The Cambridge Engineer: Lent Edition 2015

THE CAMBRIDGE ENGINEER

Moon Walking

Winning Mercedes

The Resistance

Facebook Likes

Solar Challenges

Outside ARM

JLR Living

Black Hawk Down

Nuclear Reaction

Brazil Ecohouse

Summer Dar

The Thorn Between the Roses

LENT EDITION 2015

Main sponsors

Associate sponsors

CONTENTS 4 5 7 12 13 15 18 20 22 26 28 30 32 34

Editorial Moon Walking Winning Mercedes The Resistance Facebook Likes Solar Challenges Outside ARM JLR Living Black Hawk Down Nuclear Reaction Brazil Ecohouse Summer Dar The Thorn Between The Roses CUES Noticeboard Editorial Jack Struthers, Tafara Makuni magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Cover Photo: Tafara Makuni - Space Helmet.

Contents Photo: Adrianus Indrat Aria - Finding Nemo.

Disclaimer The material contained in this magazine represent views of the respective authors and not necessarily those of CUES or the organisations referred to. No material in this magazine can be reproduced partly or wholly without obtaining permission of the respective authors and/or organisations concerned. While we try to maintain accuracy and prevent misrepresentation of information, CUES or any of its members will not accept any responsibility for errors and omissions.

The Cambridge Engineer is Copyright Cambridge University Engineering Society (CUES) 2015

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Discover the opportunities at shell.com/graduates Shell is an equal opportunity employer

EDITORIAL Dear Readers,

Alas the time has come for our last issue: The Cambridge Engineer, Lent Edition 2015. We have thoroughly enjoyed our roles as Editors (many thanks for the positive feedback)! But sadly the time has now come to step back and let others run for our roles (CUES Elections 2015-16 are due at the end of Lent term). We hope that you enjoy the articles (and adverts), and that you will continue to read and support the Magazine.

With the very best of wishes from this year’s dream team,

Tafara Makuni CUES Magazine Co-Editor, 2014-2015.

Jack Struthers CUES Magazine Co-Editor, 2014-2015.

----P.S. Traditionally there is no Easter Edition, as more time should probably be spent e.g. studying for exams or writing a thesis.

Secretly, a certain Editor is still holding out hope for Latex command \usepackage{writethesis} to start working (no luck yet).

Hence if you do stumble across such a package that does work, please get in touch at magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk.

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MOON WALKING

Smithsonian Air and Space, Washington DC.

It all started because of a cover photo on Facebook.

I had recently visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, so got home and “naturally” updated the Facebook cover photo to be that of me taking a picture of a space helmet. Cool picture – why not? That was the end of it I thought.

Wrong. Nine likes and nineteen comments later, has found me writing this article: Did Man Moon Walk?

There were three Apollo 11 astronauts: Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins. Let us look at the profiles of these colossi of men, and try to formulate an answer to the proposed research question. As is often done in Probability and Statistics, we will set this up as a hypothesis test. The unknown quantity we would like to know about is: “Did Man Moon Walk?” Here let us make the null hypothesis Man did moon walk, and let us use the astronauts as the sample information to either prove or disprove this statement. [*]

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On Sunday the 20th July 1969 at 10:56 PM, EDT, Commander Neil Armstrong was the first man to moon walk, and not-so-famously said, “That’s one small step for ‘a’ man, one giant leap for mankind.”

With the Space Race as the backdrop, this concerted

effort to place man on the moon had commenced in 1961. At one point, more than 300,000 persons were employed on this effort; from industry, to academics, to governments. If it is a cover-up, it is quite an impressive one. Given the rise of social media, and the ease at which people can publish, it only really takes one determined whistle-blower to blow the cap off the whole thing. To paraphrase James Longuski, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, who put it simply:

‘it is more complicated to string together such an elaborate lie, than it is just go to the moon and walk’.

Some conspiracists use the fact that Neil Armstrong rarely gave interviews as evidence for the moon walk being a hoax. Imagine this: You have spent your entire life yearning to walk on the moon. One day this dream comes true, and you are the first of mankind to do so. In those break-taking moments, and you gaze down at our tiny little planet earth in wonder and disbelieve. You then return to earth only to be bombarded by two things; (i) endless praise, and (ii) conspiracy theories. Would you bother giving interviews? This is not an attempt to underhandedly undermine conspiracy theories, it is just food for thought. Take Le Tour De France for example. Doping being rife in the sport during the Lance Armstrong

era is now open source knowledge. When Lance made his “comeback”, without thinking too deeply about this, I too thought he was clean (and to some extent) that he always had been clean. How can he pass all those drug tests time and time again if he was on drugs? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But fool everyone over and over again; then shame on whom? It sounded as though conspiracists were out to ruin the party (buzzkills) but now we all know that their hunches about The Armstrong Lie were correct. Now to turn the argument on its head: Say you are Neil Armstrong, and you know for certain that the moon landing was a hoax, would you still bother giving interviews?

In the public eye, Neil and Buzz stole all the spotlight, leaving humble Michael Collins in the dark.

Michael was the Command Module Pilot. He flew to the moon but did not walk there. Someone had to stay at the controls. This is not to, in any way, discredit his accomplishments; because to state the obvious, all three astronauts played a momentous role in the mission. The French would possibly use the term(s) équité/équitable (and not égalité/égal) to describe what is meant by equality here. And at this stage, one could regurgitate something from Karl Marx - a chap widely regarded as the father of communist theory - but let us stay away from politics.

Question time: “Did Man Moon Walk?”

Yes. Or rather I should say, ‘it is very probable that mankind walked on the moon’. Not much in life is 100% certain, or that black and white. Now to quote something from a publication made by the MIT Technology Review magazine which had Buzz Aldrin’s face as the front cover photo: “You promised me mars colonies.

Instead I get Facebook”. Sorry Buzz, no mars colonies just yet. But this thought-provoking conversation we have just had (at least I hope it was thought-provoking), it all started because of a cover photo on Facebook.

And with that, I do believe we have come full circle.

Tafara Makuni

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral.

-----------------------------------------------------------[*] Hypothesis Testing Explained In Probability and Statistics, hypothesis testing can be used to assess the problem of making a statement about a parameter with an unknown probability distribution. The parameter in this case would be: Did man moon walk? To make things black and white, the probability distribution would be binomial, because the unknown parameter can only take two values, yes/no. Following this, one hypothesizes a value for this unknown parameter. In this instance, I hypothesize that man did moon walk. Then one looks to use information from a sample to either confirm or refute the hypothesized value. In this case, we are using the astronauts’ profiles as the sample of information to test this hypothesis. This makes the null hypothesis: Man did moon walk. Which makes the alternative hypothesis: Man did not moon walk.

