A group of 26 students from five universities in South Korea have completed a four-week visit to the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), during which they designed, manufactured and tested their own gliders.

They were taking part in the International Industrial Demonstration Programme (IIDP), a collaboration between the AMRC UK (www.amrc.co.uk) and the AMRC Korea in Jeonju.

During their time in the UK, the students were shown the entire Advanced Manufacturing Park and given tours of its network of research and innovation centres.

Miguel Moreira, technical lead at the Composite Centre, said: “We wanted to show them the work of the AMRC, but we were also keen to give them a real engineering experience and help them understand the life of an engineer, which is why we set them the glider challenge.”

The students were tasked with designing and manufacturing a glider, using materials and equipment available at the AMRC. The winning prototype would be the one that spent the longest in flight.

Mr Moreira said: “They went from nothing to having a glider in two weeks.”

The students visited Stocksbridge Rugby Club — on the edge of the Peak District — to test their prototypes, using a catapult made by composite engineer Mark Sherriff and composite technician Joshua Oxley.

The winning glider was airborne for just over 5sec.