on 2 of my main projects that i have completed on the Robonova robot, and an Mbed controlled robotic Fish shortly!
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On another note, I am doing a research project with Farnell on the electronics industry and how a student can build his or her career there. I have compiled a short questionnaire which only take 3 minutes to complete. I would be very grateful if you could fill it in and submit it. Click on the link for more info:
Engineer Survey - Help needed...
Thanks!
