MDX graduates past and present fly the flag for British engineering excellence at the ‘Skills Olympics’

“The best way to take students from a position of understanding, to a position of excellence is to allow them to experiment, to learn new and emerging technologies, and to push themselves against the best in the world” MDX alumnus Calum Knott

Two MDX engineering alumni have had key roles at the first in-person WorldSkills international finals since the pandemic in Lyon this month, training Team UK competitors and judging the winners.

2018 BEng Mechatronics graduate Marcin Regulski was chief expert in Industry 4.0, which tests participants’ technical and problem-solving ability to programme multi-functional monitoring equipment. Calum Knott, who graduated with the same degree as Marcin in 2014, was the Team UK expert for the Mechatronics competition – focused on designing and wiring a model production line with the added element of needing to perform against the clock.

Both Marcin and Calum competed in editions of WorldSkills themselves as students or new graduates.

Meanwhile representing Team UK for Industry 4.0 was 2023 MDX Robotics graduate Mikhaela Roy - the culmination of an exacting selection process and two years of training with her teammate, Kingston University student Simonas Brasas under Marcin.

In Mechatronics, Siemens apprentices Lucy Yelland and Ben Love won a Medallion for an outstanding performance short of a medal position, earning above 700 points - contributing to the UK finishing tenth out of 60 countries by average point score (11th by total medal points).

Marcin said of Mikhaela and Simonas’ performance - "I'm really happy with them and really proud of them. To see them smiling at the end as well, I couldn't ask for more.

"There's a lot they've learned, the two years we've trained together. And I've been learning a lot from them”.

I tell my customers go and see MDX, because they run a project-based curriculum. It’s the range of competencies MDX graduates have, of which the most important part is the practical element. They know the equipment inside out. It gives me the confidence to put them in front of customers to explain the equipment and how to teach with it. We need more universities like MDX”.

Babak Jahanbani, MD of Didactic Services

Marcin says that the Industry 4.0 discipline – on which he was a member of the technical team at EuroSkills 2021 – represents a “very difficult” challenge for competitors. The measurement station equipment has 30+ different applications. The technical team in Lyon devised a task around programming the equipment to measure pneumatic valves, which also assessed skills in machine learning, cybersecurity, networking, energy monitoring and digital twin.

MDX has a similar piece of equipment on campus in Hendon. Marcin did his final year project using it and says the experience has been as a huge help to his professional progression. “I know three other people who did exactly the same thing, and they're now working in the industrial automation sector” he says.

He is convinced that participating in WorldSkills earned him his current job at the UK operation of electrical engineering components business WAGO. The director “went through every point of my CV. I was able to give a practical example either through WorldSkills or some other project”.

Mikhaela Roy says: “Competing at Lyon was incredible and the pressure was definitely high. But the friendliness of the other competitors made it easier to handle the stress and the pressure.

“The training and competing will help my future, as I gained skills that I never saw myself doing that I can take forward to showcase my knowledge”.

Babak Jahanbani, MD of Didactic Services, Festo Didactic’s exclusive supplier in the UK, said: “A successful [WorldSkills] International will only happen on the back of a successful national event. We’re grateful for the work Professor Mehmet Karamanoglu at MDX is putting in to run the Automation and Mechatronics competitions for WorldSkills UK”.

Babak, who has employed three MDX graduates including Marcin and Calum said: “I tell my customers go and see MDX, because they run a project-based curriculum. It’s the range of competencies MDX graduates have, of which the most important part is the practical element. They know the equipment inside out. It gives me the confidence to put them in front of customers to explain the equipment and how to teach with it. We need more universities like MDX”.

WorldSkills, often referred to as the ‘Skills Olympics,’ first emerged after the Second World War and has grown into a movement of 89 member countries. In Lyon, more than 1500 young people competed in 62 different skills disciplines, from Bricklaying to Hotel Reception, and from Autobody Repair to Information Network Cabling.

Photo: Marcin with Mikhaela and Simonas at WorldSkills in Lyon