1MechEngNews

MechEngNews

ISSUE 5: March 2015

2 MechEngNews

03 Engineering A Womans Game?

04 Remembering Richard The Richard Pover Oustanding Contribution Award

06 Profile Dr Ben Hughes

08 Going nude for engineering Charis Lestrange

09 Avicenna Strategy for in silico clinical trials

10 Where are they now? Ferrari Formula 1

12 A Triumphant year so far Year in industry

14 Research focus HSS goes high speed

16 Everlastinglove A 3D printed first

17 Exyo Design to empower

19 Engineering Youre Hired

20 Wouldntitbegreatif... One mans daydream

22 Readallaboutit!

24 TheFinalWord.

This magazine just gets bigger and betterbythequarter!

Lots of you have been in touch with your stories and photos and its been great to hear from each of you! Unfortunately, there isnt room to fit every single story in so what you see here is just a selection.

Please dont wait to hear from me before you share your great acheivements, I always want to hear about it! So if you win an award, start on a really interesting project or link up with a fascinating partner please do get in touch and let me know. Even if it doesnt feature here, I will try to make use of every bit of news we have, whether its in recruitment materials, external publicity, social media or internal communications.

KatKat BuckEditork.buck@sheffield.ac.uk

/SheffMechEng

@SheffMechEng

SheffMechEng.blogspot.com

Followus:

This publication is produced using 100% recycled FSC certified paper

Contents. Hello!

According to a recent article by BBC News, the UK is suffering from a major engineering skills shortage. The article says that by 2022 we will need at least 1.82 million new engineering, science and technology professionals. This is not just a problem for the future, its a problem now. Employers organisation CBI says Our most recent survey shows that skills shortages are becoming more acute, and risk acting as a break on our economic recovery. Its apparent that we need to work hard to inspire more and more young people into engineering careers, and with only 7% of engineering professionals in the UK being female, even lower for engineering apprentices, it is more important now than ever to be showing girls why engineering is not a boys choice.

Dr Emma Carter in our Rail Research Group is taking this problem very seriously and received an 8000 award from the Engineering Professors Council (EPC) last year to make a series of films aimed at school children aged between 10 to 13.

Emma says, The UK is struggling to recruit young people into professional engineering careers and the industry is particularly failing to attract enough girls. Part of the reason is the lack of female engineering role models available to go into schools to talk to children about engineering and dispel the many myths and stereotypes responsible for putting off potential talent. The aim of the project is to produce 5 short films (around 10 minutes duration each) showcasing female engineers working on a variety of exciting projects in industry and academia. Each episode will focus on a specific technology or area of

engineering research and will include clear explanations of an engineering concept aimed at Year 6 Year 9 pupils (both girls and boys). The engineers appearing in the films have been carefully selected for their subject area, their excellent communication skills and dynamic personalities.

Emma also spent a day filming at a primary school where she led engineering workshops and asked the children what they wanted to be when they grow up and what they thought an engineer might do.

The films, which feature apprentices, researchers, students and lecturers from the Faculty of Engineering, will be launched in March as part of the Sheffield Festival of Science. Emma will also be giving a public lecture at the event called Engineers - making the world a better place one idea at a time. The lecture will be at 6pm on 24th March, in Mappin Building LT1.

3MechEngNewsThis publication is produced using 100% recycled FSC certified paper

Engineering: A Womans Game?

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Richard Pover was an outstanding student, a loyal friend, loving son and big brother. He was 20 years old and in his third year of study on his undergraduate degree with us in Mechanical Engineering when he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of testicular cancer. Most people would be shattered by this diagnosis, but not Richard. He loved Sheffield, his course, the University and his friends and for that reason decided to remain in the city for the duration of his treatment. His friends and his active university life helped him to maintain his astonishingly

positive outlook and determination to carry on as normal as his medical team did everything in their power to beat his disease.

Despite his strength and courage and undergoing extensive treatment, the doctors were unable to save him and Richard passed away on 13th June 2013, just two weeks away from his 22nd birthday and on the day he would have left university were he able to complete his degree.

Richards story doesnt end there though. He was

RememberingRICHARD

Richard on an inter-railing trip in 2011, Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria

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a born engineer with a promising and successful future ahead of him, he was a conscientious and enthusiastic student whose tutors recognised in him the ability to succeed and the University awarded him a first class honours degree, posthumously, in a private ceremony. Richard inspired many and made a lasting impression on both staff and fellow students, to honour that memory for mechanical engineers of the future, his family would like to create a lasting memorial in the form of a permanent endowment, to be named the Richard Pover Outstanding Contribution Award within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. This would be an annual award, open to all students within the Department who have excelled in their extra-curricular activities and made an outstanding contribution, just as Richard did.

Richards Mum, Anne, says, There are no words to describe the despair we felt on losing our wonderful son and Chris and Stephen their big brother. Richard had everything to live for and the brightest of futures ahead of him, but it was not to be - his cancer was rare and aggressive and had no respect for age or prospects.

