Siemens launches Digital Academy with 17 universities
A new Digital Academy to foster engineering talent ready for Industry 4.0 has been launched by Siemens, in collaboration with 17 partner universities.
The scheme will pay selected students £3,000-a-year from the second year of university as well as up to 12-weeks paid summer placement throughout the duration of their studies within a Siemens business. At the end of their degree they will be given the chance to join Siemens’ Graduate Scheme.
Six students were selected for the pilot year of the programme. Nikhil Patel and Miles Moran from Newcastle University, Thomas Edwards from the University of Sheffield, Diana Crintea from the University of Southampton, Maryem Khan from the University of Loughborough and Ariana Escobar Chalen from the University of Manchester were unveiled at a launch event at Siemens Digital Factory in Congleton.
“This programme gives undergraduates applied and up-to-date experience to bolster their academic learning,” said Brian Holliday, Siemens Digital Industries managing director.
“By strengthening links between business and our world-leading universities, we can inspire and nurture talent to support the UK’s leading role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The first cohort of undergrads were selected from the ‘Mindsphere Live’ challenge, a two-day hackathon-style event held at the University of Sheffield which involved 84 promising engineering students from partner universities. The task saw students put into 12 multidisciplinary teams and asked to invent a unique device powered by data.
“We really want to develop the next generation of engineers who can create and develop new exciting things,” said Siemens’ Ian Donald, head of R&D at Congleton.
“The inaugural Mindsphere Live was a great way of bringing multi-disciplinary teams together to collaborate to bring data to life in a meaningful way. These real-life problems gave students the opportunity to experience things that they may encounter in a business environment and insight into what life could be like at Siemens.
“The Digital Academy takes that experience to the next level. It illustrates that engineering is a practical subject where the real and virtual worlds co-exist and where data plays an increasingly important part in creating value. It’s not just about sitting at a computer, it’s really hands. It’s about interaction, working in teams to solve actual problems – which is what this pilot cohort will be doing this summer.”
Applications for the next Digital Academy cohort are now being accepted from the following: the University of Sheffield; Newcastle University; the University of Manchester; Oxford University; the University of Cambridge; the University of Lincoln; the University of Southampton; Imperial College London; the University of Strathclyde; the University of Nottingham; the University of Birmingham; Loughborough University; Bournemouth University; the University of Bath; the University of York; the University of Warwick; and Aston University.
For more information on how to apply visit www.siemens.co.uk/digitalacademy
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