International success for Harper Adams engineers

Posted 10 November 2014

Harper Adams engineers have again achieved success in the annual CLAAS Foundation Awards, recognising the quality of their dissertation projects. 

Yale Brewer, who recently completed an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering and has returned to Harper Adams to top up to a Masters qualification, was third overall in the awards, which are open to students across the globe.   

Announcing the award, CLAAS said: “Yale Brewer from Harper Adams University in the UK received the third prize of a value of 4,800 euros [more than £3,700]. During his industrial placement with CLAAS in Harsewinkel, he investigated the suitability of an industrial bulk material weighing system for grain throughput measurement.”

Yale said: “I am delighted to have been awarded the third prize Helmut Claas Scholarship, it really is great to receive such high accolade at an international level for my BEng project - something which I never thought would happen.

“It has also helped reaffirm my choice to transfer from the BEng to MEng programme and continue my studies at Harper Adams. The project was not without its technical challenges - from test rig limitations to instrumentation failures and signal troubles, not to mention the tight time constraints. That all being said, I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

“I think it is important to acknowledge the moral and technical support received from members of staff at Harper Adams and also the technical support from the project supervisors at CLAAS, without whom the project would never have existed!”

Also honoured at the event, held at the CLAAS Technopark in Harswinkel, Germany, was 2014 graduate Robert Pickavance. Rob won the 1,500 euros bonus award in the Design category for his project dealing with the design, manufacture and testing of a materials handler attachment for transporting trailed implements.

Lecturer David Clare, who attended the event, said: “The awards are open to any students worldwide in the final year of their bachelor degree and the topic of their thesis or project relates to agriculture or agricultural engineering. It’s fantastic news that Harper Adams students have won awards for fourth year in a row. It wasn’t until the actual day that we knew where Yale was ranked. Each student had to give a presentation which demonstrated that their standard of work was high. 

“We are all proud of Yale’s third place position against such tough competition. We are also proud of Rob who graduated with a first class BEng honours degree last September and is now working for CLAAS UK. It shows that our students can carry out world class research and design work in the fields of instrumentation and agricultural engineering. 

“It was also great to hear at the presentation that my colleague, Senior Lecturer David White, will be taking over from former Harper Adams lecturer Peter Darkins on the international judging panel. This is an additional honour for the university and demonstrates CLAAS’s recognition of David as an expert in agriculture and agricultural engineering.”