The Cambridge Engineer: Freshers' Edition 2015

Freshers Edition - 2015-16

the cambridge engineer

Sponsors Main Sponsors

Associate Sponsors

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Contents

Meet the CUES Committee!

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Societies Zoo

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Full Blue Racing Robogals The EcoHouse Initiative Engineers Without Borders CU Space Flight

Industrial Experience

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Life in Formula One

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Underground, Overground: A look into work at Crossrail

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A Summer at Jaguar Land Rover

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Events!

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Cover photo by Matthew Wilcock, from the Cambridge University Engineering Department Carl Zeiss Photo Competition 2014

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Editorial Hello everyone, After a long break, we’re back with the latest edition of The Cambridge Engineer! Hope you had a good rest before plunging straight back into the hustle and bustle of Michaelmas.

In this year’s Freshers edition, we’ve got the usual stuff in store: the bunch of Engineering societies eager to share what they’ve been up to in the Societies Zoo, how to locate our elusive Industrial Coordinator Igor Wowk (it’s really not that difficult; just check out our guide to Find Igor!), and a great big welcome from the new CUES committee.

We’re trying something new too this year; having themed issues. A quick glance at the contents would show you that this one looks into Transport. So we’ve got articles on Formula One, Crossrail, and Jaguar Land Rover (one of our many sponsors: check out the full list of them right next to the contents page!).

And if after reading, you’re itching to write your own story (or maybe you’ve just got an idea you want to get out there), do drop an email to: magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

The clue’s in the name, the magazne does thrive on having contributions from you!

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And on a final note, to the freshers, welcome to Cambridge (and to everyone else, welcome back)!

It’s going to have its up and downs, mainly while you run around the department trying to locate the right places (just ask reception when you give up), but it’ll be fantastic!

I hope you enjoy the magazine (do give it a browse, it’ll be worth it), and see you around.

Best wishes, Sze Ning Chng CUES Magazine Editor 2015-2016

President of CUES Hello all, Welcome back to another exciting year of being a Cambridge Engineer!

Whether you spent the summer working, travelling or just chilling at home, we hope you’re feeling relaxed and ready to take on another 3 terms of engineering greatness.

To those of you who are joining us for the first time, we hope you’re looking forward to what lies ahead in your CUED experience. The engineering department can feel like a big place at first, but once you figure out where Lecture Theatre 0 is you’ll be well on your way to settling in. Oh and by the way- there’s a lot of acronyms here. But you’ll get used to that in no time!

At Cambridge University Engineering Society (CUES) we’re pretty excited about what we’ve got in store for you all this year. Whether you fancy joining our annual International Trip to Hamburg, or 3-course fine dining during our Annual Dinner, we’ll make sure there’s something fun planned for everyone and we can’t wait for you all to get involved. We’ve got over 1000 members from within the engineering department and beyond, so we hope you’ll look to CUES as a great place to meet other engineers, network with recruiters from top companies and enjoy a wealth of other social events too.

Alongside all of this, in 2015-16 CUES have a real mission to encourage diversity and we want to hear from you if you’re interested in getting involved. If you’re interested in outreach in schools, bridging the gender gap in STEM or you’re just eager to start telling younger generations how awesome engineering really is, then let us know!

So that’s it from us, we hope you find this magazine edition useful and we look forward to meeting you all over the coming year.

Here’s to a great year of engineering!

Sarah Barrington President 2015-16 Cambridge University Engineering Society

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Head of Department Dear Engineering Freshers, I’d like to welcome you all warmly to one of the best Engineering Departments in the world. And many congratulations on winning your place here, which is a huge achievement in itself. Undergraduate applications to the Department are booming. With almost six applications per place, the highest by far of any large subject in the University, more than 80% of our applicants don’t actually make it. The Cambridge admissions process is the most rigorous and demanding of any academic institution in the world, which means Colleges generally get it right. Believe me, you are here entirely on your own merit, and based on your potential to perform well in the Engineering Tripos. So, well done, again, to you all.

But admission to the Department is just the start. Make no mistake, our Tripos is the most demanding undergraduate Engineering course in the world, and you will need to be well prepared to tackle it. There’s absolutely no room for complacency. We expect a lot from our students; our academic standards are unrelenting, and our short, 8-week terms mean that you won’t have time to pause for breath. But succeed, as I ex-

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pect you to, and in four years time you’ll be one of the most sought after graduates on the planet. And you’ll be supported every step of the way within the Department by our extraordinary academic staff and within your College by your Supervisors, Director of Studies and Tutor. So you’ll be given every opportunity to fulfill your potential with a successful, rewarding and enjoyable Cambridge experience.

You’ll need to work hard, attend lectures and labs, prepare for supervisions, write reports and revise effectively. And then there’ll be the extracurricular activities that you’ll have to juggle, in the Department, in your College, and in

the rest of the University. The trick will be to find the right balance, but remember, you’re here primarily to demonstrate your worth as one of the world’s best Engineers, which we measure by achievement in exams, coursework and projects.

You may be aware that we’ve just started the exciting process of relocating the entire Department to West Cambridge. This £500 million scheme represents the biggest Departmental project in the history of the University (and, I suspect, its future) and underlines our commitment to producing world-leading Engineers for the 21st Century.

It’s unlikely that the move West will

have any material impact on your studies over the next four years, but it is something to be aware of, and to embrace. Specific details of the new Department will be released later this year, so watch out for these.

I wish you a very busy, hard working and productive four years as an undergraduate in the Department.

You’ve earned yourself a once-in-alifetime opportunity - now all you have to do is to use it well.

Professor David Cardwell Head of Department

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We have a variety of Engineering, Project Management, Quality and Procurement positions across various UK locations.

