University joins forces with Edinburgh College to host workshop
University experts have given secondary school pupils a glimpse into the future with a workshop entitled Accelerating the Electric Vehicle Revolution.
The event – organised by Edinburgh Napier with support from Edinburgh College – included an introduction to developments in the field, an exercise on fuel cell assembly and a training session on a simulator.
Thirty S6 pupils from schools around the University’s Merchiston campus took part in the workshop at the College’s Sighthill campus, which acted as a curtain-raiser to Edinburgh Napier’s seventh annual electric vehicle conference later this week.
The event for school pupils aimed to raise awareness of the importance of electric vehicles’ role in fighting climate change, while also encouraging the youngsters to pursue a career in the sector.
Pupils were split into groups and visited the sessions - which ran in parallel – in rotation.
They learned about the general features, properties and key components of electric vehicles, and worked in pairs on assembling fuel cell kits which were later used to perform experiments.
Another exercise allowed students to explore the various factors that affect the quantity of energy used by an electric vehicle to make it from A to B. This task illustrated what can change the amount of energy that a car battery uses.
Pupils also considered motorists’ differing lifestyles and personal requirements as they matched them to appropriate electric vehicles, and the simulator session allowed them to explore both mechanical operation and electrical power flow.
Prior to the workshop, each pupil designed an A3 poster in line with the topic “Envisioning the future of EVs as a means to fight socio-economic inequality”.
The main electric vehicle conference on Wednesday and Thursday includes sessions on both road transport and air transport. Speakers from Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Spain, UAE, UK and the USA are taking part in the free-to-attend online event, which will explore recent advances, challenges and perspectives for the broader dissemination of electric vehicles in major economies around the world.