The students' London experience included visiting engineering sights and museums such as Greenwich Royal Observatory, Kew Bridge, London Science Museum to name a few. After a hectic and humid jaunt in London, the students headed North to the vibrant and green city of Sheffield.
In their final week, the Tennessee students were hosted in the University’s Diamond building, a world-class centre for multidisciplinary engineering education. They developed practical skills in the Diamond’s Electronics and Control Lab where they conducted experiments using AC circuits. They analysed, assembled, and then soldered circuits into working examples, examining how electrical signals changed as they passed through high-pass and low-pass filters.
Undertaking further studies in the Thermodynamics Lab, the students learned about energy states and the properties of gases. During the labs, students first identified unknown gases by measuring how much each gas molecule weighed (its molar mass). In the second lab, they boiled a refrigerant in a pressure chamber, observing and recording its behavior. Additional experiments included work with heat exchangers, measuring entropy changes, and constructing simple heat engines.
Beyond the classroom, their time was filled with social activities such as visiting Chatsworth House, a cycle ride along the Peak District’s spectacular Monsal Trail, and catching a show at Sheffield Theatres – offering a small taste of life in the North of England.
Professor Michael Berry, Tickle College, said: “The Diamond facilities transcends all the levels here of education through the senior year, and we wanted our students to experience that and to take it back with us.”
Professor Andrew Garrard, Head of Multidisciplinary Engineering, said: “It’s been fabulous having the University of Tennessee students here. They’ve really engaged with the city and with the educational opportunities that we’ve been offering. We’ve worked very closely with the University of Tennessee to ensure that the experiential learning provided in our Diamond laboratories complements the theory that they have been taught in lectures.”
The University of Tennessee will be returning to Sheffield in 2026, and will be extending the duration of their summer programme in the Diamond.
More on the summer school here.
