School Newsletter November 2013 Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University
In this issue Research in electrical engineering supports UK microelectronics
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Maritime Academy achievement above UK average Page 4 Formula Student 2014
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Renewable Energy Summer School
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LJMU Engineer volunteers to bring renewable energy to Peruvian village Page 7 Liverpool Females in Engineering and Technology Page 8 Product designer wins Regional Award for placement Page 9
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School’s electrical engineering research supports UK microelectronics A team of electrical engineers from our School has secured a major research council grant to help UK companies maintain their lead in microelectronic circuit design. Microelectronic processors are used in all kinds of digital devices, from the microcontrollers used in industrial products to the microprocessors used in smart phones, tablets, laptops etc. The design and development of the electronic circuits in these
processors is an area of engineering where the UK has a world lead. For example, processors designed by the two industrial partners in this research project (ARM Holdings and Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR)) are used in most of the world’s smart phones. A microelectronic circuit is made up of billions of transistors manufactured onto a tiny silicon chip. The increasing performance
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
Pictured left to right: Dr Wei Zhang, Prof Jian Zhang, Dr Zhigang
of these circuits has been the result of engineers being able to put more and more transistors onto the same area. Until now designers have enjoyed the freedom to consider all the transistors as being the same. However, as transistor size is reduced (to nanometers) the discreteness of atoms and granularity of matter makes each transistor different. This presents a challenge to circuit designers trying to optimise circuit designs to improve performance and
a major opportunity for UK industry. Recognising the opportunity to open up a new area of research with UK industry, the University invested in its microelectronic test facilities, enabling Professor Jian Zhang, Dr Zhigang Ji, and Dr Wei Zhang to secure a four year grant of ÂŁ517,676 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop tools that can be used by the industry to optimize circuit
designs and maintain the UK`s competitive edge in this sector. The project is in collaboration with Glasgow University, Arm Holdings and Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) and is supported by the worldleading industrial research consortium based at IMEC, Belgium, whose members includes Intel, Sony, Panasonic, and Xilinx.
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
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Maritime academy achievement above UK average Analysis of SQA examination results for Chief Mates shows the School has maintained its reputation for high quality maritime education. In Navigation LJMU students scored an average 71% against a UK average of 61%, and in stability 87% against a UK average of 74%.
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Formula Student 2014 LJMU Racing Team’s new manager David Pettit launched preparations for the 2013-14 Formula Student competition with a series of meetings with team members and a roundup of the previous season’s achievements. David said “I am really excited about this year. We have a good team and fantastic car and we are really looking forward to competing. We are still recruiting though, and need more students studying web-Design, Media, Business, and Computing as well as Engineering”. ‘Last season’s car was the most advanced the team has produced to date. It featured many new developments,
including: a more fuel efficient powertrain; a lighter chassis with carbon fibre reinforcing bars; and specially designed uprights and wheel hubs. It proved to be extremely capable in competition, producing successes in the dynamic events including the fastest UK finish in the skid pad, and scoring highly in static events - notably second place in the special costing task. This year the team was joined by a group of graduate students from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, one of our partner universities in Shanghai. They worked with the team as preparation for their own University’s entry into FS China in 2014.
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
Pictured: LJMU Racing Team Manager, David Pettit
LJMU graduates from the team have also had a very successful year securing jobs with leading employers, including Aston Martin, Mercedes and Sellafield. Sponsors Graham Engineering made significant contribution in the production of the chassis and advising on business plans and cost reports. The design and build of LJMU 2014 is currently underway, the team will be racing at Silverstone in July and Hockenheimring in August. In addition, the team hopes to have an electric vehicle design ready for a Class 2 entry at Silverstone. Contact: D.Pettit@2010.ljmu.ac.uk
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
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Renewable Energy Summer School The University’s engineers combined forces in July to deliver our first summer School with the Smallpeice Trust. Forty 14 and 15 year old students from across the UK took part in an interactive introduction to offshore wind energy generation through a series of classes and lectures. Over four days the students competed in teams to design and build the components of an offshore wind generation system whilst gaining exclusive use of the university’s laboratories. They learnt about energy generation and the challenges faced by engineers in building, installing and maintaining offshore wind farms and in distributing this energy to domestic and industrial users.
