Students tasked with industry-standard design project

Eastleigh College Computer Science students undertaking the Level 3 Extended Diploma and the Level 5 Higher National Diploma (HND) recently took part in a 3D computer aided design (CAD) competition with an industry leading design company.

Turbulent Designs, based in Havant, specialise in developing detailed 3D assets and environments for simulated training, e-learning and entertainment. Turbulent has created models for use in aviation, marine, rail, mechanical, and even the military.  

Turbulent tasked the College’s Computer Science students with creating some reusable 3D assets which they could use in their 3D simulation environments. They were looking for aircrafts, vehicles, and ‘clutter’ objects such as vending machines and barbeques.

The students were given four weeks to complete the task before a winner from each Level was decided. Trevor Linn, Chief Executive Officer at Turbulent, commented, “We are looking for the objects to be as real as possible, on a 1:1 scale. The deadlines we gave are the same as those in a real business environment, and if the models are good, we’ll use them in our designs.”

Liam McFall, studying the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Computer Science, was named the winner for his category. He said, “It feels really good to win, it was a tough competition.”

The winner of the HND category was Joe Randsom, who studies a HNC in Creative Media Production. Joe felt the competition helped him better understand how projects operate in industry. He said, “Doing the competition has helped me learn what the main priorities are when creating a model, and also how tight the timescales are!”

Trevor, who presented the students with their trophies, was impressed with the standard of work completed by the students, and was keen to share that all entries were of industry standard and therefore could be used in Turbulent’s designs. He added, “We are working with Eastleigh College to help new designers get into the workplace. We have asked the students to create models to commercial standards that can be used in the commercial world, to specifications that commercial companies want.

“By working with the students now, we can help guide them and give them experience for the future.”

To find out more about the Computer Science courses at Eastleigh College, please visit our careers page or call 023 8091 1299.