Zone Reports

The Hospitals Zone was a themed zone funded by the Wellcome Trust. The work of the participating engineers covered areas such as developing medical diagnostic machines, designing hospitals to be safe from fire and researching new ways of manufacturing medicines. The live chats were consistently busy and the ratio of questions approved to those submitted was above average. Engineering in hospitals was one of several themes amongst others, rather than the main focus of the Zone. Other themes were the appeal of engineering, subject advice, and the personal motivations and preferences of the engineers. The majority of the engineers engaged well in the Zone, and the top four answered a similar number of questions in ASK. Download the full report

This was a themed zone funded by the UK Space Agency and featured engineers involved in fields that developed technologies for space or used information from spacecraft. The students in the zone wanted to know about how the work of the engineers related to space and space travel, what engineering was like as a career and who the engineers were as people. Camilla, Katie and Rhys were especially engaged during the event, and all engineers interacted well with students, discussing shared hobbies and interests as well technical science and engineering questions. Download the full report

The Transport Zone was a themed zone where the engineers were all involved with helping things move, for example creating software to control huge ships, or designing more efficient combustion engines, or researching new materials to produce aircraft. It was the smallest of the March zones, with 186 students registering. Live chats were often relaxed and focused mainly on engineering as a career and the daily lives of the engineers. It was a competitive zone for the engineers, with the top three of Felicity, Peter and Olivia all engaging very well with the students. Download the complete report.

The Safety Zone was a themed zone which included engineers whose work improved the safety of different industries, for example in aeroplanes or the internet. This zone had the highest number of students taking part (520) of any I’m an Engineer zone run so far. It was the most active of the March zones in many measures, having double the average of questions asked, approved, and answered, and the most live chats booked. Neil, the Zone winner, did particularly well to hold the attention of students during solo chats. Overall, school activity was fairly even resulting in a very engaged zone. Download the complete report.

The Health zone was a themed zone consisting of engineers working in different areas of healthcare, for example researching implants for hips, developing new medicines or improving methods of fixing broken bones. This was one of the busiest zones for live chats and they were well attended by the engineers, with students often able to talk to four at a time. Louise and Naomi were especially good at engaging during these chats. The engineers seemed to get on very well with each other and interacted outside of the zones, over Twitter for example. It was notable that few questions were submitted through ASK in this zone. Download the complete report.

The Communications Zone was a themed zone featuring engineers who worked on the transfer of information, for example in wireless networks or by encoding video for smartphones. The Zone had the highest proportion of active students of any zone at 92% of the students who registered. The focus was more on careers in engineering rather than the theme of communications engineering. Out of the engineers, Rik especially put in a great deal of effort in to his questions in ASK and he attended nearly every available live chat. Download the complete report.

The Apprentice Zone consisted of engineers that had all started their career on apprenticeship schemes, or were currently on a scheme.  Despite the variation in their current professional backgrounds there was a very strong focus on apprenticeships and ‘engineering as a career’ in both ASK and CHAT, and the live chats were lively and fun. The engineers engaged well with ASK, providing 423 answers, well above the average number for March, and students often commented on their answers. Stacey, the Zone winner, was excellent in attending nearly every live chat, leading to her contributing over 40% of the lines of chat. Download the complete report.