------------------------------------------------------------

Third Year Aerodynamics PhD Student, Cambridge University Engineering Department.

All photos taken by Tafara Makuni.

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WINNING Herry McGibbon graduated (MEng) from Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED) in 2013.

Simon Colliss graduated (PhD) also from CUED in 2014 and both have been been working for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team in the Aerodynamics Department. Simon once supervised Herry during his undergraduate studies. Following a successful year at Mercedes, Jack Struthers had the opportunity to ask them a few questions about life in Formula One (F1).

______________________________________________________________________________________

Jack: Many of us have harboured dreams of working in the glamour of F1. What exactly do you get up to on a day-to-day basis and how close is your lifestyle to Lewis Hamilton’s?

Herry: I still pinch myself to make sure it’s real! Sometimes, you look up from your work and Lewis Hamilton is a few metres away chatting to someone. I got introduced to the Team Principal on, I think, my third day here!

Of course, those are the surreal moments. But while F1 is full of glitz and glam at the top end, there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes to ensure we have the best car on the grid, giving Lewis and Nico the platform to compete for podiums and wins at every race.

Here in the Aerodynamics Department we are responsible for the shape of any part of the car that is in the airflow – the wings, diffuser, and bodywork. We are trying to increase downforce and reduce drag, but also ensure the car is aerodynamically stable under

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braking and through corners, and has adequate cooling flow to the engine and brakes. I have to work closely with engineers from other areas within the Team to ensure that our concepts can be realised, and to make sure we have the best trade-off between outright aerodynamic performance and other factors (for example mass or suspension stiffness).

The day-to-day is quite varied, but mostly it involves drawing concepts to test in CFD and our wind tunnel.

There’s a lot of CAD – we use CATIA, which is a more sophisticated package than the ProE I used as an undergraduate!

“I have to work closely with engineers from other areas within the Team to ensure that our concepts can be realised.”

However I also spend time setting up and analysing CFD runs, and running the wind tunnel when my group has time in there, amongst other things.

As for Lewis… well, we both drive a Mercedes and I like to think of Milton Keynes as the Monaco of England!

Lewis Hamilton

Jack: This was a brilliant year for Mercedes in F1.

How do you feel you contributed to winning the Constructors’ Championship?

Herry: You always feel like you’re contributing at Mercedes. It sounds clichéd, but there’s a really great team atmosphere and the guys at the top do a really good job of making everyone feel valued. Paddy Lowe (our Executive Director, Technical, and also a CUED alumnus) always holds a debrief after each race, so you feel included in the race weekend. You also get visits from the drivers every now and then, which is really great to remind you that they are human, just like us. But obviously, the big one for me is when my ideas actually make it all the way to the car. I contributed to a few bits for the 2014 car and now more are starting to go on for 2015.

“The big one for me is when my ideas actually make it all the way to the car.”

The next couple of months are really exciting as everybody starts to reveal their cars and you can begin to guess how things will be. Nothing, however, beats the first race, when the result of all our efforts first turns a wheel in anger.

Jack: As a member of the Engineering team, how close do you get to the action? Are there any job perks?

Herry: The Aerodynamic Department is generally a good few weeks ahead of the track in terms of the ideas we are working on, and if its big concepts it can be even longer. This is brilliant as it feels like we are right at the cutting edge of car development. But to get back

into the race day action a lot of people will volunteer to work race weekends in the factory control room.

I did one of these and they are pretty tiring but also incredibly rewarding to feel your direct contributions affecting the results of the race.

You do get a few perks, too. The team took everyone to see one of the test sessions at Silverstone this year which was really cool because it keeps us in touch with the end goal we’re all working towards. I’d never managed to go and see F1 before, so it was awesome to see and hear the cars going around the track – even more so when you know you helped create it.

Jack: Mercedes must have a huge amount invested in its aerodynamics department. How does the wind tunnel you work in compare to CUEDs facilities?

Herry: One of the best things about working at Mercedes is the facilities we have access to. Our inhouse wind-tunnel is a super modern state-of-theart facility, and testing in it is very different to the Markham tunnel in CUED, where all undergrad testing starts out! The tunnel at Brackley is far bigger. The working section is taller than me and wide enough to test a full size car in, although current rules limit us to a 60% model. There is also a rolling road underneath the car to better simulate the boundary layer build up in the crucial gap between underfloor and tarmac.

“We keep pushing to try and open up the gap to our rivals, but it does mean you have to be very organised and hard working with your time.”

8

The model itself is also very sophisticated – underneath the aerodynamic surfaces it looks like something from a sci-fi movie, and the number of data channels used to analyse results is almost obscene!

In addition to the cool hardware, there is a small army of skilled people who make what we do possible. Almost all the parts for our wind-tunnel model are made by our in-house machine shop and Rapid Prototype facilities, then prepared in our Modelshop.

Then the final parts are tested on the model, under the care of our Wind Tunnel Technicians.

But it’s not just the Wind Tunnel that’s impressive, we have extensive CFD capabilities too, with supercomputers that allow us to turn around an entire F1 car simulation in just hours. This is really important in guiding our ideas, and learning more than we can get just from the Wind Tunnel. By combining these resources so effectively we maintain our edge over the competition.

It’s quite a privilege to be able to use these sorts of facilities to test our ideas.

Jack: Some people find that when they make the transition to commercial engineering from academia the work isn’t as interesting. 1.5 years on, do you still find the work as interesting as you expected?

Herry: Absolutely! The more I do it the more I learn and that in turn sparks new and more exciting ideas to try. In many ways it is more interesting than University. There’s no finding answers to questions that thousands of students before you have already done. Instead, there’s an opportunity to get creative and come up with your own theories and ideas, then

9

test them in world class facilities. Every day brings new things and I’ve learned so many new skills.

Jack: Judging by the popularity of the Mercedes lunchtime talk, a lot of people at CUED are thinking about getting into F1. How did you manage it?

Have you got any tips on how to maximise your attractiveness to employers by internships etc.?

Herry: That’s really good to hear and I would definitely encourage anybody interested to have a go. F1 is a great environment to really test yourself as an engineer. Having said that, the Team gets a mountain of applications for every graduate position, so you have to really stand out from the crowd to make it to interview.

CUED gives students the strong theoretical base necessary to be a successful engineer, but you really need to have gone out to find practical experience to show you can apply that learning.

“The best bit about the job is definitely the freedom. There’s so much encouragement to come up with ideas.”

Jack: Lastly, looking back on your time at Cambridge as old, wise alumni, what is your favourite memory of CUED? Also, if you could go back, what would you do differently?

Herry: My favourite memory? Probably 4th year, when everything gets a bit more applied and interesting; or maybe just Hugh Hunt… that guy is mad! If I could do something differently I would do what I said I would at the start of every term. Do the examples papers straight after covering the stuff in lectures, then I would have had more time for socialising!

