The Arthur Clements Fund is currently open for applications from Mechanical Engineering students who wish to undertake projects or unpaid placements. Applications close on Sunday 29 May 2022.

The six 2021 Fund recipients were awarded grants of up to £2,000, which enabled them to complete a range of activities – from internships in combustion engine design through to 3D-printing prototype designs for personal safety devices.

Water power

Antonin Samal (MEng Mech Eng with Manufacturing & Management 2023) carried out a placement with hydro power plant SPEAR Hydro. He says:

“The work was very fulfilling and fun, which helped me realise that a career path in an energy engineering start-up might be the right one for me.”

Staying in STEM

Georgina Beardsmore (MEng Mechanical Engineering 2021) used the grant to fund a PRINCE2 qualification, which she has found useful in her graduate role at mobile network Three UK.

“After my industrial placement in 2019, I was unsure about continuing with mechanical engineering due to the culture of the organisation,” she explains. “This certification has given me the confidence to continue in a STEM career through a slightly different avenue.”

Printing protection

Prajwal Rai (MEng Aerospace Engineering 2023) used the funding to purchase a 3D printer to help produce a prototype for his wireless security device, which aims to a more effective solution than rape alarms in the current commercial market.

“The project reinforced that I need to continually challenge myself in order to survive,” he says. “All of the research and development made me feel alive, and I do not think I could live a fulfilled life without that feeling and motivation.”

Professor Gary Hawley, Executive Director of IAAPS and former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & Design, adds:

“The projects so far have clearly demonstrated the positive impact of the funding in allowing students to be creative and entrepreneurial in exploring aspects of mechanical engineering that would not have come from their curriculum-based programmes.”

The Fund was launched in 2019 thanks to a generous £250,000 legacy gift from the late Arthur Clements CBE. His daughter Caroline and son Nicholas chose the Faculty of Engineering & Design as the area that would best fit their father’s passions.

“We are delighted that the financial support from our late father is being used to help engineering students at the University of Bath widen their experience in the working world and broaden their understanding of the art of Mechanical Engineering,” they say. “He would have been very pleased.”