Since Richards death we have concentrated our efforts on raising money for a variety of cancer charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust, as Richard received such wonderful care in their Sheffield unit, but this latest challenge is a personal quest for us - to raise money for a lasting award in Richards name which would mean he would never be forgotten and in addition would help other engineering students from Sheffield University, where Richard was so happy.

It feels right to start 2015 by doing something positive for Richard and we will be thinking of ways to raise money, but ask people to donate anyway - to support future generations of engineers from Sheffield, to support us, Richards family, as we learn to live without him, but most of all to ensure that our wonderful, courageous, inspirational son is never forgotten. That is so important to us. Thank you so much.A Just Giving page has been set up in Richards

name and, with donations from alumni, staff and friends, his family hope to create a very personal and life-long tribute to Richard that will ensure he is never forgotten. Please stand by Richards family and make a donation to support the setting up of the Richard Pover Outstanding Contribution Award and help the next generation of Sheffield engineers. Reading through the comments on the page, you can see what a popular and well loved person Richard was and will always be.

Richard and family enjoying a holiday together

Richard and classmates at his surprise 21st birthday party, 2012

If youd like to make a donation towards Richards fund, please do so here:

justgiving.com/rememberingrichardpover/

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Profile: Dr Ben Hughes

What made you want to become a mechanicalengineer?I dont think I ever set out to be a mechanical engineer, my father was an architect and pushed me away from that subject as he felt that industry was dead. But I grew up around building design and construction sites so I always appreciated good design and working spaces. For me an apprenticeship was a way of being paid to study and thats what really turned me into an engineer. Engineering gave me opportunities to study, travel and turn my hand to any given problem, I came through a long hard route to academia but I consider myself very fortunate to now be able to focus on my passion for well designed buildings using my training as a mechanical engineer to reduce energy consumption from this sector.

Where did you train?I trained as an Apprentice Mechanical Engineer with Shell in the Fine Chemicals Division and then as a Shift Mechanical Engineer for 12 years during which time I completed ONC,HNC, NVQ and C&G at Wakefield College before Studying part time at Sheffield Hallam University for HND and BEng Hons in Mechanical Engineering. I left Shell to take an EPSRC CASE studentship, so 12 years academic training alongside 15 years in industry. I also received support from the IMechE with a Whitworth Senior Scholarship, elected as a Senior Scholar in 2009, Fellow of the IMechE in 2014 and President-elect of the Whitworth Society in 2015.

What are your research interests?My interests are in practical applications, I focus on existing technologies to make them more energy efficient, predominantly in the

How can three flumps and a piece of toffee be 2.99?

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built environment. So a lot of my research is international where there are higher levels of energy consumption in countries with rapidly emerging infrastructure. I have several patents for energy free air conditioning systems which I have spun out into free running buildings.com with the University of Leeds and the IP Group.

Whatprojectsareyoucurrentlyworking on?Currently I am carrying out field trials of a zero-energy passive cooling tower in Abu Dhabi and Ras-Al Khaimah funded by the Qatar National Research Fund and the Zayed Future Energy Prize and I am also working with Aspire and Qatar University to devise thermal comfort strategies for the FIFA 2022 World Cup, again funded by the QNRF. In the UK I am developing a humidity control system to reduce energy in HVAC applications using EPSRC POC funds. But on the other end of the spectrum I also work with Sheffield Childrens Hospital developing a non-contact respiratory measuring device for their A&E department funded by the NIHR i4i.

IftherewasoneMechEngproblemyoucouldsolve,whatwoulditbe?Pick and mix scales, how can three flumps and a piece of toffee be 2.99? Its troubled me for many years, since Woolworths to be honest, but we are no closer to a solution. I watch my 5 year old daughter showing the same confused face so I know Im not alone.

Whatwordsofadvicewouldyougivetoyourstudent-selfaboutthefuture?Listen more. I think as a student you focus on passing exams and getting good grades, when in reality understanding is all that matters. I achieved a first class degree but I learnt more from being an apprentice then I ever did revising past papers. More than 40 new leading academic energy researchers have joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and will significantly expand our existing expertise in energy research

as part of the Energy 2050 initiative a world-leading hub of excellence set up to address the trilemma of making energy more affordable, secure and sustainable.

The UK is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050, but that target will only be achieved by transforming the way energy is supplied and used. Energy 2050 will explore how the country can move to a secure, affordable low-carbon energy system by this date.

The initiative, designed to strengthen the interaction between university research, industry innovation and government policy, will provide an institutional framework for a multidisciplinary collaboration in energy research and innovation.Professor Mohammed Pourkashanian, Professor of Energy Engineering who leads the multi-disciplinary energy research team, said: We need a better way to resolve our energy security, affordability and sustainability by going beyond traditional research boundaries to deliver value to regional growth, wealth creation and national and international energy security affordability and sustainability. Working in this way marks an exciting new chapter in our research and we will attract the worlds most talented academics and students keen to address these challenging issues.