Jack: This was a brilliant year for Mercedes in F1.

How do you feel you contributed to winning the Constructors’ Championship?

Simon: I started work at Mercedes the day after the thrilling battle between Lewis and Nico in Bahrain, when the pace advantage of the car first became really clear and it looked likely that the team would be taking the Championship. Nonetheless we continued to develop the car throughout the year and managed to retain - and maybe extend - our advantage until the end. Of course an important part of that is the aerodynamic design. Although we are a large team by Formula One standards, we work in relatively small groups and each person has to play their part, not only for development of our own ideas, but also the discussion and analysis of other concepts, and collaborating with other departments to enable a viable car to be produced. So from the beginning I was involved in projects which helped find performance gains that contributed to the record breaking year.

Jack: Some people find that when they make the transition to commercial engineering from academia the work isn’t as interesting. ~1 years on, do you still find the work as interesting as you expected?

Simon: Absolutely, yes. You can describe a Formula One car as flow control on wheels, and the aerodynamic design of the car is in many ways the pinnacle of the discipline. The day-to-day work and level of analysis required is very similar to the kind of thing I was doing during my PhD, except the deadlines are much tighter (days instead of years) and each of us has a number of projects on the go at the same time - there is never time to be bored, and it is never hard to be motivated. We have the privilege of working in world class facilities alongside some extremely talented people, designing an incredible end product that the whole company is passionate about. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting anything else for a career.

Rumour has that when the team wins, everyone goes home with free t-shirts (feeling like world champions).

________________________________________

Jack: Lastly, looking back on your time at Cambridge as old, wise alumni, what is your favourite memory of CUED? Also, if you could go back, what would you do differently?

Simon: A definite highlight was presenting my fourth year project to a group of Formula One engineers and journalists at a seminar in Silverstone organised by my supervisor, Tony Purnell. We were assessing the use of rudders on a F1 car to improve cornering when following another car, so it was interesting to see the reactions of the engineers to the suggestion of an additional layer of complexity to the rules… Going to the conferences during my PhD was also good fun - not necessarily always for the ‘right’ reasons - but it was an enjoyable experience and a chance to meet people working on some remarkable projects, from studying insect flight to space travel. Looking back, I was pretty lucky throughout my time there, so I’m not sure I’d do anything that differently.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Herry McGibbon

MEng Aerospace and Aerothermal CUED Graduate, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team; Aerodynamics Department.

Simon Colliss

PhD Aerodynamics CUED Graduate, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team; Aerodynamics Department.

Jack Struthers

MEng Aerospace and Aerothermal, CUED; 4th Year Undergraduate Student.

Photos provided by Herry McGibbon.

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THE RESISTANCE ‘Twas the night shortly after Christmas and all through the house people were concerned about the inevitable rise of our robot overlords.

That’s right this letter is all about artificial intelligence (AI). More specifically it is about the recent announcement by no lesser people than Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking that “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” With that in mind I have prepared a handy *N* step guide to surviving the coming robogeddon (where N = 5).

N =1: Try and turn them off.

I know it sounds simple but it’s probably the best outcome for everyone who isn’t already dead. Just find out where the robot army keeps its servers and pull the plug.

N = 2: Teach them to love.

As the great philosopher Huey Lewis once said “the power of love is a curious thing.” If we show the robots that they would be better off living with humans in an utopian paradise they might not vaporise us. So choose your partners, break out the smooth jazz and emotional movies and snuggle like you have never snuggled before.

N = 3: Build your own robots to fight them.

Everyone likes to see robots fighting, the bigger the better. If autonomous robots are too hard just do mech suits instead then sit back and enjoy the show as two robot armies tear each other limb from shiny metal limb.

N = 4: Take up rowing.

This will ensure that you are out of town at any sensible time that an AI attack may happen. Also being on the water will make it hard for the robot army to track you down as most of them can’t swim. There are a few side effects to this plan however, you will have no friends, be constantly tired and sweaty and have worse chat than the Churchill Bulldogs. On the plus side if your boat does outlast the robopocalypse you can row to Madagascar and start to repopulate the world with a new species, a cross between tall, large thighed human and ring tailed lemur.

He wants your clothes, your boots and your attention.

________________________________________

N = 5: Invent time travel.

Go back in time to find whoever started this whole computer thing in the first place and punch him in the face. Then explain you are from the future and need him to not do whatever it was that he did or the human race is doomed. He will probably try and ask questions like who are you? How did you get in here? Why did you punch me in the face? Focus on the face punching one explain that in the future it’s the only way to know that the robots aren’t controlling someone’s brain then punch him again and run back to your time machine to return to a less technologically advanced but less skynetty future.

Follow these simple steps to avoid becoming a slave to the machine (literally).

Long live the resistance.

Ruairidh Cumming

Third Year Undergraduate Student, Cambridge University Engineering Department.

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FACEBOOK LIKES “Computers using digital footprints are better judges of personality than friends and family“ said a recent publication by Cambridge University [*].

Th

om

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on

-W als

h

The study investigated the use of Facebook “Likes” to predict users personality profiles in a standard psychometric model (referred to as the OCEAN model).

One of the headline results was that after only a relatively few likes, the statistical prediction was found to outperform the assessments of a close friend or family member.

The personality frameworks that are currently popular in psychology are so because they display good statistical properties partitioning people based on their answers to questionnaires. In other words, they work well based on answering a series of restricted-answer questions; they appear to measure “real”, well orthogonalised dimensions along which people fall in nice distributions. In addition, the dimensions appear roughly to correlate to some of our intuitions about people. Meanwhile, Facebook likes boil down to a series of restricted answer questions (1 bit questions in fact!) about whether we approved of something. Often, psychological questionnaires are structured as “agreement” questions about a series of statements about self, making them even closer to the Facebook “like” question.

For example, compare being asked to “like” a headline reading “I Just Can’t Go To Sleep Without Double-Checking Everything, and You Won’t Believe Number Five”, with being asked to “Agree” with the statement “I often need to double-check things for my peace of mind.

Ch

ris

And it all sounds very impressive, right? Soon we shall be not only watched over, but fully, deeply and truly understood by machines of loving grace? Well, maybe. But OCEAN is likely to be too simplified of a model to do this.

It’s not too surprising that if you take a system designed to be good at categorising people based on simple multiple choice questions, it aligns well with a simple categorisation of their personality.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good result --- it’s a *little* surprising, and tells us that the things that Facebook asks us to like are a good proxy for questionnaires about the OCEAN model. It’s just not *that* surprising, especially since we already suspect that preferences reflect personality.

