Future Engineer Summer Programme
Explore engineering beyond the classroom through hands-on design, prototyping, testing, and learning with practising engineers.
See what the experience is like
Engineering in action
Could you design a bridge, launch a rocket, and 3D print a working prototype, all before you leave school?
Over two weeks at Imperial College London, you'll work alongside practising engineers to do exactly that. You'll build bridge structures and test them to destruction, launch rockets, design and 3D print prototypes, build electrical circuits, and take on a full-day design engineering challenge from a professional brief. You'll spend a full day in a real aircraft hangar with practising aerospace engineers, getting hands-on with real engines, wings, and components. Every session is delivered by people who engineer things for a living.
The programme concludes with the ProEd Field Project, a group research project designed to strengthen university applications, presented to external professionals. You leave with a ProEd certificate, a written Field Project report, and professional panel feedback.
Key highlights
Design, Build & Test
Take ideas from concept to prototype through hands-on engineering challenges, testing and refining designs as you go.
Explore Different Areas of Engineering
Work across areas including structures, materials, aerospace and design to experience the breadth of engineering before going deeper.
Learn with Practising Engineers
Work alongside practising engineers and gain insight into how engineering principles are applied to real-world problems.
Use Engineering Tools & Techniques
Gain practical experience with prototyping, digital fabrication and other tools and techniques used to develop and test engineering solutions.
Programme timetable
Timetable is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Think Like an Engineer / Programmer
- Work alongside a practising engineer to learn the design process: scope, sketch, prototype, test, iterate
- Build something, break it, understand why it failed, and redesign it
- Tour a working engineering facility at Imperial College London
- Structured sketching and visual communication workshop led by industry professionals
Build, Code, Compute
- Design, construct, and test a working prototype with real engineering materials
- Learn to code in Python with a working technologist and build something that works by the end of the day
- Combine physical construction with computational analysis in a team challenge
- Explore 3D printing and digital fabrication tools used in professional engineering
Where Hardware Meets Software
- Design a physical system AND write the code that controls it, guided by professionals who do this for a living
- Work with sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers to bridge the physical and digital
- Investigate a real-world engineering failure caused by a hardware-software integration problem
- Debate: as systems become more autonomous, who is responsible when they fail?
Stress Test Structures
- Build and test bridge structures with a practising structural engineer
- Explore the science of materials and what happens when you choose the wrong one
- Investigate a real bridge or building failure and present what the engineers found
Machines, Flight, and Space
- Design and launch your own rocket with an aerospace engineer
- Take on a Space Mission Design Task: design the mission, select the systems, present
- Discover how real engineering projects are scoped, budgeted, and delivered on time
Intern at an Aerospace Engineering Firm
- Spend a full day in a real aircraft hangar with practising aerospace engineers
- Get hands-on with real aircraft: examine engines, brakes, wings, and landing gear
- Compete in a "Build Your Own Aircraft" challenge alongside the engineers who maintain them
Think Like an Engineer / Programmer
- Work alongside a practising engineer to learn the design process: scope, sketch, prototype, test, iterate
- Build something, break it, understand why it failed, and redesign it
- Tour a working engineering facility at Imperial College London
- Structured sketching and visual communication workshop led by industry professionals
Build, Code, Compute
- Design, construct, and test a working prototype with real engineering materials
- Learn to code in Python with a working technologist and build something that works by the end of the day
- Combine physical construction with computational analysis in a team challenge
- Explore 3D printing and digital fabrication tools used in professional engineering
Where Hardware Meets Software
- Design a physical system AND write the code that controls it, guided by professionals who do this for a living
- Work with sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers to bridge the physical and digital
- Investigate a real-world engineering failure caused by a hardware-software integration problem
- Debate: as systems become more autonomous, who is responsible when they fail?
Stress Test Structures
- Build and test bridge structures with a practising structural engineer
- Explore the science of materials and what happens when you choose the wrong one
- Investigate a real bridge or building failure and present what the engineers found
Machines, Flight, and Space
- Design and launch your own rocket with an aerospace engineer
- Take on a Space Mission Design Task: design the mission, select the systems, present
- Discover how real engineering projects are scoped, budgeted, and delivered on time
Intern at an Aerospace Engineering Firm
- Spend a full day in a real aircraft hangar with practising aerospace engineers
- Get hands-on with real aircraft: examine engines, brakes, wings, and landing gear
- Compete in a "Build Your Own Aircraft" challenge alongside the engineers who maintain them
The ProEd Field Project
The programme concludes with the ProEd Field Project, where students bring together what they have learned to tackle an engineering challenge and develop their ideas into a final project.
Your Engineering Project
Take on an engineering problem and develop a solution from initial concept to final design. Apply the engineering design process to research, prototype, test and refine the idea before bringing the work together for a final presentation.
How It’s Supervised
Work with professional mentors throughout the project, receiving guidance as the idea develops, designs are tested and refined, and the final presentation takes shape.
Example: Design and develop a solution to a real-world engineering challenge, building and testing a prototype before presenting the final design and explaining the decisions behind it to a panel of external professionals.
What's included
Included in the fee
Single room upgrade available at booking
Optional lunch vouchers can be booked for students attending all residential programmes. On-campus cafes and restaurants are available. However, they only accept payment cards and do not accept cash.
All day travel costs covered
test
Not included
Optional lunch vouchers can be booked for students attending all residential programmes. On-campus cafes and restaurants are available. However, they only accept payment cards and do not accept cash.
What past students say
Starts 19 Jul
