YEAR OF ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE RECORDED IN ANNUAL REVIEW

Posted 6 February 2003

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF TEN outstanding student engineers are to feature in a review of 2002, which will be published later this month.

Harper Adams University College, near Newport, Shropshire, plans to issue its Annual Review of 2002 before the end of February, to report on the successes of the institution, its students and staff.

Amongst the student achievements recorded, will be those of ten young engineers who secured a haul of seven group and individual awards between them.

They are: 1) Thomas Jewers, 23, from Rattlesden, Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, who graduated with a first class honours BEng (Hons) Agricultural Engineering degree.

2) Samuel Taylor, 23, from Claverdon, Warwickshire, who graduated from the BSc (Hons) Agricultural Engineering with Marketing & Management degree.

3) Cedric Parentelli, 24, from Chambery, France, who graduated from the BSc (Hons) Agricultural Engineering with Marketing & Management degree.

4) Paul Carson, 21, of Elton, Matlock, in Derbyshire, who is a graduate of BEng (Hons) Agricultural Engineering.

5) Thomas Davidson-Smith, from Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, a Batchelor of Engineering graduate.

6) Nigel Thornborrow, 22, a Batchelor of Engineering graduate from Richmond, North Yorkshire.

7) David Childerhouse, 21, an HND Agriculture graduate from Brandon, Suffolk.

8) Mohabir Raghunath, 28, a Batchelor of Engineering graduate from Guyana.

9) Neil Bainbridge, 22, a graduate of the BEng (Hons) Agricultural Engineering course from High Worsall, in Yarm.

10) Patrick McCarthy, 19, from County Carlow, in the Republic of Ireland, who studied HND Engineering.

During a presentation ceremony held at Harper Adams campus, near Newport, Shropshire, as part of the Graduation Day celebrations last September, these engineers collected their prizes.

Thomas Jewers received the Benford Shield for the best final year engineering design project, from company representative Steve Price (Pic A), and also joined Paul Carson, Thomas Davidson-Smith, Sam Taylor and Nigel Thornborrow in collecting the JCB Group Trophy from Harper Adams’ Head of Engineering Jim Loynes (Pic B).

The group picked up the JCB award, given annually for achieving the highest marks in the final year group assignment, for a report on equipping a new, six variant, rapid response vehicle that is currently under development. Judges said the group was ‘highly organised and committed to their project’ and ‘worked well with the external engineering company to produce a highly valued report.’

JCB Group Trophy Winner, Sam Taylor, was also an instrumental part of the success in two other awards. He paired with Cedric Parentelli to collect the CLAAS Trophy from company representative Mrs J Broomhall (Pic C) after the duo graduated with first class honours from their Agricultural Engineering with Marketing and Management degree course.

Sam Taylor also worked with Neil Bainbridge and Mohabir Raghunath on the Waitrose Building Design competition and stepped up with them to collect their certificates from Waitrose’ Head of Buying Mr Richard Sadler (Pic D).

In addition, Mohabir Raghunath received the New Holland UK Trophy, for the best-performing student on the final year of a BEng (Hons) course, from company representative Mr D. Pegrum (Pic E). Mr Raghunath was sponsored throughout his study at Harper Adams by the Guyana Sugar Corporation. His major project was an investigation into the use of alternative materials for construction machinery products and judges said: “His research and final recommendations were highly valued by the company.”

David Childerhouse collected the John Deere Trophy for the top, final year, HND Agricultural Engineering student from Head of Engineering Jim Loynes (Pic F). Judges described David as ‘focused on his work’ and said he had ‘produced some excellent grades in engineering subjects.’

Finally, Patrick McCarthy was awarded the Wrekin Branch of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers prize for the best performing student in the first three semesters of an HND Agricultural Engineering course. Mr McCarthy received the award from Mr Alastair Taylor, Chairman of the Wrekin Branch of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers.

(Ends)

Notes to Editors:

· Picture references (letters A – F) have been added to the text above. These references have been inserted in such a way that the passage immediately preceeding the picture reference contains the caption information.

· A selection of labelled pictures, corresponding to these references is enclosed, for use as required.