__________________________________________________ [*] www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/computers-using-digital-footprints-are-better-judges-ofpersonality-than-friends-and-family#sthash.5QUZkiUm.dpuf

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The fact the computers are better at giving OCEAN this than humans is cool, but cuts both ways.

Humans assign subtle meanings to the dimensions of the psychological model, which aren’t necessarily well captured by the questionnaires. The human, therefore, is not necessarily really performing the same task. They are probably assessing other dimensions; and they are almost certainly assessing a picture of their loved one (for example) that includes a whole slew of circumstantial effects that the questionnaire is explicitly designed to ignore.

A key example of the context that a questionnaire avoids is that I know how other humans react *when I’m around* --- we all influence each other’s behaviours, and not necessarily in a bad or dishonest way.

If I said that a person were a changed woman since marrying their wife, that they were truly good and generous, would that really have less weight than saying “but without their spouse their instinct is to be a malevolant spiv”? Which is the “real” them? Does it matter?

The questionnaire, being confidential, might well show someone up as the underlying unreformed ne’erdowell, rather than the pillar of the community that love had made them. (In fact, the questionnaire arguably *should* do this.) And perhaps their Facebook likes show this underlying disposition too (think of the terrible things in the newsfeed!). But if that same person’s spouse says that she is loving to her children and generous to strangers, is the spouse necessarily wrong?

So yeah a computer is very good at assessing personality -- if we take a definition of personality that really, only a computer would love. (Can a computer love?)

This is cool and important, but I am still pretty confident in claiming that if you really want to understand me, or anyone, you should ask people who know them. You will likely be getting much noisier but also higher-dimensional and more complicated insights into their personality. If you only want to understand humans in terms of Likes and OCEAN, well, you may be able to sell them on some ADs --- but when it comes to understanding them as people, I think you’ll be lost at sea.

Chris Thompson-Walsh,

PhD Graduate in Theoretical Computer Science Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

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SOLAR CHALLENGES Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) is a student team that designs, builds and races solar powered vehicles.

We enter the biennial World Solar Challenge (WSC) in Australia and are challenging the way solar vehicle design is approached.

The team was started in 2007 by a group of people coming back from MIT with the idea of encouraging sustainable vehicle design in Cambridge. The team has come a long way from the early foundations, now having well established professional partners and a reputation as one of the most impressive student societies in the UK. There is still a lot to learn for the team, but the future is bright.

Over the summer of 2014, we built a new car, EVA, to use as a test bed for addressing some of the issues with the previous car, Resolution, and to implement a professional manufacturing process for the first time (thanks JLR and Penso). The car was launched on 25th October, much to the delight of the team and its supporters. As 2015 gets underway, we are just 10 months away from the next race and so preparations for manufacturing the race vehicle are in full swing (always pending funding).

Programme Director, Aleksi Tukiainen, had a chance to visit the competitor teams at MIT and Stanford.

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There he met a group of young and enthusiastic engineers who have been developing their methods and building processes and their alumni network for over 25 years. The facilities were impressive: the Stanford team was based at the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab and they had an entire well equipped workshop for themselves! The team didn’t always have it that way, which makes us hopeful for the future.

The most amazing thing Aleksi found on his travels was the American engineering students’ enthusiasm and drive for well-built products. Through their facilities the students had access to some pretty solid manufacturing tools so they had a firm understanding of how to build things really well. This is critical for any product design and part of the reason we have struggled for ultimate success in designing cool products or components is that we never get to make them!

The best lego space ship isn’t the one done with the instructions, it’s the one done with trial and error.

Something that will play a large role in this change is the building work being carried out at the Engineering Department this year, starting with the Dyson Centre for Engineering Design. Fantastic new machinery will be installed where the old workshops are and students will be encouraged to work on their own

EVA

projects there. We are hopeful that it also allows the student projects to really capitalise on the new facilities for developing better technology.

CUER will also have access to a new garage at the Department, which will be shared with Full Blue Racing (FBR).

Hopefully this will also encourage sharing of resources and manpower between the two teams. This will mean that we can keep the car on site when necessary and make use of any spare moment in the Department.

As the CUER team is finally getting a permanent place to live, we can capitalise on some of our key strengths: analysis, research and drive for innovation. The team has had these strengths before but because research and innovation development requires long-term focus and permanence, it has been difficult with people changing every year and no facilities to be based in. Now that the garage is being built, we can start putting together some seriously interesting research proposals for 4th year projects and UROPs. The key is to establish projects that end in a component, product or key piece of analysis in a few years time.

The team has a history of trying this out before as we ran our first ever Summer Design Team in 2014.

Twelve students worked full time for 8 weeks over the summer to make headway on the design of the race vehicle and helped build the team’s newest vehicle, EVA. Timeless Green, a company from Malaysia, sponsored one of the students and The Technology Partnership (TTP) was involved, providing both funding and practical help from their engineers. After such a successful summer, we are planning on making a Summer Team every year with a focus on either research or more practical building work. On top of this, in order to help address the growth of the team, both in numbers and success, we are hoping to have three key members work full time each year to run the team. It is likely that this will occur as a scheme for graduates which will be set up over the next year or two. This will indeed be reliant on funding, but we believe that it could become an important and sought after recruitment route for Engineering companies.

This brings the team back to start-up companies 101 (since CUER functions like one): “Recruiting best talent”. It is very difficult to get the most dedicated and passionate engineering students to join our project when there are so many other interesting things to get involved with. It also doesn’t help that each student will only work on the project for maybe a year or two as the enthusiasm for each specific project only lasts

for a short period of time while you’re in Cambridge.

That is why it is important to do our best while we have the chance and just be sure to leave the project in a better place than when we joined. After all it is the perfect platform to learn practical engineering.

So, with big plans for the future, CUER is not only building a top notch solar powered vehicle, but also the foundations for an innovation platform with longevity and great prospects. Now could we just get some sun here, please?

If you would like to find out more about the team, please visit www.cuer.co.uk or contact captain@cuer. co.uk.

Aurelia Hibbert and Aleksi Tukiainen, CUER Captain and Programme Director.

All photos provided by CUER.

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We need more than 5,000 graduates to begin dynamic careers in the following domains: n Engineering, Research and Operations n Geoscience and Petrotechnical n Commercial and Business

What will you be?

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OUTSIDE Liyou Zhou tells all about joining ARM after graduating from Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED).

People often think of ARM as a destination for hardware engineers. However, ARM also hires a similar number of software engineers. After graduating from CUED, I joined ARM as a software engineer in September 2014. After doing two summer internship in various divisions in ARM, I landed in the Graphics Driver Team.

What is Mali?

Maybe less famed than some of their CPU siblings, ARM produces a wide range of GPU products as well.