Energy 2050

The Naked Scientists are a team of media savvy scientists, doctors and communicators based at the University of Cambridge whose passion is to help the general public to understand and engage with the worlds of science, technology and medicine. The Naked Scientists was one of the first podcasts to exist and is now one of the worlds most popular science shows, with over 40 million programme downloads in the last 5 years.

Until recently, there was no engineering arm of the Naked Scientists group so they announced that they were looking for people doing engineering PhDs to apply for an internship. Successful candidates would work with the them for a period of 2 months, during which they would learn about science and engineering communications, broadcasting, blogging, copywriting and producing podcasts.

Charis Lestrange, a PhD student in Manufacturing, has a keen interest in science broadcasting and engineering outreach and was a founder of the University of Sheffield Women in Engineering Society so when she saw the opportunity she jumped on it and sent in her application. Charis herself only ended up in engineering by chance; she was already doing her A-levels when she first

heard about engineering and luckily two of them were physics and maths. She says, People are only told to choose what theyre good at, theyre not given the other options early enough. I only found out about engineering by luck and already happened to be doing the right A-levels. I chose Mechanical because it was the broadest option.

The interview process for the internship was gruelling. After sending her CV and a covering letter, Charis was invited to a 20 minute interview. Simple, you might think. It was the most stressful 20 minutes of my life so far! says Charis, The interview was broken down into 3 sections. First I was given 5 minutes to read a new science paper, I was then interviewed as the expert. I had to think about the audience, who might be listening, and tailor my responses accordingly. Next the interviewer turned her handbag upside down on the desk and gave me 5 minutes to create a science experiment to air on the radio using only the items from her bag. Finally, I was given 10 minutes to answer some competency based questions.

Despite the healthy competition, Charis made it through and will begin her internship in September.

Going nude for engineering

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Witha991,000grantfromtheEuropeanCommission,Avicennahasthe momentous task of shaping the futureofclinicaltrials.

A Europe-wide consortium coordinated by the Insigneo Institute at the University of Sheffield, Avicenna has been tasked with producing a roadmap for in silico clinical trials.

So what does that mean? Well, the way that drugs and medical devices are currently developed, they have to be tested thoroughly in the lab, often on animals, and then through multiple stages of human clinical trials. As these trials increase in size, so do the costs with about 90% of the total cost spent on the final phase before the drug is approved. With the typical cost of developing a drug around $1.3 billion, a failure in the final phase of trials is catastrophic, but failures happen all too often because current methods cannot accurately predict how products will behave in the large scale final phase.

With advances in computing technology it is becoming increasingly feasible to model patient characteristics and accurate computer models of a treatment and its deployment. In such a scenario, virtual patients (each with varied conditions and parameters) are given a virtual treatment, enabling us to observe through a computer simulation how the product performs and whether it produces the intended effect, without inducing adverse effects that might be potentially dangerous for the patient. It is hoped that this will be a much better predictor of how the drug will fair in the many-patient phase of clinical trials.

The predictive power of in silico clinical trials should allow for a reduction in animal testing, replacing it with computer models of human patients, and should reduce the late-stage failures in drug development which are so costly,

encouraging higher confidence and investment in drug development.

Avicenna organises meetings across Europe between experts in the field sourced from industry, law, government and academia to develop a roadmap for the introduction of in silico clinical trials, a document that the European Commission can use to bring about the changes in policy needed for its widespread adoption. The latest event took place in Brussels in February and the next one will take place in Barcelona in June. Alongside the roadmap the consortium is working towards establishing a partnership of pharmaceutical companies and research agencies the Avicenna Alliance that will continue the development of the technology after the project finishes in September.

If you are interested in joining our next event, please contact events@avicenna-isct.orgFor more information: www.avicenna-isct.org

A strategy for in silico Clinical Trials

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Where are they now?OneofouralumnihastakenFormulaStudenttoawholenewlevelafterbagginghisdreamjobworkingfortherealthingatFerrariFormula1.Wecatchuptofindouthowhedidit

had already managed to break into his life long dream and been offered the position of Junior Aerodynamicist with the Force India Formula 1 team.

Phil loved his job at Force India, but a year and a half after joining he received an out of the blue call from his old boss at Prodrive. He and his business partner were embarking on an exciting new project, something completely different to F1 and wanted Phil to be a part of it. They had patented a process to recycle mixed waste plastics from a small prototype and needed to design and build a whole manufacturing facility from scratch. Phil recognised this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to work for a start up company on such an interesting project and made the incredibly tough decision to leave his dream job to pursue the challenge.

Phil spent three and a half hugely rewarding years on the project and the team succeeded in their goal of designing and building a fully functioning manufacturing facility, but his hunger for F1 never

left him and he soon felt the urge to return

His next step was working for the Marussia Formula 1 team, again in aerodynamics, where he got first hand experience trackside with trips to Barcelona and Bahrain, and after a year and a half he accepted an offer to relocate to Maranello,

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Phil Houghton landed his dream job working at Ferrari Formula 1 after graduating in 2007 with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering (with a year in North America at Georgia Institute of Technology). During his time with us he was awarded IMechE Best Project for his MEng thesis and was nominated for Mechanical Engineering Student of the UK 2007.

