During a four-day residential programme, Shravan Jadhav and Saranan Thirumoolan, students from Tiffin School, attended the University of Southampton and were set the challenge of building a supercomputer from raw components, including processors, memory, and motherboards. They then designed, built, test and flew their own airliner using the Future Flight Greener by Design system, to make the airliner quieter, cleaner and cheaper. Once the build was completed, students were able to test their designs in the University’s state-of-the-art flight simulator.

This whole experience was overseen by world-leading engineers in the Microsoft Institute for High Performance Computing at the university and allowed students the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the engineers in this fast-paced and ever-changing field. Dr Kenji Takeda of the University of Southampton explains, “During this week the students were able to see how computers are used to design almost everything around us. Their enthusiasm for science and technology was astounding, and it is clear that they are all extremely talented and have great futures ahead of them. It is a delight to work with these youngsters, along with Microsoft and The Smallpeice Trust, to create such an exciting experience together.”