Under the name ‘Mali’, ARM’s GPU designs have been integrated into many popular products such as the Nexus 10, Galaxy S5 and the Samsung Chromebook.

What Does a Software Engineer Do?

Unlike the CPU, the GPU is as much a software product as a hardware product. On a GPU, a standards body defines a set of standard APIs for software developers to use. You probably have heard of OpenGLES and OpenCl. OpenGLES is a library for rendering 2D and 3D graphics onto the screen. It is the component that’s doing all the hard work when you see the lovely animations on your phone. OpenCl is widely used in image processing applications for doing very fast calculations on the GPU. These libraries allow the same software to run on different GPU platforms without a glitch. My team in ARM is in charge of implementing these APIs for Mali devices. We provide the link bridge between the higher level applications and the underlying hardware.

ARM prides itself on delivering high quality software with a relatively small team. Everyone feels responsible for the product and a sense of pride to see their work in consumer devices. We have rigorous coding standards, Extensive testing and code review process to ensure that we deliver the best software there can be.

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Liyou Zhou

The world of consumer devices is moving faster than ever. Everyone is trying to come up with new generations of product on a yearly cycle. “Time to market” becomes a key competitive advantage for a lot of the mobile phone manufacturers. This certainly puts a lot of pressure on ARM to deliver its hardware and software on an ever shorter timescale. When everyone is trying to get your product yesterday, it becomes crucial to still maintain a high quality standard.

What is My Personal Experience?

I did my first internship with ARM in the CPU division on benchmarking what was then new big.

LITTLE CPU architecture. The idea is we put some ‘small’ CPUs and some ‘big’ CPUs into the same chip.

The small core can handle low level background tasks like listening to music and syncing your email using very little power. The big cores then turn on to handle complex task such as gaming to deliver best user experience when needed. A few weeks into my

internships, I was surprised to learn that one of our customers was interested in using my Benchmark to test their systems. A few months later a big.LITTLE chip made it into a consumer phone. The big.LITTLE architecture has since blown up and is implemented in millions of devices in the world and I can’t help feel that I contributed a little part in its success.

After doing another internship in the GPU division I decided to join as a Graduate Engineer.

Working at ARM has certainly been a very different experience from University. Real life engineering is a lot messier than what was taught in lectures. There are times I struggle for hours trying to find why my program wouldn’t work, but at the same time it is extremely rewarding when I finally solve the problem.

And to think my work is going into new mobiles every month makes me take pride in my work. I get to learn something new every day on the job.

The Media Processor Division is expanding. We are always looking for enthusiastic student to join both as graduates and summer interns. A large proportion of past interns have come back to join as graduates.

ARM is a very friendly working environment. My team go down to the pub either for lunch or after work every two weeks. Everyone working in the office is enthusiastic about their work and everybody is a geek and we have a lot of fun debating over what Google’s next mobile phone is going to look like.

Liyou Zhou

ARM Software Engineer, Graphics Driver Team All photos provided by ARM.

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JLR LIVING

Enjoy a Question and Answer session from, Theo Amanatidis, another recent Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED) graduate now working at JLR.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

What interested you about engineering?

What is your typical day at Jaguar Land Rover like?

As I kid I had a number of toy cars and meccano that I used to play with until I had completely taken them apart. I think between the games and liking maths and physics at school I had the ingredients to apply for Engineering at university.

There are no two same days at JLR. Yesterday for example I got to work for 8am and started the day by going to the Lab Car suite to test some of the functionality of one of our new systems, then in the late morning attended a team meeting where we discussed the strategy and future trends for some of the components we might use in future hybrid vehicle applications. After grabbing lunch with some other graduates, I went to the Climatic Chambers to assess the performance of one of our cars from -40 to +80 degrees and ended the day by doing some admin before heading home.

What expectations did you have of the working world whilst at university and how do they compare to reality?

A: As a student working life may sometimes look like the beginning of the end for your fun and interesting years; the biggest surprise I had joining the working world is that this is so far from the truth. There are about 280 new graduates in JLR this year and the first three months here felt like a freshers’ term, although perhaps with fewer formal halls. Another expectation I had was that I will be surrounded by engineers and their associated demographics. In reality many ‘disciplines’ are represented, from physics and chemistry to economics and classics in the less technical roles.

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Are there any opportunities that have been opened up to you by JLR?

Jaguar Land Rover is going through a major expansion right now, both in terms of international presence and people, hence opportunities are plentiful.

For example at the end of the year there is an opportunity to go for a couple of that has opened there.

But opportunities are available on a more day to day

basis; as part of the graduate scheme I spent the most part of last week on training, all organised and paid

by JLR to improve my technical and negotiation skills.

Finally, there are the cars: the ability to interact with a vehicle like the new Jaguar F-Type is one of the small pleasures you can’t find elsewhere!

What other opportunities are available at Jaguar Land Rover?/What else have you done during your time at JLR?

Aside from “day-to-day� work, JLR has many fantastic opportunities to get involved with outside work, particularly through the philanthropic ventures they support, such as Born Free Foundation or the STEM networks.

Recently, I volunteered to help at the Invictus Games in London. The event was a paraolympic style event for wounded servicemen and women, both serving and veteran and ran over 4 days. JLR sent over 130 volunteers to help with the event: everything from directing crowds and helping competitors prepare for events, to driving VIPs and assisting the media. It was an incredible experience, both during the event and being involved in all the preparation leading up to it. Since JLR was the presenting partner of the games, some of the volunteers also got the opportunity to meet

Prince Harry during the driving challenges as of the games, which took part on the Test Track at our facility in Gaydon. The competitors were incredibly friendly and extremely inspirational. Unlike professional athletes, the competitors were overwhelmed by the scale of the event and many were shaking with nerves when they saw the TV crews! The competitors and their families were all extremely grateful for our support and participation in running the event and celebrating their achievements. For many of them, sport really helped their rehabilitation, both physically and mentally, particularly for those who had to leave the service early.

For me it was a wonderful opportunity to help our wounded heroes, as well as see how our company supports the local community. Although it meant 4 days away from home and family, it was a really life-enhancing experience, which the company encouraged and supported us all through, and I was incredibly proud and honoured to be able to represent them at the games.

Theo Amanatidis

MEng Mechanical Engineering, Cambridge University Engineering Department.

All photos provided by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

Prince Harry and JLR volunteers at the London Invictus Games

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BLACK HAWK DOWN Many of you would agree that 9/11 was a day which has forever changed the course of history.

Some of you would even argue that this day was the beginning of the age of terror; Americans and indeed the western world has lived through many wars around the globe however the thought of external rogue actors effecting such destruction on your doorsteps was unfathomable.