Find out more and apply online at the careers tab of our website. selex-es.com

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President

Sarah Barrington 4th year Newnham

Milad Mehrabanifard 3rd year Christ’s

Vice President

Junior Treasurer

Faizan Qureshi 4th year Christ’s

Best thing about being an engineer?

Being able to tell people that I know how something works or, even better, that I know how to fix that!

Aayush Sonthalia 2nd year Downing

Presentations

Peter Welch 2nd year Emmanuel

Webmaster Tengo Meskhi 3rd year Homerton Malko Sordo De Cock 3rd year Christ’s

Socials 8

Kostas Kyriakopoulos 4th year Queens’ Tristan Downing 4th year Pembroke

Best snack in CUED?

Free Domino’s pizza at CUES lunch time presentations wins hands down!

Events

Best thing about being an engineer?

So people trust me (that I can fix a light bulb)?

Worst thing about being an engineer?

So people trust me (that I can fix a light bulb)?

Akhass Wasti 2nd year Trinity

Secretary

Kevin Wang 2nd year Trinity

Roy Kairui Wang 3rd year Magdalene

Advice for freshers?

The nearest bathroom might be behind you!

Chairman

The CUES Committee 2015-2016 Best moment in lectures?

Magazine

The glorious moment when Prof Babinsky demonstrated the Magnus and Coanda effect with a beachball and leafblower in the middle of his Fluid Mechanics lecture.

Michael Ming Xun Cheah 2nd year Christ’s

Sze Ning Chng 2nd year Fitzwilliam

Mihir Bhushan 4th year Sidney Sussex

Publicity

Ed Broadhead 3rd year Homerton 9

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Shell is an equal opportunity employer

Societies Zoo! In this year’s Societies Zoo, we bring you some of the highlights of CUED’s Engineering Societies. Whether you’ve got a need for speed, a keen interest in sustainability, or just want to get your hands dirty, we’ve got something for you!

Full Blue Racing 12 Robogals 15 The EcoHouse Initiative

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Engineers Without Borders 20 CU Space Flight 22

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Performance testing at Lords Bridge, Summer 2015

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ull Blue Racing (FBR) is the Formula Student team of the University of Cambridge. Established in 2006, FBR is a team of around 30 students from all years, mainly from the engineering department. Each year we design and build a single seater racing car from scratch, then compete against universities from around the world at the international Formula Student competition.

After our most successful year in 2015, we are looking to attract new members into the team to work on our entry to the 2016 competition. With a brand new team workshop at the department and a wealth of experience from summer testing we are in a fantastic position to do even better this year!

What is Formula Student?

Formula Student is Europe’s most established educational motorsport competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Teams from around the world are challenged to construct Formula style vehicles, and compete at Silverstone race circuit. The competition tests vehicle performance in a difficult series of dynamic events. However, a series of static events also scrutinise the cars design, testing the technical knowledge, business and presentation skills of the team.

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full blue racing The competition is viewed by the motorsport industry as “the standard for engineering graduates to meet” and is backed by industry and high profile engineers such as Ross Brawn.

Full Blue Racing at Formula Student UK

What do we do?

FBR is loosely split into several sub-teams which are each responsible for an area of the car. For the car to be successful each area must work together properly, and as such there is a high level of collaboration and overlap between each sub team. We encourage new members to try and gain experience in as many of these as possible!

Powertrain

Chassis

The 2015 car was powered by a Yamaha R6 motorbike engine. The team designed the exhaust and a 3D printed intake for the engine, as well as tuned the engine ECU for maximum performance.

The frame of the car which holds everything together. The team designs, tests and manufactures a new chassis for the car each year. The focus this year is on more thorough performance testing of the frame, as well as improving driver seating position and ergonomics.

Vehicle Dynamics The VD team designs everything that connects the car to the road. This begins with initial simulation and modelling work in Matlab for how the car will handle, then practical design and manufacture of suspension and wheel components. Most of these parts are made in house, and this year many were machined by team members. FBR owes many thanks to Alistair Ross and the CUED workshop staff, who give up a lot of time to help the team and show us what we should be doing!

Electronics The car isn’t all mechanical! As well as the power electronics to drive the engine, last years car featured a touch screen info display for the driver. We want to improve this driver display into a single, selfcontained unit, and also improve the data logging capabilities of the car with GPS and accelerometer data. This will involve programming, PCB design and manufacture.

Bodywork In previous years members of the bodywork team have visited local composite companies to lay up our carbon fibre bodywork by hand. The car included recycled plastic panels in certain areas, and we are aiming to explore using eco-composites to improve the cars environmental credentials further

Business FBR is entirely funded through outside sponsorship.

The business team is responsible for finding and maintaining links with sponsors, as well as managing the team budget. They also produce the business presentation and cost reports for the Formula Student competition. This involves creating a full business plan, marketing materials and factory design as if we were going to launch our car as a production vehicle.

Team Photo at Formula Student Silverstone

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On the way to competition

Why join Full Blue?

Mainly because it is a lot of fun! The team has a great atmosphere with regular socials and pub trips.

The competition at the end of the year is a brilliant week of meeting people from all over the world, and it is great to see a years’ worth of hard work turn into a successful car.

Formula student is a chance to get some hands on and practical experience outside of a theory heavy Engineering course. You get to use the theory taught in lectures to do something interesting, as well as learn design and practical skills that aren’t taught anywhere in the course.

Older team members run mini workshops to show how different parts of the car works, as well as practical sessions to teach CAD and workshop skills. New members can then either take a small sub-section of the car as a mini-project they work on throughout the year, or simply contribute to the design and construction of the car as a whole.

Formula student is the perfect primer for work in the automotive industry. Our Alumni dinner is a chance to meet our past members, many of whom now work for top teams in Formula 1!

