Students from UTC Oxfordshire went off timetable on Wednesday (27th November), working on a substantial challenge – to Design a Data Centre!
The task was set by CBRE, a major employer in the digital infrastructure industry, and one of the school’s employer partners through its Digital Futures Programme.
Working in teams, the students were set a genuine problem: where to site and how to build a new data centre. Data centres are being built all over the world as our reliance on all things digital booms. The data centres (essentially massive servers that house our digital data) are needed to ensure internet-enabled devices such as phones, laptops and smart TVs can operate properly, giving residents the ability to stream TV, films and music, access social media, do their internet banking and many other things besides.
The average household is thought to need about 700GB per month – an increase of 45% in only two years – so there is a constant need to increase capacity in the UK and worldwide. CBRE, one of our Digital Futures Programme partners, is a major player in this industry and faces this issue every day.
Supported by several other employers from this industry (LMG, ARK Data Centres, Cyrus One, Data X Connect) students spent the day deciding where to site and how to design their data centres.
They used skills and knowledge from their subjects to create a proposal which was later judged by our employer partners in each classroom.
Skills from all areas of learning were called upon, as the teams needed to come up with answers to the following questions:
- Where will your data centre be located and why? Geography
- What will your building look like? How will you design it? Architecture
- What materials will you build it out of? How will it function? Engineering
- What infrastructure do you need? What hardware and software is required? Computing
- How will you run your Data Centre? What is your business proposal? Business
- How much will it cost to fund your data centre? How much power is needed? Maths
- What cooling systems can you use? How will you ensure sustainability? Science
- How will you write a winning presentation for the employers? English
The winning team from each classroom presented their idea at the end of the day to all partners.
Huge congratulations to the all-female Year 12 winning team; Laura, Vanessa and Amalia who impressed the judges with their teamwork and presentation, and won Amazon vouchers.
Students agreed it had been a stimulating day, saying: “It was fun communicating with people and working towards a common goal,” and “It was very fun and a great opportunity that everyone should explore.”
Natasha Hogan, Head of Marketing at LMG said: “I was impressed with the total mix of skills shown by the students at UTC Oxfordshire. Some students had more of an architecture focus, others showed skills in geography or finance, and they were able to identify appropriate roles in their team. They approached the problem creatively and thought in detail about the issues at hand, including talent, sustainability, ethics, and cost.”
Philip Murley, an engineer from CBRE said: “The students have come up with so many interesting ideas. I was able to walk through all of the project rooms and get a great feel for the wide variety of data centre designs produced by the students, who were thinking in detail about fire systems, security, and locations. One team even suggested building a data centre on the moon!”
Why do we do ‘Challenge Days’?
One of the main differences of attending a UTC is the many opportunities our students have to spend time with and work on real-life projects with employers. As well as encouraging teamwork and critical thinking, these challenge days help students:
Improve work-ready skills – Helping students develop and understand the skills and attributes needed to secure a career of choice
Raise Aspirations – Working alongside current and relevant employers with real-world experience, advice and guidance
Prepare for next steps – Supporting students in making informed decisions about your next steps, whether that be education, employment or training