Application · UCAS H714 · Middlesex University, Hendon

Engineering, from the CAD file to the factory floor.

BEng Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering with Foundation Year.

Robotics hardware I print and assemble myself, a full CAD and drawing package submitted to standard, and nine years of walking Chinese factory floors. What I do not yet have is the engineering education to put underneath it.

The open source ORCA robotic hand, printed and assembled — Project Palma. The open source ORCA hand, printed component by component.

01

Why this course, specifically

I have been going back to Shenzhen since 2017. Nine years, building relationships with Chinese factories directly, from the second visit onwards. The most recent trip was twelve days in August 2026.

So I know factories from the floor. Tolerance, tooling, design for manufacture, what a line looks like when it is running badly, what a supplier will quietly change if you do not specify it. What I do not know is how to design properly for them, and I have gone as far as reverse engineering that from the outside takes anyone.

That is the gap H714 closes. Middlesex teaches automation inside a Festo and Siemens Smart Factory, alongside a robotics and haptics lab and a 3D engineering workshop. I have stood on the floors that lab is a model of.

I am applying for the route with the foundation year deliberately. I have no Level 3 qualification of any kind and I would rather build the mathematics properly than bluff my way past it.

02

Nine years of factory floors

Not one trip. A working relationship with Chinese manufacturing, built visit by visit since 2017, and still running.

2017

First visit to Shenzhen. Factory relationships direct from the second trip onwards.

9

Years of going back, across the whole of my working life so far.

12

Supplier meetings on the most recent trip, twelve days in August 2026.

6

Factory tours on that same trip, walking live production lines.

Photographs from the trips are added to this section as they are selected.

01 · Robotics hardware

Project Palma

The open source ORCA hand as a base, running new models on it. I stay close to robotics by owning a piece of it: printing every component, assembling it, and finding out what it takes to make a machine hand do something useful.

In development · first build under way

see it

Every printed component of the ORCA hand laid out in rows — Every printed component of the hand, laid out before assembly.

02 · CAD and technical communication

Technical Design Communication

A CAD mechanism study in Fusion 360: a wheeled case with custom wheel, badge and handle components and a telescoping handle constrained to twenty five millimetres of controlled travel. Delivered as a full package. Every part dimensioned in millimetres, an exploded assembly drawing, an eight step build manual, a physical mock-up and a motion demonstration.

Submitted complete and on time · London South Bank University, 2025/26

see it

Dimensioned orthographic drawings of the case and its parts — Drawing set, exploded assembly, the eight step manual, the finished isometric.

Exploded isometric drawing with nine numbered parts — Drawing set, exploded assembly, the eight step manual, the finished isometric.

03 · Embedded and physical computing

1D Mini

A complete video game constrained to a single line of LEDs. Addressable strip, microcontroller, hand cut acrylic wedge, game behaviour iterated directly on the hardware rather than in simulation.

Completed · first year project

see it

The 1D Mini device lit, showing a single line of coloured LEDs — One line of LEDs, one game. Finished and playable.

04 · Machine intelligence infrastructure

Private Inferencing Core

A personally owned machine intelligence infrastructure project, built to keep data, memory and inference under local control rather than rented from a provider.

In development · working core, proposed expansion

see it

A small silver computer mounted on a black stand — The machine itself, mounted and running.

05 · Fabrication

Container Studio

A shipping container converted into a working studio and fabrication space. Real structure, real services, built rather than rendered.

In development · working environment

see it

A shipping container with one long side open and lit from within — The studio, open and lit.

06 · Design for manufacture

KIJIO

Mobility and power products taken from design through tooling to certified manufacture with factory partners in Shenzhen. This is where I learned design for manufacture, tolerance, and what a compliance standard actually costs to meet.

Manufacturing and development agreements signed · August 2026

see it

Product render of a black travel adapter with multiple sockets and ports — A travel charger taken through design, tooling and certification.

03

What I can already do, and where to check

CAD modelling, Fusion 360

Evidence · Technical Design Communication

Engineering drawing, dimensioned to standard

Evidence · submitted drawing set, every part in millimetres

Assembly and manufacturing documentation

Evidence · exploded assembly and eight step build manual

Additive manufacture, print and assembly

Evidence · Project Palma, ORCA hand

Electronics, soldering, physical computing

Evidence · 1D Mini

Laser cutting and DXF preparation

Evidence · SIK Display, first year

Fabrication and workshop build

Evidence · Container Studio

Design for manufacture

Evidence · KIJIO

Supplier, tooling and certification negotiation

Evidence · KIJIO, twelve days in Shenzhen, August 2026

04

The record, stated plainly

Qualifications

IGCSE, 2012. Mathematics C, English Literature C, First Language English E. No Level 3 qualification of any kind. This is why I am applying to the route that includes a foundation year.

Higher education so far

2025/26, Year 1 of BSc Product Design and Technology at London South Bank University, admitted as a mature student with no Level 3. Teaching year completed. Not all assessments completed. Results are not yet published.

Assessment

Assessed as dyslexic on 13 May 2026, after every semester two deadline had already passed. ADHD traits are documented in the same report, with formal assessment now under way privately. The Student Loans Company closed the funding application that follows an assessment on 12 August 2026, because the academic year had ended.

What I would ask you to weigh

Everything on this page was made before any of that was diagnosed or supported. I am not asking to skip a stage. I am asking to start at the right one, with the maths taught properly from the beginning.

To the course director.

I will come to Hendon at no notice, bring the drawings and the hardware, and answer anything you want to ask about either.

I would rather be judged on what I can make than on three IGCSEs I sat in 2012.

me@bawh.io

Bennett Harris · 07551 799506
UCAS Personal ID 2083920468
Full portfolio · bawh.io

Application for BEng Mechatronics and Robotics Engineering with Foundation Year, UCAS H714, Middlesex University.