July 2018
Robots, artificial intelligence and joint working on a fictional theme park in Oxford brought Unipart Group’s leaders of the future and Year 10 students from Oxford Academy together recently.
Around 120 students went along to the Oxford Academy Digital Day held at Unipart’s Cowley Head Office on July 9. Oxford Academy is Unipart Group’s partner school, as part of the Business in the Community (BITC) initiative.
The day was organised by Unipart’s future leaders – a network of talented Unipart employees identified as having high potential – alongside digital champions from the business.
Students, divided into four groups, took over Unipart’s conference centre where they learned about Unipart’s research and development in artificial intelligence and had a close look at one of the developmental robots designed to improve productivity.
They also learned the difference between Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) and how advances in both are being applied in industry, as well as simulation, sensors, tracking and ways in which technological advances are used to improve both manufacturing and logistics.
Students were each given a business ‘role’ and, using the information they’d learned, worked together on plans to build a (fictional) theme park in Oxford.
‘It was a fantastic way to show students how advancements in digital technology can be applied to any type of business and opened their eyes to the kinds of workplace opportunities available to them in the future,’ said Lee Edwards, Head of Business ICT and Computer Science at Oxford Academy.
‘I can’t thank Unipart and its future leaders enough for organising the day and for inspiring our students,’ he added.
Frank Nigriello, Director of Corporate Affairs, said: “Unipart has been embracing digital technologies for many years and we actively encourage all staff to constantly review working processes, products, equipment and see things through a ‘digital lens’.
“The digital day was a chance for us to showcase some of the key benefits we’ve found digital technologies have brought to us and our customers, including making things easier, faster, safer, lower cost, better and even more fun.
“If sharing just some of the technologies we use with Year 10 students has made any of them think of a future career in our industry then it’s all been very worthwhile.”