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Pictured: Summer School 2013
They also had an insight into the career opportunities in the industry when they attended a talk by Siemens. The social programme included a film night, sports activities and an end-ofcourse celebratory dinner and disco. Claire Fisher, Marketing Officer for The Smallpeice Trust said “We are delighted that Liverpool John Moore’s University sponsored this exciting new course. This area of engineering has grown significantly over the last 20 years to become a multibillion pound global industry. The students have thoroughly enjoyed their experience and go away encouraged and inspired to take on a role in this sector in the future.”
The Smallpeice Trust was founded in 1966 by Dr Cosby Smallpeice, a pioneering engineer and inventor and founder of the highly successful pneumatics company Martonair, Dr Smallpeice invested his energy and part of his personal fortune to set up the Trust to ensure that British industry could continuously benefit from his proven design and engineering philosophies: “Simplicity in design, economy in production.” Contact: Dr Andrew Cunningham
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
LJMU Engineer volunteers to bring renewable energy to Peruvian village
Pictured: The village of Valle de los Dzios
After three flights, Clive Eyre a technical officer in engineering and his wife Alison, finally arrived in the northern Peruvian town of Trujillo in late June, to begin a month-long project with Wind aid. Working with 12 other volunteers of different nationalities and ages, Clive used his expertise to build a 2.5kW axial flux wind turbine supply power to the community of Valle de los Dios. The turbine is based on a “Hugh Piggott� design and was manufactured on site,
the team building everything from the blades to winding the coils for the electrical generator. Everyone in the team came from an engineering background apart from Alison, who became an an expert in building and finishing the turbine blades. These were of a composite design consisting of a foam core with a layer of carbon fibre for stiffness, with another layer of glass fibre and resin for protection from the elements. The installation site in Valle de los Dios is about a two hour drive from Trujillo. The people of this community are very poor but despite this, they are determined to build a safe and viable community. Power for Valle de los Dios was previously delivered by four diesel
Pictured: Clive at a local school
generators which only provided around three hours of power per day for the community. As well as installing the wind turbine, Clive and Alison also visited several primary schools in the village to talk about the project and introduce themselves in Spanish, much to the amusement of the children.
Pictured: Clive and Alison with the turbine
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
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Liverpool Females in Engineering and Technology Liverpool Females in Engineering And Technology (LivFEAT) is part of the WES initiative at Liverpool John Moores University led by Morgan Marren-Arnull a third year Mechanical Engineering student and regional coordinator for WES Merseyside and the Wirral.
http://www.wes.org.uk/ Morgan has recently been involved in a conference for CaST Cymru where she spoke about what is happening in Liverpool to try and encourage more female students to pursue careers in science, engineering and technology (SET).
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Morgan with the support of her course mates and staff, has led the foundation of LivFEAT with the aim of supporting women within the university who are currently pursuing SET careers and to encourage more women into engineering and technology.
Contact Mogan at M.Marren-Arnull@2011.ljmu.ac.uk
LivFEAT holds a number of events some are purely social; there are also discussion groups on recent articles with a link to women in SET careers as well as lectures from outside speakers, the first of which will be on October 31st from Jaguar Land Rover. There is also a joint lecture series held between LivFEAT and LivWISE based at University of Liverpool. LivFEAT welcomes anyone to come along who wishes to encourage girls and women to pursue SET careers.
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
Product designer wins award for placement Product Innovation & Development graduate Philip Jones spent his year in industry at ACDC Lighting Systems. The initial purpose of Philip`s placement was to use his problem-solving and engineering skills to combat manufacturing issues on the shop floor.
However, Philip also developed a new product in the final months of his placement that will revolutionise LED interior linear lighting that ACDC expects to generate ÂŁ1m per year. Philip was named the Regional Winner of The Lloyds Register Educational Trust Contribution to Business Award for his work on the placement. For information on placements contact Adam Papworth at A.Papworth@ljmu.ac.uk
Engineering, Technology and Maritime Liverpool John Moores University School Newsletter November 2013
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School Newsletter November 2013 School of Engineering, Technology and Maritime Operations http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/eng/
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK Contributions i.d.jenkinson@ljmu.ac.uk