February 2015 – We recently set a group of students to a challenge: design a pop up beer festival bar!
Ten Level 3 ICT students, in their first year at Keighley Campus, Leeds City College, have been using the college’s Fab Lab facilities to compete in a week-long Design and Enterprise Challenge sponsored by us.
The end result will be help to deliver our award-winning ales to beer festivals across the country.
The students worked in groups to develop concepts and create prototypes to meet the brief. They received support from Fab Lab engineers and Timothy Taylor’s staff and had use of the Fab Lab’s suite of hi-tech equipment.
The final designs were presented to a panel of Timothy Taylor’s ‘dragons’ comprising Heike Funke, Pub Estate Operations Manager, Ben Lumb, Sales Manager and Colleen Holiday, CAMRA Chairperson for the Keighley & Craven district. Students not only had to showcase their talents but also put forward a business case for each one.
Designs included a detailed prototype featuring a display cabinet behind a branded Perspex screen, which could be modular to enable different configurations and size and the judges said it had great potential to become a feature in its pubs’ beer gardens.
Another team came up with a ‘cask on casters’ design which allows the handling of casks without disturbing the beer too much.
The judges were so impressed that they awarded the groups with a different prize for best team and best innovation respectively. Best overall design was awarded to students Luke Poole, 17, and Awais Malik, 17, for the ‘Snap Bar’ – a lightweight design that will easily fit into the boot of a car and takes just 75 seconds to assemble.
Student Luke Poole, said: ‘I really enjoyed learning about 3D printers – the machines in the Fab Lab really opened my eyes to what there is out there’.
We’re now looking into ways to have our original ideas manufactured for future beer festivals.
Fab Lab can be found at www.tellusstuff.co.uk/fablab/ for more details.
Timothy Taylor’s believe that this is a great chance to give young people the opportunity to work alongside employers and gain insights into the modern commercial world. This includes the skills and abilities that employers look for, such as team-working, communication and problem-solving, as well as boosting the students’ CVs.
