Inspiring the
next generation
of Engineers

The best time to inspire and motivate Ireland’s next generation of engineers is when they are young. At ECubers, we do this through practical learning workshops that have a specific emphasis on Equipment Systems Engineering.

The aim is to encourage children in primary and secondary school to consider studying in an engineering field and to then pursue an engineering career. We do this using something all children love playing with – Lego.

Why Is this Work Important?

New technologies mean the workplace facing your children or the children you teach will be very different to the workplace you entered. This is often portrayed in the media negatively, often because of a fear and/or lack of understanding of the oncoming changes.

One of the changes just taking off is the emergence of Industry 4.0.
At ECubers, we see Industry 4.0 as an exciting opportunity for:

  • Young people with technical, practical, and problem-solving abilities
  • Existing Irish engineers
  • The manufacturing industry
  • Companies servicing the manufacturing industry
  • The Irish economy and its position of excellence in manufacturing

What Ireland’s
Manufacturing
Industry Needs

Ireland needs more engineers to deliver on the potential of Industry 4.0. Specifically, the country needs Equipment Systems Engineers today, and in the years and decades to come.

The work we do at ECubers encourages the most talented young girls and boys to consider this exciting new engineering field.

Equipment Systems Engineering with Lego

What better way is there to demonstrate what an Equipment Systems Engineer does than to use Lego to simulate real-world problem-solving activities. This is exactly what we do at ECubers through our Equipment Systems Engineering Workshops.

We run workshops for primary school and secondary school children using Lego Technic and Lego Mindstorms sets.

We have invested significantly in purchasing these sets to give as many school children as possible the chance to experience a fun and practical engineering activity. They can also show off what they are capable of.

Expanding Horizons and Letting Children
Explore their Imaginations

  • The children experience structured content and mentorship delivered by engineering industry professionals, primarily from SL Controls
  • The aim of the workshops is to nurture and help advance the children’s technical and organisational skills
  • Children progress through stages, starting with building equipment using Lego Technic sets and progressing through programming and inventor tasks for those children with more advanced capabilities
  • Children also get the opportunity to take part in the OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) Games. OEE is a key performance indicator in the manufacturing industry.
    The young people get to simulate a real-world problem by optimising the piece of equipment they build using Lego
  • In addition to the practical Lego activities, the workshops also help transition year students to develop an understanding of the different engineering specialities that exist and what they should do next.

A Career for Everyone

At ECubers, we are acutely
aware of the severe
under-representation of
women in engineering.
One of our key priorities is to
take steps to address this.

In all our workshops,
we promote the principle that
engineering is a field of study
and a career that anyone can
pursue. In fact, for Ireland to
remain a centre of
engineering excellence in
manufacturing, we need
more female engineers.

Building, inventing,
programming, and
problem-solving is
for girls too!

At ECubers, we are acutely aware of the severe under-representation of women in engineering. One of our key priorities is to take steps to address this.

In all our workshops, we promote the principle that engineering is a field of study and a career that anyone can pursue. In fact, for Ireland to remain a centre of engineering excellence in manufacturing, we need more female engineers.

Building, inventing, programming, and problem-solving is for girls too!