New-Tech Europe | June 2017

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LatestNews
Renault reinforces its development in connected vehicles, with
the planned acquisition of Intel’s French embedded software R&D
activity
Groupe Renault today announced the signature of a final
agreement on acquisition of Intel’s French embedded software
R&D activity based in Toulouse and Sophia-Antipolis, France.
With this acquisition, Groupe Renault will be bringing in a full
spectrum of skills to reinforce developments in next-generation
Introduced by the University
of Plymouth, the Tamar
Engineering Project (TEP) is a mentoring
and financial award programme
developed to help remedy a technical
skills shortage in the UK. The Royal
Academy of Engineering estimates that
British industry will require 100,000
new graduates in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM)
subjects every year until 2020 if it is to
meet its growth aspirations. However,
the UK higher education sector has been
producing fewer than 90,000 STEM
graduates each year.
The high achieving students chosen for the TEP pilot were
selected from courses in computer science, computer systems
and networks, civil engineering and mechanical engineering.
Further mentors will be recruited before the project launches
fully in September, to coincide with students starting their first
semester of 2017-18. Students interested in applying need to
return completed TEP application forms downloadable from
University before the closing date of 31st May. Guidelines for
applicants are also available online here while general information
is available via the University’s website:
campaign/tamarapply
“A mentoring and access programme operating in collaboration
with industry, like the Tamar Engineering Project, can reach
into those socio-economically vulnerable sections of society and
offer them the resilience they need to be successful in higher
education. If we can help those with a passion for science and
engineering to be successful, then we can make progress to close
the technical skills gap.”
Michael LeGoff, Plessey’s Chief Executive Officer added: “I was first
embedded vehicle software. This brings valuable experience in
areas such as personalized services and remote, autonomous,
realtime updates with no outside intervention.
“This acquisition is right in line with Groupe Renault’s
strategy of offering new connected services and improving
introduced to the Tamar Engineering
Project by Stephen Ball. He outlined
his own personal journey, making his
way from a disadvantaged background
to leading one of UK’s largest and most
critical engineering-based defence
organisations, Lockheed Martin. Once
Stephen explained what he was
trying to achieve with the scholarship
programme and described how he had
already been mentoring a University of
Plymouth student during the past year,
it was a straight forward decision for me
to commit my support to the project.”
Professor Kevin Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Science and
Engineering, the University of Plymouth, said: “The Tamar
Engineering Project responds to the latest recommendations
from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)
about underprivileged groups accessing higher education. But
more than that, our hope is that it will help with retention of
students, and through the mentoring side, provide a springboard
for personal and career development. It is very rare that students
have an opportunity to gain such advice and guidance from senior
figures in industry.”
The TEP programme covers 29 degree courses at Plymouth across
engineering, computing and robotics, and is aimed at students
who are high-performing but also meet certain socio-economic
criteria, such as coming from a low-income family, those who
are a carer, a care leaver, or are from an area designated as ‘low
participation’ in higher education. Students who apply and are
successful will each receive an annual bursary (including a £1,500
course fee waiver and £3,000 living costs per year of study), as
well as mentoring from an industry professional.
Brian Viviers, a participant in the Tamar Engineering
Project (left), alongside his mentor, Michael
LeGoff, CEO of Plessey
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