Phil had a strong interest in aerodynamics and composites, which opened the door into the automotive industry and saw him into a job at a company called Prodrive.

Prodrive design and build race cars for the Subaru World Rally Team and Aston Martin (Le Mans) and Phil worked in the composites department. The job had initially been intended as a 1-2 month short term project to understand their manufacturing process in order to find improvements to make their process more efficient. Due to the projects success it ended up lasting 6 months, by the end of which Phil was offered a permanent job, but by this point, he

Italy to work with the Ferrari Formula 1 team.

Phil currently works as an aerodynamicist, focusing on wind tunnel testing. His role involves test preparation, running of wind tunnel shifts and analysis of aerodynamic data in order to identify the best options for the race car.

Every day is different, he says, you need to be prepared to act quickly. Generally the structure of my day is governed by whether or not Im in the wind tunnel testing, analyzing and reporting on the most recent innovations. Outside the wind tunnel Phil spends his time analyzing CFD results, planning testing strategies for upcoming tests, attending meetings as well as working on other interesting projects.

Phil loves his job, this is where he wants to be. Ive very much enjoyed living abroad, he says, this is exactly where I hoped my career would take me. The challenge was trying to find a combination of working in Formula 1 (predominantly in the UK) and living abroad. The only option really was

Ferrari but it seemed like a pipe dream! I always wanted to work somewhere where I was exposed to learning another language. I feel it adds a whole added perspective to ones life.

With focus and effort, anything is possible.

Phil plans to continue his career in Italy with Ferrari and acquire the skills required to go trackside and become a trackside aerodynamicist.

Reading the above story, this path may look easy but it certainly has not been. Phil reflects, It requires a huge amount of skill and determination but with focus and effort, anything is possible. Never give up and if you keep believing, it will happen. Networking is paramount, never burn any bridges as it is a small world and you never know who you will bump into down the road!

A quote that has continued to keep Phil going through the toughest times is one by Teddy Roosevelt. It reads:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

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RichardMillsandHughWilliamsarebothontheirplacementyearinindustryatTriumphMotorcyclesinHinckley.They have been working as design engineers and have written to us to let us know about their experience so far; from the application process to projects they have been getting stuck into.

Richard

One of the things that immediately impressed me about Triumph was the efficiency and professional manner in which they recruit students: their initial application process consists of sending a CV and covering letter; there are too many companies that require you to spend hours and hours filling in forms only to be rejected by a computer before an actual human being knows you have applied. Every application to Triumph is assessed personally and thus ensures the individual is appropriate for the position and is what Triumph are looking for. Upon completion of the application stage I was asked to complete online aptitude tests and as a result was invited to an assessment centre at the factory. The assessment was an excellent day that included some group work, further testing and a tour of the factory. I was then invited to an interview with two of the team leaders from the design department. It was a few weeks after this I was offered a placement that would start in the summer.

I was very excited to start my placement and gain some real experience of engineering in industry: my first couple of weeks were filled with inductions from various sections of the business. I spent a day on the assembly line in order to appreciate what went into building a motorcycle and how efficient Triumph were at doing this. This was a real eye-opener as the pace was very fast and any issues caused the whole line to be stopped I would still say that was the most exhausting day I have had so far. In addition to this I attended an invaluable CAD course which gave me the knowledge required to work as an engineer in the department and to be given genuine tasks from the outset. Although Triumph really do treat you as any other employee support is always available if required, however, I immediately felt I was making a difference and was not just there to be a menial worker for a year.

I have carried out a range of different tasks since I arrived but one of the bigger responsibilities I was given was the design of a revised shaped catalyst and sump for a future model. I began with scheming some possibilities in CAD to get an idea of how it could all fit together and after this I refined the design. I modelled the sump from scratch and carried out modal analysis to ensure the part would not behave as a noise source at

a antyear so far

I would recommend a placement here to all students considering a career in engineering

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certain engine frequencies. I used existing data to compare the costs of catalysts to recommend a solution that would offer improved performance as well as reducing cost. I have also been lucky enough to be involved in some practical testing and was given the opportunity to visit MIRA which is an automotive proving ground (as seen on Top Gear!) to carry out noise testing and do some cooling work in the climatic wind tunnel. I have also worked on numerous other parts of the engine including header, lubrication, cooling and intake systems as well as designing some apparatus that could be used on the test rigs during the testing of new engines.

I am thoroughly enjoying my time at Triumph and would recommend a placement here to all students considering a career in engineering. Whilst university provides you with the required engineering theory, I have developed skills at Triumph that cannot be taught in a lecture theatre and I am positive this will benefit me massively upon my return to university and later in my future as an engineer.