If you want to learn more about FBR please visit 14 our website at fullblueracing.co.uk

Design. Build. Race. fullblueracing.co.uk/register

From Hardhats to Robots:

Changing the face of Engineering with Robogals Cambridge

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ny assessment of engineering programs, academic communities, and industries in the UK will likely turn up a sour truth about one of the most highly-demanded careers in the world: an outstanding lack of women.

The figures are bleak, at best. In the UK, only 17% of engineering students, 8% of working engineers, and fewer than 5% of fellows in the Royal Academy of Engineering are female. Even in a place like Cambridge, home to and lead by some of the most successful female STEM professionals in the country, women are sorely underrepresented. Perhaps just as troubling, a quick scan of articles and

representations regarding engineers in mass media uncovers a wealth of photos of white men in hard hats – an unappealing umbrella for one of the most topic-diverse careers in the world.

Happily, help is here. Robogals is striving to revamp this tired engineering reputation. Robogals Cambridge is a student-run organisation which aims to tackle the lack of gender diversity in engineering by teaching young people, with a focus on girls, coding and engineering principles through robotics workshops. The group is small - led only by a handful of undergraduates, postgraduates, and faculty - but effective. In

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its first two years, Robogals Cambridge taught over 250 girls and 130 boys from Cambridgeshire schools how to program. This is no easy feat considering the group’s arsenal consisted of 10 outdated and malfunctioning robots when it started. Now, in its third year of operation, Robogals Cambridge is ready to take on even more.

Robogals Cambridge is just one small chapter of the global Robogals organisation. It was founded in 2008 by Marita Cheng, an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne at the time, as a way to inspire and encourage young girls to consider studying engineering. In its seven years of activity, Robogals has taught over 30 000 girls about STEM opportunities with chapters at over 30 universities worldwide and volunteers – both male and female – in the hundreds. Marita Cheng earned the 2012 Young Australian of the Year awards for her outstanding success both with Robogals and beyond.

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The key to Robogals success is the accessibility and simplicity of its workshops. Robogals Cambridge run offer programming sessions centred Lego Mindstorm robots. These robots, which provide a new challenge for students though a familiar medium, are put into action with a drag-and-drop programming software based on National Instrument’s Labview. This considerably simplifies the task of introducing a student to programming. Understanding conditions and loops through physically drawing a loop around a flowchart program is an effective and powerful way to teach this and similar coding fundamentals.

Students in the UK are usually familiar with more basic forms of these methods, having learned on other flowchart based programming platforms such as Scratch from an early age, but the success of making a robot move is an unparalleled joyous experience. The robots themselves are seriously versatile tools masquerading as children’s toys. Equipped

with light, ultrasonic, touch, and colour sensors, an impressive set of tracks and wheels, Bluetooth compatibility and the ability to send text messages, building and programming possibilities are endless. These robots have been used to build everything from pinball machines to Sudoku solvers. Particularly notable creations include a mobile fish tank featured on BBC’s QI and a lab apparatus for growing bones in Cambridge’s very own Lecturer Michelle Oyen’s lab (check out the video for the 2013 Google Science Fair online).

Fortunately, Robogals Cambridge usually task workshop attendees with something simpler than growing bones.

School children are often asked to program robots to draw pictures or letters on a sheet of paper, while younger participants might program a dance for their robot to program. A recent partnership with the Cambridge Science Fes-

tival saw participants writing a program to help their robot escape a zoo – a biology themed maze – while a current partnership with the BBC Make it Digital Summer Tour dresses up each robot as a miniature Dalek escaping a Dr. Who themed space maze. These activities are usually paired with presentations offering an introduction to the engineering profession and an introduction to some of the most influential female engineers. With near limitless building and programming possibilities, Robogals Cambridge will continue running Lego Mindstorm workshops throughout the upcoming academic year. With potential partnerships panning out with the GirlGuiding UK and the Cambridge University Institute of Manufacturing, the Michaelmas term promises to be a busy one for one of the department’s most highly demanded outreach groups.

Photos provided by Robogals Cambridge

EMPLOYER PRESENTATION

ROOM 101, FARRADAY BUILDING Wednesday 26th September 2014 6:00pm-8:00pm

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EcoHouse Initiative

T

he EcoHouse Initiative Student

Society aims to address issues of urban poverty, primarily within Latin America, through harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of students studying at the University of Cambridge. Mirroring our members’ wide range of talents and interests the society’s work towards alleviating urban poverty manifests in a number of different projects undertaken by our Design and Communication Teams. This work is supported by our connections to the Research and Charity clusters of the society and to our partner NGO TECHO, with whom we work alongside during the summer placements as well as having an ongoing relationship with their London office.

TECHO, referred to as TETO in Brazil, is a youth-led organisation that works in partnership with communities across Latin America and the Caribbean to overcome urban poverty. The Student Society primarily works with TECHO on technical and social development projects in Brazil and Ecuador, two countries to which we send groups on placement

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during the summer vacation in order to conduct research and obtain feedback on previous projects. Placement, whether in Brazil or Ecuador, is one of the highlights of the Student Society’s activities with those going away for the 8-week period returning with construction experience, countless stories and an increased enthusiasm to affect change in a sustainable manner.

During the academic year our work as a society is divided between our aforementioned two teams: Design and Communications. The Design team’s focus is split between several different projects, each with their own dedicated team, that have previously included work on both transitional and permanent housing as well as educational information systems projects. An interesting and crucial project undertaken by the Design team as of late is the Survey and Social Mapping Project, based on data obtained during the 2014 placements, that has allowed us to gauge the successfulness of previous projects and reinforced the need for our design work to reflect the interests

and needs of the communities we aim to help.

The Communications team, made up of students from across the University, work in parallel to their Design counterparts and play a crucial role in the day to day running of the society through their organising and publicising of society events. In addition to managing the society’s various social media outlets individuals within the Communications team also contribute to the society’s Journalism Project, writing opinion and informative pieces on a wide range of subjects. In the last year the topics covered by these articles have included the impact of the 2014 FIFA World Cup on life in Brazil, issues of gender equality in Latin America and environmental disasters.

