Engineering Shed

Development of an on-site Engineering Workshop, to inspire undergraduate engineers into exploring the practical side of the course.

Engineering is Practical

The first two years of Cambridge Engineering cram in so much theoretical content that there is little room left for anything else. As a result, the practical side of Engineering — the side which ultimately distinguishes an Engineer from a Physicist — is forced to take a back seat.

Keen to promote the practical side of Engineering, several older students at Churchill College (where I studied) managed to obtain access to an abandoned portacabin to convert into an on-site workshop for Churchill engineers. When they graduated, responsibility for the Engineering Shed passed down to me.

A Human Interaction Problem

When I inherited the Shed, it contained a pillar drill, a soldering iron, and a few hand tools. You had to sign out a key from the opposite end of the campus to access it. Hardly anyone used it. So how to turn things around, with a very limited budget? How on earth do you engage students, who always feel like they have something better to be doing?

A Place to Start

Promoting use of the Shed would require physical and cultural changes. It would be a slow journey — my aim was to get the ball rolling. Here's what I did:

  • — Negotiated the installation of a card lock, so access was much easier
  • — Painted a giant mural inside the Shed of the college's cult-hero Engineering professor, Tim Minshall (& his catchphrase)
  • — Acquired a table, chairs & a vacuum cleaner from Housekeeping, and an anti-legionella automatic tap & some material scraps from Maintenance
  • — Purchased and set-up two new machines (a scroll saw & a belt sander), as well as dozens of hand tools & consumables
  • — Ran tours of the Shed for current students, and pushed for its inclusion as part of the official Churchill Engineering Induction

A Specific Reason

My theory was that if you give someone a specific reason to use the Shed once, you change their perception of it thereafter. Next time they have an idea (something to repair/make), instead of the idea simply melting back into their brain, they'll think about the Shed — perhaps this time I'll actually do it. The annual Cambridge Cardboard Boat Race was a great opportunity, encouraging people to make use of the Shed to build their boats!