Hugh

The day before my interview, Richard and I were studying in St Georges computer room when he received a phone call from Triumph: he had gotten the job. If the thought of an interview was not nerve-wracking enough, this had certainly made it worse!

Two tense weeks later I was also offered a placement in the Accessories Design department to start in July.

Luckily for us both we had been good friends since early in first year so we started to look for a house together. The move to Hinckley was relatively stress-free but I was not looking forward to leaving Sheffield having grown up and gone to University there.

My first few weeks were very like Richards and I was placed on the same induction program to learn about the different departments as well as general training to get us up and running.

Accessories for Triumph motorcycles range from the soft or hard luggage strategies to cosmetic and performance bodywork. I have been given the opportunity to work on several products intended for production on future models such as a radiator guard and a set of pannier frames. This work has included communicating with product planning in order to achieve the correct styling, as well as large amounts of FEA analysis to check that components will survive fatigue loading using data from testing on similar or previous models.

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying my time at Triumph and would recommend any student at Sheffield to apply who is looking for the best experience of the engineering sector. If you are like me and enjoy both technical engineering and the aesthetics of products, the Accessory Design department at Triumph could well be for you.

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Richard (left), and Hugh (right)

Research focus: HSS goes high speedAdditive Manufacturing technologies have been widely recognised as extremely important for the reshaping, re-shoring and sustainable growth of UK manufacturing. A recent Technology Strategy Board (TSB) report - Shaping our National Competency in AM identifies the lack of process speed as the greatest inhibitor to growth of Additive Manufacturing, identifying a need for speed improvement by 4-10X over todays technologies.

Professor Neil Hopkinson, the lead inventor of the High Speed Sintering (HSS) process, has received 900,000 from EPSRC under the Manufacturing the Future theme to create the worlds first HSS machine capable of high part throughput and multi-materials and thus open up the possibility for a vast range of previously impossible research of international significance to be undertaken. The project will provide The University of Sheffield with unique facilities to conduct world leading research.

HSS has been proven to work on a small scale using single materials. The aim of this project is to create a large machine with a bed area of 1m x 1m that is capable of creating many parts simultaneously. Neils teams models predict that a 1m x 1m x 1m bed will enable a production rate of small components at around 0.5 seconds per part, representing a speed improvement between 10 and 100 times (depending on what is being made) compared to todays comparable state of the art machines. Faster print speeds will have an environmental impact too; although the machine will consume the same energy as todays machines, the faster speeds mean that energy consumed per part could be 100th of todays usage.

The new machine will also allow us to print further materials additional to the ink that

absorbs infra-red energy - for example we will be able to print conductive inks so that we can create parts with embedded electronic circuitry and devices such as capacitors.

There will be significant technical challenges to create the machine especially in terms of powder deposition and thermal control; Neils additional ambition to create multi-material parts will present substantial challenges in terms of inkjet printing and thermal control of dissimilar materials. The team will address these challenges by first conducting a range of

experiments into aspects such as method of powder deposition and approaches to printing dissimilar inks to inform their design decisions. The team will create the machine by employing a team of engineers with a strong track record for producing manufacturing research equipment led by Neil.

Neils broader aim is for the research performed on this machine to strengthen the UKs research base and intellectual property position including patents and know-how in the fast growing field of Additive Manufacturing.

Neil says, This project brings together both of our different strengths in the Department; from translational research at AMRC which will enable us to expand our transformative research in the Faculty of Engineering. This has the potential to be the most important additive manufacturing process yet industry observers have suggested the technology will change the world of additive manufacturing completely.

The success of this project could lead to substantial re-shaping of many sectors in manufacturing with products of increasing value and very high volumes being produced across the globe, including the UK.

The project will provide the University with unique facilities to conduct world leading research

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Funding awarded: A quick look at funding received this quarter

Professor Rob Dwyer-Joyce was awarded 105,694 from Ricardo UK Ltd for the second phase of his Wind Turbine Bearing Sensor Development project. He was also awarded a further 20,000from H2020 for his HERCULES-2 project on an adaptive performance marine engine.

Dr David Fletcher has received a whopping 4,362,926 from H2020 for his NETIRail-INFRA project to look at needs tailored interoperable railway.

Professor Neil Hopkinson had EPSRC funding to the tune of 889,946 to produce a large volume, multi-material high speed sintering machine (opposite).

Dr James Meredith received 142,634 from Innovate UK for his KTP, Automated part trimming and cutting processes within the added composite mnaufacturing industry.

Dr Bill Nimmo of the new Energy 2050 group was awarded 42,000 from BritishCouncil for his knowledge economy partnerships programme.

Professor Kirill Horoshenkov received 29,870from the Environment Agency for the development of novel accoustic instrumentation for non invasive monitoring of water flows.

Dr Patrick Smith received 12,291from NERC for sensors for the detection of radionuclides in water.

Professor Marco Viceconti was awarded 998,946 from MRC for POLARIS, his pulmonary, lung and respiratory imaging project.