Over the course of the year the Design and Communication teams come together at a number of occasions, including formal brainstorming sessions as well as social events, the most notable of which is the Prototype Construction in Lent Term. The construction, and subsequent decoration, of our 2014-15 Brazil prototype in the grounds of Clare

College was not only the culmination of the society’s hard work that academic year but provided an important opportunity to obtain construction experience for those going on placement in August 2015. This week of activity is indicative of what makes the EcoHouse Initiative a great society to be involved in, it’s driven by passionate individuals who want to create innovative solutions to problems faced by real people and have a great time whilst doing so!

So if you’re interested in meeting like-minded people, getting to grips with issues of sustainability and international development and transferring your engineering skills from the lab to Latin American slums then come along to one of our weekly meetings or get in touch with us via email or social media!

Email us at: comms@ecohouseinitiative.org http://students.ecohouseinitiative.org/ https://www.facebook.com/EcoHouseInitiative

Photos provided by the EcoHouse Initiative

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Engineers Without Borders

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ngineers Without Borders Cambridge is a student-run charity and a branch of EWB UK based in the University’s Engineering Department. Our mission is to provide a platform for individuals to pursue their interests in the field of international development. We offer training events, organise talks in the Department, and support international projects. We also provide engaging outreach workshops to students in local schools.

Training Team The training team is dedicated to organising events that increase the technical and practical skills of engineering students in areas useful for aid/development workers. Last year we provided a number of very successful events, including a travel health workshop, “How to Sh*t Around the World”, run by a travel writer and GP, Jane Wilson-Howarth.

We also ran a 1-day training course in the department on water quality testing and simple construction techniques using mud-bricks. This course attracted both

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students from our department and also professionals from a wide variety of engineering companies. It was led by two veteran relief workers, whose depth of experience resulted in an incredibly engaging and informative event. This year we hope to continue the trend of providing high quality training events in Cambridge.

Talks Team The Talks team is responsible for organising talks related to international development issues throughout the year.

We invite a wide range of speakers from university academics to professional humanitarian workers. Past talks include “Renewable Energy Solutions for the Developing World” and “Water – A Global Crisis”. Look out for notices about our talks in the department.

Outreach Team The outreach team works with volunteers to run workshops in local schools and scouts/brownies groups in the Cam-

bridge area. Our workshops are designed to engage young students with global issues and to inspire them with the role that engineering can play in providing solutions. We run workshops continuously throughout the year. Last year we took the “EWB Challenge”, a conceptual design competition, to a local Sixth form college, where students designed projects to facilitate human development in rural Nepal. In primary schools we run workshops on water, shelter and energy solutions. Our aim is to get more students studying STEM subjects at university and to promote globally responsible engineering.

Member Led International Partnerships Members of EWB have the opportunity to lead international development work through the MLP scheme. EWB has a strong network of international partners and experienced past volunteers, contacts with UK academia and companies, and an enormous passion for overcoming global challenges of poverty and development. If you have an idea, get in touch! Recent projects to start out of EWB include Tabadol, which partners with university students in the Arab World to establish a youth-led STEM out-

reach program for schools. This project aims to address the problem of a lack of practical skills amongst job applicants in STEM fields. To find out more visit the project’s website, www.camtabadol.org.

This year, our new MLP co-ordinator, Josh Cozens, is looking to start a new project to design and implement a watering hole in the Abuko nature reserve in Gambia. The aim of the project is to increase the biodiversity of the park as a habitat for elephants and hippopotamuses to encourage tourism to the area, creating jobs and boosting the local economy. The project will be developed in conjunction with a representative from Reading university who will manage the ecology aspect of the project.

Fundraising will be starting soon and we will be recruiting new team members at the start of the next academic year. For those who wish to get involved or want to find out more, contact Joshua Cozens, jc788@cam.ac.uk.

Look out for our events or come to one of our meetings. With all these ways to get involved and with so many activites going on both in Cambridge and across the country, there’s never been a better time to join Engineers Without Borders.

Photos provided by EWB Cambridge

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http://www.cusf.co.uk/ contact@cusf.co.uk/ cuspaceĂ&#x;ight

on Flickr, GitHub, YT, Vimeo & Twitter

We've launched meteorological balloons to over 36km, high powered rockets to 11km, collaborated with the European Space Agency, and created software used by space agencies around the world every day.

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Since 2006 CU Spaceßight have been working on a variety of projects under the general banner of ÒspaceÓ, from high altitude ballooning to high powered rocketry. WeÕre a student society, mostly engineering undergraduates, organised into small-to-medium sized teams, each working on projects that interest them.

Martlet 1, pictured across the page, was a £11k, two stage (class N/M), 4 metre tall rocket launched from Scotland in 2012Ðalmost breaking the UK hobbyist altitude record. Check out the videos (with footage from the launch rail itself) at http://vimeo.com/cuspaceßight.

By the time youÕve read this, weÕll hopefully have launched its successor from Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

In 2011 we worked for the European Space Agency testing Mars lander parachutes from high speed, high altitude drop vehicles, also including a helicopter test. Last year we successfully test-Þred our hybrid nitrous-sugar rocket motor and a rocket with thrustvectoring (amongst many other things!). The photo below was taken from one of our high altitude balloons, which have also hoisted teddy-bears stuffed with temperature probes into the stratosphere as part of a primary school outreach project, and our open source balloon ßight predictor software is run thousands of times every day by people worldwide.

We're always excited to meet new people, especially if you're interested in space, rocketry, electronics, programming or cool basement labs! Find us at the freshers fair, come to our squash, or look out for us at the dedicated lecture slot for societies.