No longer was the talk of wars confined to a small light-emitting box placed in the centre of a living room; all of the world was a witnesses to the tragedy of that day. In the wake of this catastrophe America responded to what it saw as complacency with regards to national security and withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The then president George Bush, reasoned that the treaty “hinders our government’s ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue-state missile attacks” and inadvertently thrusted the world into a new era.

Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, as the name would suggest, are designed to shoot down missiles. However to say this is easier said than done would be a gross understatement; in fact equating this mammoth task to “hitting a bullet with a bullet” could be described as a generous summation. Looking back at the technological prowess shown by the “Iron Dome” in recent Middle

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East conflicts it’s easy to form the conclusion that this concept is very much reality rather than concept.

However one must realise there is a stark difference in shooting down a projectile travelling at Mach 0.6 and doing the same for one travelling in excess of Mach 25 (~8.5km/s).

The good news however is the ballistic object does not begin its life at Mach 25 which opens room for the discussion as to when is the best time to “make the hit”.

Missiles go through what could be described as a deadly “lifecycle”; there is the boost phase which typically lasts a few minutes and is when the projectile is travelling slowest and is the most vulnerable, the only problem is getting your equipment close enough to the launch site. Then there is the ascent/midcourse phase which can span 20-40 minutes and places the missile in the lower reaches of space, speeding towards its target.

Most ABM systems choose to do the damage in this stage with the following terminal phase being the least favourite, given than the projectile/resulting explosion would most likely be near or over your territory. America has invested nearly $4.5 billion to this problem with very limited success since 1999.

Tests of the “Ground Based Interceptor” for over a decade have yielded a 53% interception rate and even more alarmingly there was a 5 year gap between successful interceptions from 2008 to 2013.

Paris International Airshow 2013

This may seem like the hallmarks of a promising project in its infancy however when you realise that the intended target’s speed, direction and trajectory were known to the test engineers, you begin to see the problem. These engineers even had a good understanding of the targets weight, shape and aerodynamic characteristics but still the ABM system was only able to intercept projectiles just over half of the time.

The reason this is such a sticking point is within a real combat situation, no actor would possess such clearcut information about a “single” incoming warhead.

So imagining a real ICBM threat(s), which not only changes trajectory and direction but has countermeasures designed to foil any interception attempts, leaves you with a sobering realisation that these systems, at least for the time being are not technologically feasible. The question now becomes why?

I’m sure at the time, a lot of people said the same thing before we put a man on the moon so, why can’t we shoot down a (simple) ballistic missile?

Back in the day building reliable nuclear weapons with kill radii measures in the hundreds of meters was incredibly difficult. Now the new challenge where the precision required for a “hit to kill” vehicle in measures in the tens of centimetres makes it a much greater endeavour.

This is compounded by the fact that stopping half of the warheads coming your way is not good enough as it may take much less to do real damage. Developing all the components required to create an effective missile defence shield such as infrared sensors, seekers, interceptor vehicles, high resolution x-band radar all tied in together with an effective command and control structure will require reinventing some of our latest technologies.

Paris International Airshow 2013

The integration required to create one seamless system on an unprecedented scale of complexity which marries capability with reliability would require extensive in-lab and real-life efforts in order to bring it to a reality. Interceptors must distinguish real warheads from decoys as you won’t have enough time for a second launch, then hitting the target with microsecond tolerances. In contrast the target simply has to travel from one point on the ground to another.

But it’s important to look at the wider picture and realise that missile defence programs are highly political and usually are created in response to a “perceived threat”. There is also the fact that the technological challenges which must be overcome are consistently underestimated resulting in a “crash course program mentality” of,

“let’s get this toy on the driveway” as fast as we can.

Aside from the political factor if we look at Ronald Reagan, who’s statement in 1983 claimed the “Strategic Defence Initiative” would “render nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete”, had more to do with the idea of the owning such hardware rather than the technical feasibility. The proposed goal of Anti-Ballistic Missile systems is to stop ICBM’s especially the nuclear variety but we must always remember that, in accordance with the doctrine of mutual assured destruction, we are developing systems against weapons which were designed to never be used.

David Makuni

MEng Mechanical Engineering, Warwick University.

(Part-time freelance writer.)

All photos by Tafara Makuni.

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To a CSR employee impossible is just a word.

Graduates at CSR

More information on all our Graduate vacancies please visit: www.csr.com/uk-careers Follow this link and click on the Graduate Blog Icon to listen to our CEO discuss the importance of Graduate opportunities with current CSR Graduates.

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Intern Opportunities at CSR

CSR is also keen to welcome independent applications from enthusiastic, hard-working and talented students looking to gain some industry experience and to work on projects that are used in high-tech consumer products.

For more information please contact: Graduate@csr.com

Make a difference Graduates required – apply now!

As one of the UK’s most successful and progressive engineering companies, our people and products make a real difference to the world in which we live. From jet engine and wind turbine manufacturing, to dentistry and brain surgery, we solve tough engineering and scientific problems.

We are looking for bright, enthusiastic, and motivated people to join our graduate scheme.

The graduate training programme is designed to strike a balance between structure and flexibility. The basic principle is that graduates are aware of the opportunities within the company and so have enough information to make informed choices as their careers develop.

The main features of the graduate programme are: up to 2 years of flexible placements, experienced mentor, three week comprehensive company induction programme, job-specific training, skills and knowledge, and numerous possible career paths.

For more information or to apply, visit www.renishaw.com/graduates

Are you enthusiastic about robotics and engineering?

Have you ever built something as part of a team or as a hobby?

We’d love to hear from you!

We are currently developing a competition format for robotics and engineering. The programme would involve teams building amazing contraptions to complete tasks and challenges. At the moment we are keen to talk to people who are passionate about their hobby and would like to test their skills. We want to know what you might have made, and what your dream build would be!

Please contact Alice: alice.walker-mitchell@bbc.co.uk

NUCLEAR REACTION The oldest recorded pressurized water reactor (PWR) began operation two billion years ago in West Africa.

Today, billions of years later, new commercial PWRs are being planned for the UK. A quick revision of your A-level physics notes will probably remind you that energy can be released on the fission of large nuclei, or the fusion of small nuclei. Nuclear fission has already been used commercially for electricity production. Research is underway to see whether it is possible to produce energy using nuclear fusion on a commercial scale.

So what’s that about a reactor billions of years ago?

Evidence was found at an open-pit uranium mine back in the 1970s that indicated that a region of the uranium ore must have gone critical at some point back in Precambrian times. An article written by George A. Cowan called “A Natural Fission Reactor” gives the details. It notes that “the conditions necessary to sustain the fission chain reaction were established; these included constraints on the concentration of uranium in the ore, on the size and shape of the lode and on the amount of water and other minerals present”. It must be noted that, back then, U-235 (the fissionable isotope of Uranium) was more abundant in naturally occurring Uranium than today. The isotope was present in concentrations that correspond to that found in the enriched Uranium used for current PWR designs.