Totalfundingreceivedthisquarter:

6,904,307

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A 3D printed bridal bouquet has been produced by Department of Mechanical Engineering expert on 3D printing, Dr Candice Majewski, for her wedding to manufacturing supervisor, Bret Hughes, in Indianapolis. The distinctive white roses are believed to be the first 3D printed flowers to be used as a wedding bouquet.

The flowers were designed by Candices best friend and senior lecturer in product and industrial design, Dr Guy Bingham, from the Loughborough University and printed by Wendy Birtwistle, part of the team at the Universitys Centre for Advanced Additive Manufacturing (AdAM).

The intricate design of 9 roses, which took 18 hours to print and incorporated movement to emulate a real spray of flowers, was carefully packaged to travel with Candice to the USA for her wedding ceremony with Bret in the Butterfly House of Indianapolis Zoo, where they spent their

first date. Theyd met online two years earlier while playing the popular online game, Evony.

I carry out research into 3D printing and I love what I do so I thought it would be really cool to make it part of our wedding, explains Candice. I love 3D printing, I love the versatility of it. How it can be used for something as trivial or frivolous as a vase or a cup but then as important as advances in medicine, in creating prosthetics or implants. However, having such a special bouquet meant I certainly wasnt going to throw it to my wedding guests! The great thing about having a 3D printed wedding bouquet is that it wont decay like natural flowers, so well now be able to keep it as a permanent reminder of our special day.

A 3D bouquet would cost around 150 to print - twice the price of a real floral bunch the same size, but everlasting.

everlasting l veA 3D printed first

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Last July, Jonathan Charlesworth, Christopher Hughes, and Andrew Morgan graduated from The University of Sheffields Mechanical Engineering department. Influenced by involvement with Engineers without Borders, their final year projects, and Elena Rodriguez-Falcons fantastic business module (MEC414/MEC6414), they decided to start-up a business, exyo. Short for express yourself, exyo started with a core belief that if a person relies upon something for core function it should be accessible to them, and it should be a joy to use.

Helped greatly by Samantha Deakin and Janet Grant from USE (if youre starting a business in Sheffield and you dont know them, then you should), they have been growing their network, testing out their assumptions and refining their plans. Their aim is to sustainably design and implement an all-terrain posterior walker for children.

The complete lack of posterior walking aids suited to uneven terrain in the UK and developing countries means that accessibility to un-paved areas is severely limited. In the UK this would unlock the countryside and enhance quality of life. In many developing countries, because of the lack of infrastructure; this would unlock the opportunity to walk anywhere independently. They intend to encourage a co-design culture within their user-base. Working with physios, product designers, and patients, they are developing a frame. exyos community of users will adapt their frame to meet their needs and share innovations for others to follow.

The Assistive Equipment Director for CPA (Cerebral Palsy Africa) explicitly identified a need for off-road walkers at Montfort College in Malawi, saying of their special needs teachers; They are making an effort to get children with cerebral palsy and other

disabilities to school. CPA train and provide therapy in low-resourced settings, and want to work with exyo!

This is just one of a number of mutually beneficial relationships that they are building, both in developing countries and in the UK. With a crowdfunding campaign in the pipeline, the semi-finals for a 50,000 grant reached, and a constantly refined vision they are excited about the future.

Pleasevisitexyo.co.uktofindoutmoreandsignuptotheirmailinglisttostayupdated!

design to empower freedom to be...

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The Departments first experiment at Diamond Light Sources JEEP beam-line was performed successfully in November 2014. Diamond Light Source is the UKs national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire and is as big as five football fields. It accelerates electrons to near the speed of light around a polygonal storage ring and that causes them to generate light (photons) 10 billion times brighter than the sun. Users can take advantage of a wide range of applications that high-energy photons (including brilliant X-ray beams) offer in different experimental stations called beam-lines. JEEP (Joint Engineering, environmental and processing) beam-line specialises in techniques that are associated with engineering: X-ray diffraction and imaging. X-ray diffraction is used to measure strains within materials and by high-energy imaging, the inner-works of materials can be observed.

The team, comprising of Professor Dwyer-Joyce, Dr Marshall, Dr Mostafavi and Ms Wendy Chen (PhD researcher in Leonardo Centre for Tribology) collaborated with researchers from The University of Oxford (Dr David Collins and Mr Selim Barhli) to mount a bearing operation simulator on JEEPs stage. The JEEP team, Dr Thomas Connolley, Dr Christina Reinhard and Dr Michael Drakopoulos worked around the clock for more than five days to prepare the beam-line, calibrate the equipment, troubleshoot and assist with measurements.