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Industrial Experience Looking for an industrial placement may seem a daunting prospect to some, so here’s some information from our Industrial Experience Co-ordinator, Igor Wowk, and a guide to locate his office if you need some help!

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irst of all welcome to Cambridge University Engineering Department ( CUED ) . At CUED “Industrial Experience” is an important part of the course, it is also a very big operation. The 8 week requirement equates to one whole term and it is obligatory. You cannot achieve Honours in Year 2 or Year 3 without successful completion. Many other Universities suggest that it is a “good idea” or “desirable”, CUED go beyond that by making it compulsory such is the value that we give to it. Furthermore, the fact that every year between 560 – 600 students undertake an Engineering related industrial placement or “internship” of one sort another, shows the value that many of our students attach to gaining additional experience at various work places all over the globe.

Additionally, surveys show that employers value it highly when it comes to offering full time employment at graduation time. Organisations seek employees with a good understanding of business, relationships at work, project management and communication skills, which our students develop whilst on placement. Engineering is not just about maths and physics, it is about finding solutions to problems and making them work within a financial budget. The equation is this: Your studies + practical experi-

ence = an ideal candidate for any professional engineering position or virtually any professional career beyond engineering.

With an influx every year of 300+ students and only myself and one part time staff member to make up the “Placements Team” there are many of you and few of us. Last year between the students and our team we rattled up 572 Industrial Placements that were engineering, IT or science related, so we do not even count internships in Finance or non Technical occupations which some students undertake. However we like to think that we have a system here that copes effectively with that situation, and takes account of your busy timetable, however it does mean that the onus of seeking a placement falls firmly with the individual student.

We have a programme of talks, information available via a website, a database and other tools at our disposal. We are also happy to talk to individual students regarding any matters connected to Industrial Experience at virtually any convenient time. Students will need to become adept at familiarising themselves with the requirements, deciding a strategy and tactics, presenting themselves, and finding potential sources of placements, and you will quickly need to become familiar with how the system operates to take maximum advantage. However you need to realise

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that you must move on quickly from being school kids to adults who take responsibility for their own future development heading towards professional status with all the challenges and rewards that entails.

You will find that the CUED Requirements are very flexible in terms of what you can do and where you do it, as long as the work is related to some element of engineering taught on the course, and many students utilise their own contacts that they have developed via various networks to find a suitable place. However, to assist you we have a well devised web site with information and advice on planning, presenting, yourself and an abundance of contacts available via the CUED database CHOICE. Currently we hold over 3000 employer records, for you to scan. You can either approach em-

ployers speculatively yourself or wait until we receive an alert that there is a “Live” job offer from them. You will receive a weekly bulletin which will tell you when opportunities become active.

Towards Year 3 most students are pretty self-sufficient and know the ropes. Finally I should point out that we are not just orientated towards “companies”, I am proud to say that we also run a circa 50+ place research scheme in the Department called UROP, which is aimed at students later in the course to explore the possibilities of a career in research.

I look forward to working with you over the coming years of your stay at the Department of Engineering.

Igor Wowk Industrial Placement Co-ordinator (CUED)

Find Igor’s Lair!

Start in the main foyer...

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Get to the second floor!

Down the left corridor...

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Life in Formula One Paddy Lowe has been Executive Director (Technical) at MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS since June 2013. After graduating from CUED in 1984, he has worked in Formula One in various capacities from 1987. Jack Struthers had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his time back in CUED and life in Formula One… Note: The interview was done in 2014.

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irst of all, congratulations on leading Mercedes to stellar success this season! Would you say this is the highlight of your career so far?

Thank you very much. Yes, I would say that our success in 2014 was the highlight of my career so far. Winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ World Championships in such a dominant way was beyond all our expectations – a very remarkable effort by the whole team.

I’m very proud of what we accomplished together. However, the great thing about my career in Formula One so far is that it just keeps getting more interesting and rewarding, so the future is always exciting.

You’ve taken on a number of different technical positions for a few different F1 teams throughout your career. Did you find that your time at CUED set you up well to deal with the engineering chal-

lenges you’ve faced?

I think CUED prepared me very well indeed. The great thing about the Cambridge engineering degree is that it’s completely general. It doesn’t specialise in fixed engineering disciplines. Engineering is about a way of thinking, an approach to solving problems and reaching good compromises, and an ability to structure ideas clearly to communicate them to others. These are generic skills which are not specifically associated with mechanical engineering or electronics or civil engineering or whatever.

The Cambridge course teaches you these skills and leaves your mind open to reach across all the different aspects of engineering.

In addition, there are some great tutors at Cambridge. I was privileged that not one but two of my supervisors became Head of the Engineering Department! (Professor Keith Glover and Dame Ann Dowling). Sidney Sussex College was also a fantastic environment in which to

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develop as a young person.

In the end one of the most important aspects of engineering is leadership.

Many of the great leaders that we have in this world are in fact engineers. You need training for that and I think that Cambridge has positioned me very well for the challenges that I have faced in leadership, rather than just for the technical aspects of my role.

From the outside, working in F1 looks like a life of travel, glamour and excitement - obviously some hard work must be involved as well. To shed some light on what a career in F1 is really like, what would you say is the best and the worst thing about working in the industry?

It’s certainly not all glamour and excitement but it’s not too bad! For an engineer it’s a particularly rewarding business. We have very healthy budgets relative to the projects that we need to deliver and we are able to work in an environment where we can produce a

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solution and have it on the car within days. That’s why we are all in a sense quite addicted to the work. You can invent something on a Tuesday and see it helping you deliver a pole position on a Saturday or win a race on a Sunday, all on global TV. That’s incredibly rewarding.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to go up onto the podium and collect the winning constructor’s trophy at the end of the race on a number of occasions and that’s an incredibly special experience. You’ve not only won the race but you are also privileged to represent hundreds of people who have put a huge amount of ffort into what’s been achieved.