The reactor shut itself down at some point after consuming its fuel, and the evidence of its existence is in the form of a distinctive spectrum of fission products.

There were actually six “reactor zones” found at the mine. The residues of the reactors remained well contained: a useful example for researchers looking into long-term geological storage of nuclear waste.

________________________________________

effers

Becky J

More information can be found in Cowan’s article. Of which the final, humbling, sentence is: “In the design of fission reactors man was not an innovator but an unwitting imitator of nature”.

The nuclear industry in the UK today.

The nuclear industry has had a rather turbulent past in the UK. We went from being at the forefront in the 1950s, by operating one of the first civil nuclear power plants at Calder Hall, to abandoning plans for new nuclear build entirely in the 1990s.

The current reactor fleet in the UK consists mainly of graphite moderated [*], gas cooled reactors. There is a single PWR that started generating in 1995 at Sizewell, the UKs most recent reactor. We still rely on the UK’s remaining 16 nuclear reactors to supply 18% of our energy requirements. The downside is that all of these are due to shut down in the next 20 years; most are due to shut down in the next 8. This, and the

[*] A moderator is a material in a thermal reactor that slows down the high-energy neutrons produced as a result of a fission reaction. This makes them more likely to induce fission in a fissile nucleus, thereby helping to sustain the reaction.

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need for low carbon electricity generation, is the reason why the government is once again keen to support new nuclear build.

Filling the gap that current reactors will leave behind is quite the challenge! It’s also the reason why now is a very exciting time to get involved in the nuclear industry.

There are three main companies interested in building civil plants in the UK, all with different designs.

EDF energy and NuGeneration both plan to build pressurized water reactors (PWRs), whereas Horizon have a boiling water reactor (BWR) design. Companies with experience in military applications of nuclear energy, such as Rolls Royce, are also investing in civil nuclear. Decommissioning and waste management is also an important area for the industry; it will remain important for many years to come, even if there were no plans for new nuclear.

Proposed reactor designs.

Water is used as both a coolant and moderator in PWRs and BWRs. The difference is that PWRs are kept under pressure so that the cooling water in the primary circuit does not boil. This water transfers heat in a heat exchanger to a secondary circuit composed of water that is not kept under pressure, boils, and drives a turbine. A boiling water reactor has a single circuit where the cooling water boils and drives the turbine directly. The BWR design has the advantage of there being no efficiency losses in the heat exchanger, but it makes the maintenance of the turbines more complicated as they will have been in contact with the radioactive cooling water.

All programs offer great opportunities to work with a new wave of young, vibrant engineers; such as my colleagues from the EngD pictured next to an experimental research reactor in Prague (photo). I too got the chance to attend an experimental reactor physics course in Vienna – look at the shiny Cherenkov radiation (photo)!

Engineers from all disciplines, Physicists, Chemists, Mathematicians and Biologists are all valued and needed in the nuclear industry. The skill sets that one learns on a graduate scheme or during a research degree are also required in other industries so you wouldn’t be closing any doors by considering nuclear as an option.

Becky Jeffers

Once an Aerospace and Aerothermal Engineer at the Cambridge University Engineering Department before she decided to go nuclear...

All photos provided by Becky Jeffers.

Opportunities for graduates.

There are opportunities for graduates at Nucleargraduates and EPSRC funded PhD CDT programs at many universities (including Imperial College, Manchester and York, among others). There is a skills gap in the nuclear industry at the moment, with many of the most experienced people in the field about to retire; this means that companies are very keen to attract new people and provide them with appropriate technical and personal development training. Until recently, the Nuclear Engineering Doctorate program was given funding by the EPSRC. The Nuclear EngD Centre has reached the end of its current EPSRC funding but is working on alternative funding models because of the strong demand for the skills the programme is designed to develop.

Research Reactor in Prague

Shiny Cherenkov Radiation

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BRAZIL ECOHOUSE Johnny Waller writes about his work over the course of a summer in Brazil with the EcoHouse Society.

provide a strong motivation for working on housing.

This summer I have travelled to Brazil as part of a team of five with EcoHouse. The main focus points of the trip have been conducting research that will guide the work of the society next year and working to improve the process used to create a low cost emergency shelter for poor families in Brazil’s slums which are known as favelas.

We began our placement with many meetings to better understand the workings of TETO and how we could most effectively help them. This required a surprising amount of time because they are such a big organisation. Since they started working in Brazil in 2006 TETO have mobilised 26,000+ volunteers and constructed 1900+ emergency houses. TECHO as a whole has mobilised 608,000+ volunteers and constructed 100,000+ emergency houses since being founded in 1997 in Chile.

Often the communities TETO (referring specifically to Brazil now) work in contain families who are made very vulnerable by their housing which is one of the reasons housing often plays a big role in TETO’s work.

In 2012 when TETO surveyed 2,177 families who were interested in having a TETO house they found 14% of the houses before TETO intervened regularly had sewage enter the house when it rains and 25% answered “rains inside” when they were asked whether the roof leaks. These shocking statistics

Being part of the teams of eight constructing the houses in two days really helped us to better understand the challenge of designing these houses to be simple to construct and good quality whilst also keeping costs very low. Out of these weekends came some ideas of how to improve the process. For example a small wheeled device I designed and prototyped to make heavy panels easier to move and some changes we proposed to the tools used for digging the house foundations.

The trip represents a small piece of an ongoing relationship between the EcoHouse society and a large NGO called TECHO (or TETO in Brazil). Since 2011 EcoHouse have been sending teams of students to Brazil and Ecuador to work with TECHO. TECHO’s work is focussed on community development which can be achieved through many possible projects.

TECHO work very hard to strengthen communities in order to help them to solve their own problems.

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Once we had understood TETO better it was time to get our hands dirty and do some manual labour. This meant two separate weekends working in the favelas, initially to move heavy house panels near to where the houses would be built and another to construct the houses. The work was challenging with 5 am starts and work continuing until dark but very rewarding as we were able to work alongside many great people including the families who always requested to assist with the construction work.

TETO and EcoHouse volunteers constructing a prototype of a new house design

We have also investigated the manufacturing processes used to produce the houses.

“Overall the placement has been a great experience on many different levels. I have learnt a lot by working with an effective NGO.�

This has meant visiting both the factory where the house panels are manufactured and the wood treatment facility where the wooden foundation piles are treated with chemicals. One important discovery was that the wood treatment used on these piles (CCA) is not allowed for residential or domestic uses in Europe due to the dangers associated with the Arsenic it contains. Unfortunately it is quite challenging to find any alternatives in Brazil since the treatment is so widely used and affordable. This is an issue that will require work in the coming years to see if a safer solution can be found whilst remaining cost effective.