After installation the bearing was rotating at 150 RPM and under up to 2.5kN load while the contact strain induced in its outer raceway was measured at 250 micrometre spatial resolution for 2 milliseconds every time a ball passed a specific position using stroboscopic X-ray diffraction technique. Dr Robin Mills from Leonardo centre devised the perfect triggering mechanism to synchronize the X-ray detectors acquisition system with the ball position. The data collective in this experiment is being analysed and will be

used to verify the simultaneous measurements that were carried out by a novel acousto-elastic technique developed at the Leonardo centre. This novel technique will allow operators to estimate the remaining life of an offshore wind turbine gearbox bearing cheaply and effectively.

The success of the experiment instigated a collaborative project between University of Sheffield, Diamond Light Source and The ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source (ENGIN-X beam-line) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire to continue the work and measure contact strains stroboscopically in more industrially relevant tribological components.

The Department will be involved in three experiments in JEEP this allocation period to study the behaviour of carbon fibre composites at low temperature (in collaboration with The University of Oxford and Warwick Manufacturing Group), fracture of human bone under load (in collaboration with Imperial College London) and residual stress on fatigue behaviour of steel (in collaboration with The University of Manchester).

The team would like to thank Gary Wellum and Dave Butcher for their help with the preparation of the experiment. It would have been impossible to manage such a complex experiment without the assistance of our technical staff.

First time in JEEP

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Your task is to build a bridge using straw, string and sellotape

By their second year of study, this is an instruction with which all undergraduate engineers are intimately familiar. However, on the morning of the 2nd February, this familiar challenge marked the start of a week which sought to push every second year engineering student out of their comfort zone Engineering Youre Hired, an intensive crash course in developing professional, teamworking and project management skills to ensure students have what it takes to Get Hired.

Interdisciplinary teams composed of students from across the nine engineering departments had 5 short days to turn a real-world problem into a robust business proposal, and deliver a convincing pitch to an academic and an external business advisor. Students learned how to generate innovative ideas, how to plan a project and corresponding budget, and how they could legally protect their novel intellectual property, all the while competing with other teams trying to find a solution to the same problem.

My team had the task of developing a Mobile Retina Scanner to look inside the eye of a patient and screen for early warning signs of Alzheimers disease; no small challenge, but one which had the potential to save the NHS millions every year by diagnosing the disease early, and reduce GP waiting times nationwide. Alongside an Electrical

Engineering youre hired.

engineer, I designed a portable, simple device which could take an image of the human retina, whilst our Computer Scientists quickly got to work planning a cloud-based retina database, which could use image processing algorithms and machine learning to inform a GP if a patient had a high risk of Alzheimers in a time comparable to a Google search. Our Bioengineer ensured that the software looked for the precise warning signs which could be found in the retina, whilst an Aeronautical engineer generated the financial projections to solidify our business model.

By the end of the week, we had created the foundations for a viable business, with the potential to sell thousands of devices across the UK, and had confidently presented our solution to the Vice President of a global pharmaceutical company. Engineering Youre Hired inspired us to think about the wider business applications of our studies, and the skills which the countrys top employers are looking for, and while unfortunately we were not selected as the Best Overall Project, we can at least take comfort in having constructed the best bridge using straw, string and sellotape.

Article by Jonny Morris

Ideas generated for EYH

An exploded CAD rendering of the retinal imaging device

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Do you ever get that thought, whilst day dreaming, that something could be better? That wouldnt it be great if thought? You know the one.

This is the story of one such daydream, and the journey that led from a totally fanciful idea to a full-size model test in a very cold wind-tunnel at the MIRA vehicle research establishment.

A team of engineers, including Jeremy Dale of Gallium Technology and his brother Nick, were building a novel and very ambitious tandem-seating hybrid car and needed a body shell to

enclose the structure without compromising the hybrid performance. The problem they found was that to do it properly would require multiple computational fluid mechanics (CFD)/geometry iterations and wind-tunnel or on-car verification. CFD codes typically cost thousands of pounds per licence and run on computers that could heat a small town. All of which were beyond their means.

Wouldnt it be great if

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For specialist CFD support the team engaged Professor Ning Qin and Dr Jason Chen of the Aerodynamics Research Group in Mechanical Engineering who produced a theoretically sound computing analysis environment. While Sheffield have a 120 core cluster computer with a lot of

capability, access was an issue. Instead they decided to scale up the original setup. As Dell was outside their budget, they bought 4 unbranded PCs each having MSI motherboard, i7-3770K CPU clocked at 3.5GHz, with 16GB Ram and 1TB hard disk. Lacking the sophistication of the Dell box and with fans that sounded like hairdryers, they nonetheless provided an enhanced level of multi-threaded performance. In 4 weeks of really intensive use they ran for extended periods with no problems.

After much testing and experimentation with systems, structures and aerodynamics, the team were finally ready to test their vehicle at MIRA. Based in the East Midlands, MIRA provides a variety of testing services to the automotive industry. The team wanted to use their 15m by 7.9m by 4.4m Full-Scale Wind-Tunnel. MIRA also provided a lot of useful technical support both in how they might best use the wind-tunnel and in setting up the CFD to ensure the closest possible comparison.