I struggle to think of anything to complain about really. Testing a new car at Silverstone Circuit in late January in sub-zero temperatures can be a bit demanding, but it’s still exciting at the same time!

A number of students at CUED are looking to land a job in the F1 industry after they graduate. What are you looking for in a graduate at Mercedes, and what can current students do to improve their chances? Specifically, how important do you think it is to have relevant work experience?

This is a question that I often get asked. My advice is always to get the best possible degree that you can and always choose courses or activities that you will enjoy. We look for bright people who have achieved great results: who show initiative, have good communications skills and display good teamwork. These are the qualities that we are looking for, rather than specific work experience or specialised qualifications.

Schemes such as Formula Student are great and can provide an environment where engineering students can express their enthusiasm, show initiative and develop leadership skills. But participation in such schemes is by no means an essential element when we are looking at recruitment. You should do the things that you are interested in doing, because

your capabilities will shine out through that.

Finally, if you cast your mind back to your time at Cambridge, what is your best memory of CUED? Do you have any tips for current students on how to make the most of their time here?

I made a lot of good friends at University and that becomes an important part of your life. In fact it was one of my University friends who suggested that I should work in Formula One – I hadn’t even considered it!

My tip would be to make the most of your time. I went back to Cambridge a few years ago for a training course and visited a number of different colleges during my stay that I had never even been to when I was a student. You tend to stick to your own environment but it felt like a shame not to have explored more widely. Many of the colleges are really beautiful and I hadn’t even seen them before! So my advice would be to get out there and make the best of it.

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Photos provided by Mercedes AMG Petronas

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Underground, Overground:

A Look into Work at Crossrail Crossrail is the biggest infrastructure project in Europe at the moment, and the massive scale makes it a challenging and dynamic project to work on. Sze Ning Chng sat down with Sally Keeney, a field engineer, and Ali Shad, an MEP (mechanical, electrical, public health) package manager, to find out more about their experiences working on Crossrail...

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he size of Crossrail as a project makes it both challenging and interesting, Ali explained, with a diagrammatic overview of the contracts involved in the project. “If things were in a silo, it would be so much easier but we’ve got to interface with people who are working in the tunnels, installing the communications, designing & installing each and every system.”

At the Farringdon site, where we had the interview, Ali counted nine direct contracts specific to the station. “Then we’ve got these system wide contracts which are systems which span across multiple stations,” he adds “And we’ve got many of those, like the platform screen doors. But it just shows how big the project is, there’s just so much going on.”

This is on a physical scale as well, Sally pointed out.

“It goes across the west, from Reading, through central London and out to the east as well, so geographically as well, it’s large.”

The project is currently undergoing a transition, as the civil works finish up and the focus changes to turning it into a railway, Sally adds.

“And that’s where you get so many interfaces. You end up with all the me-

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chanical systems, all the system wide, all the signals, and you have to go back to make sure that everything we’ve built is going to fit all these systems.”

--Sally Keeney is a field engineer at Woolwich station, doing the portals fitout. “We turn the current concrete building into a station. So it’s some civil and structural work, followed by architectural, and mechanical fitout,” she explains.

Sally did her Masters in civil engineering at Southampton University, and joined Bechtel in 2012. “ I’ve been on Crossrail since joining Bechtel, doing different roles such as engineering management, tunnel engineering, field engineering and site management .”

Ali Shad began working for Bechtel in 2011, after completing his degree in electrical and electronic engineering at Imperial College, and is finishing the end of the four year graduate programme.

“I spent a year in the Crossrail headquarters, working in a small team that was put together to help manage the transition from civil engineering to mechanical, electrical and architectural fitout of the stations.”

Now, he is at the Farringdon site as an MEP package manager.

“At the moment we’re still completing the mechanical, electrical, public health design. About 90% of my time is taken up on design; answering queries, making sure everything is all coordinated with other disciplines and interfaces, about 10% is on construction items. I’m also involved with a variety of smaller activities which makes each day diverse. As the design completes, and we can start installation, my time will then shift to the MEP work on site which I’ll be responsible for.”

--So what’s a day’s work at Crossrail like? With the rapid pace, there really is no typical day.

“Because there’s so much going on at Crossrail, it’s very much a live project,” explains Sally.

“What I enjoy the most is that you’re basically solving problems everyday and you’re developing or learning new skills everyday” “There’s a lot of meetings though!” adds Ali. “ While you get the typical ones like weekly team meetings, the reason we have so many meetings is because they usually revolve around trying to

Sally Keeney

solve certain issues, like ‘Oh we found this problem.’”

“Today...what did I do? It’s a long day already,” he laughed. “I had a meeting with the project controls team, where we were working through the number of design changes that we’ve had.”

“Then the contractor had submitted some compensation events, where they’ve done something which they consider is an additional requirement to the contract.”

“So we review that with the commercial team,” he continues. “Digging into details of why. Why are they asking for money? Is it because the original design was deficient? On the quote they submitted, is it reasonable? “ Sally’s work is site-based, and comparatively reactive.

“Say today, it’s a fairly quiet day, but say the day before we had two concrete pours,” she explains. “We had to inspect the rebar installation and formwork prior to the pours; go out early in the morning, complete the final quality checks, then once the concrete has arrived further quality checks are done and then some days we may have to do that for

Ali Shad

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multiple elements.”

“Essentially as a field engineer your role is to make sure that its being built as per design or as per contract, and also being done safely, with high quality, so you’re constantly checking, keeping up to date with progress and working closely with the contractor.”

--One fascinating aspect about Crossrail is the many efforts to innovate and improve current processes.

Sally suggests that it is the scale of Crossrail that allows such innovation, since the sheer number of people on the project brings together a wealth of experience.

“We’ve actually got a team dedicated to trying to promote innovation on the project,” she points out.

