Recently Vivienne and I had a most absorbing and inspiring evening with engineering students at Aston University. These very bright and enthusiastic young people were involved in two projects, Formula Student and the Shell Eco Challenge.
During my year as Lord Mayor I'd promoted engineering as a course of study and had provided some modest funding to our three universities to this end including sponsorship of Formula Student where the students design and build their own racing car. It is a superb exercise not only in hands-on mechanical engineering but also in teamwork, organisation and industrial and other sponsorship. The Formula Student races take place during the summer at both national and European levels. In the Eco Challenge the task is to construct a car that does maximum mileage from one litre of fuel.
I wanted to play my part in emphasizing the immense value of these projects and of mechanical and automotive engineering in general. These are fields the study and practice of which are so important to the future of the city - and indeed the country.
Our local and national prosperity was founded on engineering and manufacture and I believe that we must return to a position where a full and proper role is played by engineering in our economy to ensure our future economic wellbeing.
You cannot have an economy of our size just based on services and shopping - and of course there is no such thing as a post industrial society. Thus there is a major role to be played by proper universities - those which include a study of the discipline of engineering - as all three in Birmingham do.
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