Testing day was the first time they had all met each other - another testament to the power of IT. Following installation and calibration, they started to gather real data. Everyone held their breath. Some of the features they had introduced into the shape were very aggressive aerodynamically. The CFD said they worked. Theyd achieved a shape with a CD of 0.18, 2/3rds that of a production car. Furthermore, the CFD results were within 5% of the tunnel. Outstanding under any circumstances, they were even more impressive given the ASTAN project complexities, novelty and time-pressures.

Today it is perfectly feasible for small teams of motivated vision-driven engineers supported by small modular, clusters of very high performance computers to tackle all manner of problems that were impossible just a few years ago. Such ventures are and always will be high risk, but the days where useful work can only be undertaken by large teams with massive computing budgets are over. The limit now is only vision, skill and drive.

21MechEngNews

Read all about it!News from around the Department

Outstanding!

Dr Lizzy Cross and her team in the Dynamics group have acheived the highest grade of Outstanding for their first KTP as a team.

Their project with HBM nCode Ltd to develop a new generation software product capable

in silico Medicine promises new developments to improve the future of healthcare

Sheffield Hospitals Charity has partnered with the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine to fund 4 innovative research projects that bring together clinicians from the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals with researchers from the

University of Sheffield in order to use the latest research methodologies to address clinical needs. The bursary programme, which has just entered its 3rd round and is open to Insigneo members only, is funding three bursaries and one PhD scholarship. The assessment criteria for selection were focussed on the clinical problem solved by the proposed project and the potential impact of a successful solution. The funding provides a researcher to investigate and address the clinical problem, with the aim of improving long-term clinical practice for patients.

Project winners from previous years will be represented at the Insigneo Showcase 2015 on 8th May, at the University of Sheffields Firth Court.

of assessing and monitoring the structural health of aircraft, groung vehicles and power generating systems looked at health monitoring for ground vehicles, developing algorhythms which would diagnose when things have gone wrong.

The team included 3 academics; Dr Cross, Professor Keith Worden and Dr Rob Barthorpe, and KTP Associate Ramon Fuentez.

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The Big Christmas Switch off.

After Mechanical Engineering had taken part in its own blackout during the Easter vacation in 2014 our Green Impact team took the idea to the Faculty of Engineerings Green Impact best practice sessions to present the idea of holding a faculty wide switch off over the Christmas vacation. Jess Naylor, the Universitys Sustainable Behaviour Assistant and Somer Finlay, Communications and Projects Officer picked up on the event and before we knew it the event went university wide with the Big Christmas Switch Off being promoted across the University. The knock on effect has meant that not only has Mechanical Engineering done our bit, but so has the whole University. The figures that have come back have been very impressive. The Faculty used 39% less electricity than the previous Christmas, a huge reduction. In total the University as a whole saved 12,547

KWh which is 6.8 tonnes of carbon - the equivalent weight of 68 baby elephants! In total we collectively helped to save the University 1,354 .

RecyclingRates

In Mechanical Engineering we have been monitoring our recycling rates over the past year since getting more co-mingled re-cycling bins, and we have recently received our yearly update. On the whole, including other departments in our Faculty within the Mappin building, 2710 tonnes more has been recycled in 13/14 than in 12/13.

LetsGetPlanting

Dont forget to send us pictures of your office plants! Theyre good to have around the office to help clean the air. Help us to grow our wall of plants email Caroline Brown at caroline.brown@sheffield.ac.uk

Innovations Award

Stephen Jones is a KTP associate working in the R&D department at Cytec, a manufacturer of carbon-fibre composites for aerospace and other industries.

He recently won an award for Best Platform Technology Vital to Sustainable Growth for his work on fracture mechanics of composites over the last year. They used some tools and techniques developed within the University of Sheffield to help solve some complex and long-standing composite fracture mechanics problems.

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The Final Word.

I hope youve enjoyed this quarters edition of our newsletter. Weve had some exciting changes over the last couple of months and as usual theres not been space to cover all of them in this issue. Another cohort of MSc students has graduated, and it was fantastic to see so many of them in attendance for the ceremony. I am sure that you will join me in wishing them the best of luck in their future careers.

Meanwhile, weve had some winter weather in Sheffield which has led to some practical challenges for many of us. Ive seen some serious dedication from staff and students recently - not just due to the snow - and Im sure that this makes a massive difference to our ongoing success. In particular, bringing our new Energy team to sheffield has involved substantial endeavours by the new staff and students, as well as the support team involved in the move. Id like to thank all of them for the enthusiasm that they have shown in this complex transition, and re-iterate our welcome to the whole group.

Finally, its really exciting to see the Diamond being constructed right on our doorstep. In the summer, the speed that the building grew was incredible, whereas now its great to see the fascia starting to take shape. Behind the scenes, the activity levels are really ramping up to ensure that everything is in place for September 2015, so watch this space as we get ready to move in.

NeilSimsHead of Department, Mechanical Engineering

This publication is produced using 100% recycled FSC certified paper