“So one contractor might be using a special system, for example some may be using improved health and safety systems, like Bluetooth beacons underground to warn workers of moving machinery, and they may be using it very successfully in their projects.”

“In Crossrail, we have this platform to then share those sort of ideas and good practices with other projects, so that they can also benefit from these innovations.”

The team also funds new ideas. One example of these funded ideas is a proposal to repurpose the grout shafts needed for tunnelling.

During tunnelling, the ground settles slightly. To minimise the settlement, grout shafts, usually around 30 metres in depth and around 5 metres in diameter, are inserted into the surrounding ground, and grout is pumped through multiple pipe arrays directed out of the grout shaft, into the ground, making it more stable.

These grout shafts are backfilled with concrete when the job has been done.

“But it’s a bit of a shame because you’ve gone through all that effort to put

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a shaft in the ground,” said Ali. “So with one of the shafts at Farringdon we’re putting in a value engineering proposal.”

“We’re not sure if it’s going to go ahead or not yet,” he emphasises. “But the proposal is to convert it into a ground heat source pump now that the tunnelling has completed and the grout shafts are no longer needed. So what will happen is we take over the pipes and put some new ones in, so that you will get heat from the ground, and we’ll be able to use that energy to heat the water for local buildings.”

“If that goes ahead and is successful, that’s something which could be used in High Speed 2, or Crossrail 2,” he adds.

“Although it may not be Ali’s and my day job,” said Sally. “We might get involved in supporting the innovations by sharing our project’s good practices and

TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) Elizabeth lowered into launch chamber 40 metres below ground

providing site specific information” --The transition from university to working life is hardly the easiest one, and Sally and Ali commented about some of the difficulties within the construction industry.

“I think the industry’s quite high pressure,” she says.

“When working on major projects there’s just the barrage of information, and you’ve got to be able to focus,” added Ali. “You don’t often get the time when you can just sit down to go slowly through everything.”

“But it’s exciting at the same time. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re coming to work and you go ‘Oh, I’ve got nothing to do.’”

--The construction industry is also

known for being male-dominated, but Sally’s take is that it is diverse in its own way, with engineers of many nationalities working on Crossrail, and despite the gender imbalance, she finds that there are signs of a change in culture.

“There can be difficulties for women in a male-dominated industry, but the construction industry is not” dissimilar from the challenges faced in any other male dominated industry, like the banking world. There has definitely been signs of progress though such as we have a number of women in Crossrail in high level management or design roles .The construction industry is quite notorious for having very long hours and a lot of stress. And it is still like that, but there are things that our company are doing, like having flexitime arrangements.”

And on a personal level, Sally adds, “I haven’t found it to be a stopper, being a woman in the industry. It is though, a

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tough industry, and your success can depend not only on skills but also on reputation, and networking with people.”

However, she noted that students Ali and she have met during some outreach initiatives did not really see it as a career they are likely to pursue.

“When you talk to them, they say, ‘Oh, I might go to become an accountant.’, or ‘I might study chemistry.’, or ‘I’ll be a doctor, or a nurse.’”

Ali finds that part of the problem is the lack of understanding around the work of an engineer. “The role of an engineer is quite varied. I don’t think people appreciate that - I didn’t appreciate that - I didn’t know what an engineer did when I was at school. But you always get - and we’re guilty of it as well - on a lot of publications where engineering is being promoted, somebody in a stereotypical hard hat.”

But, as he elaborates, you could be in office, you could be onsite, and an engineer can do a wide array of different jobs, and still be called an engineer at the end of the day.

--And speaking to Sally and Ali, it is evident that for all the ups and downs of their jobs, they do love their work.

“I just love the fact that every day is different,” says Ali. “When you come to site, things are shifting every single day.

And it’s not like you’re going into the same building, looking at the same stuff.

Everything’s always changing and that’s what I really enjoy.”

Sally shares that same feeling towards her work.

“I think one of the biggest appeals about engineering is that there’s a physical product of all your work. You actually see something change, something develop,” she says.

“I think we’ll quite enjoy the day when we get on the Crossrail train and we go ‘Oh I did that bit over there’ or ‘I was involved in that’,” she adds with a grin.

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--So on a final note, what advice would they give to engineering undergraduates?

“Get experience early,” said Sally immediately. “Get as many placements as you can early on. Summer placements, Christmas placements, internships. And if you’re a little bit undecided on what to specialise in, try different companies or disciplines.”

But it’s more than just getting the technical skills and experience.

Keep an open mind, suggests Ali. “Don’t try to be really focused on a single part of your discipline. Try and appreciate other disciplines; it helps you become a better engineer, to see things from other people’s perspective. I’m not a civil engineer and I don’t understand the ins and outs of civil engineering but I know what is involved in concrete pour is and the general construction sequences associated.”

And not just in terms of technical knowledge, Ali emphasised.

“When you get opportunities for work experience, or internships, don’t just go in and focus on the individual role that you’re doing. Ask other people what their jobs are like. Try and mix with different people and get a better appreciation for the different jobs that are available.”

“Get to know everyone,” adds Sally.

“People who are very experienced in their jobs will give youlots of good advice especially in the early days. And it’s about understanding what the different roles in the project are and understanding the project in general, so not just the engineering but how interfaces are managed, the commercial side and how a project is planned and tracked. I think until you get out in the industry you don’t understand how complex it is.”

“Yeah, just get out there.”

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Photos provided by Crossrail, Sally Keeney, Ali Shad

Bond Street platform tunnels

A Summer at Jaguar Land Rover Zhiyi Ma and John Corbridge were two of many Cambridge undergraduates who spent their summer working for Jaguar Land Rover. Zhiyi is sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover as part of their electrical engineering sponsorship scheme. John completed a 3 month undergraduate summer placement. Zhiyi and John share their experiences and what they learnt from spending a summer at the UK’s largest automotive manufacturing business.

