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Technology

Technology is a popular subject at the RGS. Its particular flavour is Systems and Control Technology which combines elements of Electronics, Mechatronics, Robotics, Mechanics and Control. As a result, most of the students who study the subject at A level at the school go on to study Engineering or design related subjects at University.

Past students have gone on to study: 

• Architecture (Cambridge)
• Product design (Leeds)
• Industrial Design (Brunel)
• Electrical engineering (University College London)
• Computer programming (Southampton)
• Computer animation (Surrey Institute of Art and Design)
• Engineering (Cambridge, Imperial)
• Aeronautical engineering (Imperial)
• Naval architecture (Southampton)
• Artificial intelligence/ robotics
• Chemistry
• Sports Technology (Loughborough)
• Mechanical Engineering (Imperial)

Every year students enter national competitions such as:

• Surrey SATRO Problem solving challenge.
• Gifted and Talented Engineering challenge. (Eight students from the RGS attended a gifted year 8 construction, engineering and design initiative).
• Audi Young designer’s competition. A number of students have been selected in the past by the Audi Design Foundation to exhibit work at the semi final of the Audi Innovation Awards.
• Young Engineer’s Awards.
  

Students have represented the school in a number of problem solving and engineering competitions over the years:

The picture shows the winner of the best Innovative product in his age group at the Surrey Satro festival of Science and Engineering. This was for his design for a skiing/snow boarding helmet featuring warning lights in a heads up display, integrated into a pair of goggles. His system which the judges were very impressed with senses other skiers who might be dangerously close behind the wearer through the use of ultrasound similar to the system bats use.

Technology students from the RGS have entered other projects over the years. A very interesting one from a few years back was a team made up of Simon Rollings, Adam Marshall and Thomas Goodman who entered the MOD’s “Grand Challenge”. This is a competition to design a system to detect roadside bombs and insurgents in Iraq.

The whole system had to be autonomous (ie, no humans involved). They joined forces with a number of organisations including ERA Technology and the Motor Industries Research Association and the solution that was eventually developed was that MIRA would build a robotic vehicle which could autonomously navigate a town or village towing a trailer on which was mounted the RGS part of the project.

Simon, Adam and Tom designed and built a system with helium bottles which automatically inflated a balloon which then rose to a height of 50m and wirelessly transmitted colour video images back to base. The video camera was electronically stabilised on a powered gyro system to keep the image steady. On the final day of testing at Pilton Down, the boys were the only flying entry to get of the ground on a very windswept day. 

Recent visits by students studying Technology have included;

• Visit to Young Designer’s exhibition at the Business Design Centre, Islington.
• Lecture on the science of Concorde and a tour of the Surrey Space Centre at Surrey University.
• HMS Dolphin, Gosport - Submariner training Centre (Pneumatics) - Yr 13.
• Dennis (Eurotruck) Ltd - Production processes - Yr 12.
• BOC - Industrial use of gases - Yr 13.
• New Mini Production Line, Oxford - Automated production Lines - Yr 12.
• Visit to the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
• Visit to the Science Museum

We have links with a local company Alexander Dennis who run a special problem solving event for our year 2 students.

Other links and events:

• Management Challenge (Dennis) - Yr 12 Technology Group.
• Design Museum - Yr 11 Activity Day.
• Students have attended quick start courses in Engineering and Electronics every summer and the Smallpiece Trust Summer Schools.
• One student attended a conference on artificial intelligence in Boston, and acted as a steward on the robotics section. He also spent a day at the robotics lab at MIT.

Success Rates

Exam pass rates are always very high. Over the past few years, a number of students at both GCSE and A level have been notified by the exam board that they scored amongst the top five highest scores in the country.

One of the benefits of studying Technology is that you can tailor the project that you undertake to fit the subject that you intend to study at University. A notable example of this was Nick Rice who went on to study Music after the RGS. His final, A level project was a radical re-design of the cello and featured a built in amplifier, adjustable knee rests and a innovate repositioning of the head at the bottom of the cello.