John Corbridge 3 Month Undergraduate Placement Advanced Driver Assistance Systems team I’m a 4th year Engineer at Jesus College.

I applied last year for the 12 week summer Undergraduate Placement at JLR looking for experience working in a large company, and to be able to use the techniques and knowledge I’d learnt over the past three years to a practical, real-life project.

I applied online in November, and after completing a series of online tests and an Assessment Day in March, which was made up of an interview, group exercises and tests, I was offered a place, working at the Gaydon site in Warwickshire.

I was placed in the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems team, which everyone calls ADAS. This group is one of the fastest growing areas of JLR, responsible for the cameras, radar and parking sensors fitted to the car, and all the features that use them – such as assisted cruise control, automated parking, and assisted emergency braking.

The industry is moving quickly towards autonomous driving; cars that can take over many of the difficult or tedious aspects of driving, and keep you safer by predicting hazards. Current vehicles already offer the features I mentioned above, and the next five

John outside the Gaydon Design and Engineering Center with a Range Rover

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years will see big steps towards cars which can look after themselves. I had the opportunity to see the current automated parking system in action from inside the car – it’s an exciting feeling to watch the steering wheel turning by itself!

After talking to my manager, I was given a project working with the rear camera system. This is used to help the driver to park, by showing a rear view from the car on the dashboard. I had to correct distortion of the video output caused by the fisheye lens used in the camera and simulate other corrections to the camera output, so that the view displayed on screen could be changed for the different car models, with the camera in different locations. This involved a mixture of MATLAB and C++ programming, and required me to use the image processing and matrix maths I studied on the course.

The placement was a good opportunity to put my skills into practice on a project that will actually benefit the company, and I gained significant insight into the company structure and how the various departments collaborate to design and manufacture cars for a global operation. Placement students also get the chance to be offered early assessment on the JLR Graduate Programme.

Zhiyi Ma Electrical Engineering Sponsorship Scheme GRADE team I joined JLR for a 3 month summer placement, based in the fascinating Gaydon site.

It was a really nice experience to work here.

People are friendly, helpful and always willing to share knowledge and ideas, which reduced my nervous feelings day by day.

My manager was a senior and experienced technical specialist. From him I learnt not only much about technical skills, but also career advice.

With any doubt, JLR enjoys a worldwide reputation, whose cars are extremely famous and popular in China, and that is exactly what attracted me to apply. The appli-

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cation process was nice and comfortable.

Emails were always replied within 24 hours.

I had a phone call when successfully getting to assessment center stage, and another later to check everything was OK. Just before the day, I got a message from the company wishing me good luck. All of these made me feel cared and touched.

During my time at JLR, I’ve been involved in many interesting activities. My own team does electronics review, so I often joined them in the reviewing sessions.

It was fantastic to learn electronics from practical designs, and it was so nice of my colleagues that they were always eager to explain things I did not know. I also built a radio receiver out of a sweet box and played with soldering irons for the first time. To my excitement, this radio project is going to be integrated into the internal electronics training courses, so I feel very proud to be able to contribute by providing the raw model and relevant testing data. Besides my own projects, there are also many opportunities for us to explore and make the most out of our time here. I really appreciated the effort the company put in organizing some big events like “Our Future, Your Future”, which made plenty of wonderful personal development schemes known to staff. If you have a driver’s license, you can even enjoy driving the latest and luxurious JLR new cars as some of my friends did here (I felt such a pity that I myself could not drive!). These made my time here absolutely enjoyable.

Jaguar Land Rover’s Virtual Reality Centre – An example of JLR’s facilities in Gaydon.

JLR is an excellent company. It has such good management philosophy that everyone can achieve the most. We were given the chance to indicate our preferences before the placements commenced, so that the company could assign everyone to the right group whose work interests us. This gave me the maximum freedom, which also proves the company’s great capability to offer the best to its people.

Photos provided by Jaguar Land Rover

Examples of advanced driver assistance systems being developed at Jaguar Land Rover

Events!

Hi everyone, this is Roy, your CUES Events Officer this year.

First of all, congratulations for making it to CUED! As the Events Officers, Kevin and I have planned a lot of activities, aiming to give our members more insights into the engineering sector and to improve the welfare from the society.

The first major event after term starts will be the annual CUES Careers Fair. We have invited many engineering companies with great diversity this year, targeting students from different fields and backgrounds. The aim of this event is to provide the students with a chance to directly talk to the company representatives to know more about the company and the field they are interested in. Also, this event is a good opportunity for everyone to find a suitable summer placement for themselves.

We are also excited to organise more engineering trips this year – at least two in each of Michaelmas and Lent term. The currently planned places include West Cambridge Site, Coventry Trans-

port Museum, Lotus Manufacturing Plant, Railway Museum York and Rolls-Royce Factory.

We are sure that every member can find their places of interest on our list. And we promise you that these trips are going to be fun!

Another headline event we are planning is the popular international trip happening at the end of Lent term. The destination this year is Hamburg with its famous aerospace, logistics and civil engineering sectors. Let’s explore this wonderful city together! Oh and of course, this trip will also be fully sponsored by CUES with the generous support from our sponsors.

Other than the traditional events, we are also working on something new and big this year.

We will let you know more about the events when the details are settled and we look forward to having you join us. Welcome to CUED. Roy Wang Events Officer 2015-2016

CUES CAREERS FAIR

The annual CUES Careers Fair is taking place on the 29th of October this year.

This year, it is going to be bigger than ever, with expanded reach to students of all science & technology related courses and a blockbuster line-up of companies from start-ups to multinationals waiting to offer you internships, placements and graduate careers!

Free entry, all subjects and years welcome!

Location: Guildhall Cambridge (Market Square) Time: 29th October, 13:00-17:30

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