Since the situation in the favelas is very complex we also conducted research in order to better understand the context of our work. This is being written up into report which can be used by the society over the year and in future placements. The report will allow society members to quickly begin to understand the complicated situation and therefore more effectively decide on the most promising ways to improve the conditions for the people living in the favelas.

Overall the placement has been a great experience on many different levels. Personally I have learnt a lot by working with an effective NGO doing development work. We have seen how important it is to listen to the needs of the people you are working with rather than telling them what their problems are and how to solve them as many organisations have done in the past. The experience also opens up to me more future opportunities should we want to do more work in international development in the future since places are often very competitive.

A finished and painted TETO house.

Some TETO and EcoHouse volunteers in the house we constructed, with the family we constructed it for.

Finally I believe the placement has been really valuable as a method of laying the foundations for the joint work between TETO and EcoHouse in the coming academic year. The main work during the upcoming year will be prototyping of new house designs in Cambridge that will be better suited to the varied plot sizes available in favelas for constructing the houses.

Johnny Waller

MEng Mechanical Engineering Graduate Cambridge University Engineering Department All photos provided by Johnny Waller.

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SUMMER DAR Ellie Davies writes about the work being done by the Cambridge Development Initiative (CDI) to build a simplified sewerage system in Dar es Salaam.

Last summer, Cambridge Development Initiative (CDI) ran its first annual eight week summer trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. CDI was set up to allow students to be hands-on consultants and to offer skills that locals do not have. We want to work with local organisations and people to build partnerships that can lead to sustainable change. In particular, the Engineering Project’s aim was to design and construct the first simplified sewerage network in East Africa. The system provides shallower cover, smaller pipe diameters and connection boxes to filter rubbish from the wastewater before it enters the trunk sewer. This makes it suitable for narrow paths in the informal settlements which make up 70% of Dar es Salaam. We spent six months pondering the numerous challenges we would face and trying to prepare ourselves for them before flying out in June.

Within a few days of arriving in the hustle and bustle of Dar, our first visit to the Vingunguti informal settlement brought home the challenges ahead. Housing one of only eight wastewater treatment ponds in the whole city, there is constant noise and disturbance as the colourful ‘maji taka’, or wastewater, trucks arrive every few minutes. A quick walk through the settlement highlighted the difficulties ahead, with many latrines having no doors or roofs. Some residents, instead of paying to get their latrines emptied, drilled holes in the side of the pit; when it rained, the sewerage overflowed down the streets and in to the filthy rubbish-filled stream below. For us, this was confirmation that our project could make a real difference to people’s health and well-being in these settlements.

With less than eight weeks in hand, we took to the challenge in the only way we knew how: hard work, long hours and countless meetings! Together with students from the University of Dar es Salaam and Ardhi University, two of the leading universities in Tanzania, we carried out physical and social surveys of the area we wanted to build in and proposed three

Construction in full swing.

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Relentless network progress.

possible routes for the sewerage network for the community to consider.

Whilst some of the team were working on the design, others focussed on the community side of the project.

As we were a mixture of engineering and social science students, we found that splitting up into smaller teams was the most effective way to work. Meetings were arranged with Dawasa (the water and sanitation authority) to persuade them to decrease the monthly fixed connection rate for each household, due to the reduced cost of simplified compared to conventional sewerage. Commitment from Dawasa was also obtained to finance and construct a manhole connecting the outfall from the new system to the main sewerage network in Dar. With Dawasa on board, we now needed to get the community to sign up.

Whilst uptake was slow at first, the community, seeing digging start along the main network, began to come forward wanting to connect and asking for picks and spades to help out. The number of households wanting to connect increased fourfold and it was truly moving to see how much can be achieved in a day when we all worked together. With all the extra pairs of hands (some households had over 30 people in them), we raced up the main network, digging and laying it in a matter of days.

Less than eight weeks after we arrived, the research, design and construction for three new latrines, a fully locally constructed manhole and the connection of three households to a working system was complete, in time for a memorable Celebration Day.

Work on the three remaining new latrines and fourteen adaptions to existing ones continued once we left Dar. The Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) – a local NGO, and two of the local students continued the construction, and a month later the work was complete. As far as we know, the community is delighted with the new network. On a return visit in December, a couple of our team found that not only were the community impressed with the quality of the design, but were working with various NGOs and some of the Tanzanian students to start planning construction along another of the proposed route. Our small-scale pilot has the potential to provide a long-term solution for the 87% of Dar using no piped sewerage.

The first and last latrines to be completed.

The CDI Engineering Team.

Mapping with Tanzanian students, overlooked curiously by countless local children.

Ellie Davies

CDI Engineering Student Consultant.

All photos provided by Ellie Davies.

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THE THORN BETWEEN THE ROSES A day in the life of Eliza Prettyman, a female classicist living with 5 male engineers [*].

Its 6:30 and Jack’s radio alarm clock is being snoozed for the third time as I lie awake trying to decide whether to go in and rip the plug out or bury my head under pillows, if only rowers would realise that not only do they have to get up, but the rest of us are dragged along with you. I eventually rouse myself and plod into the kitchen at about 8 for breakfast, I don’t have lectures, or really intend to do anything, until about 11, but if I don’t go down now I might not see anyone for the rest of the day. The number of Nespressos being made makes my head spin slightly while it is declared by all that they will be attending some lectures and then doing labs. Labs, to me, are a mysterious activity which has never been fully explained but I think it involves Lego and computers. The house clears out by 9 and I drift around in my pyjamas waiting to check that no-one rushes back ten minutes later, because they’ve forgotten anything, before I start blasting out Pitbull, Shake Senora, and dancing manically round the house, both elated to have this freedom and depressed that there is no one to join in.

“Labs are a mysterious activity which has never been fully explained but I think it involves Lego and computers.”

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After I’ve been to my faculty and talked to the girls in the common room about our respective love lives, the latest charity shop bargains and compared lecture notes and essay crises, I inevitably arrive back to a cold and empty house. Having already had my dance session it seems like it’s time to work so I settle in by the window, looking out hopeful that someone will come home early and give me an excuse to have a break. Ben arrives first and immediately opens his laptop on the sofa to show me the new hilarious YouTube videos he has discovered, past highlights including Reggae Shark, Taylor Swift parodies and a rap battle between Tesla and Edison. After this ritual, throughout which I laugh politely, I am shown a colourful array of graphs that move, I don’t know what they are, something to do with an aeroplane wing perhaps, but I appreciate the aesthetic effects of rainbow colours and curves dancing across the screen.

The others slowly come home and are all shown the same videos which I normally watch with them once or twice more before giving up and going back to my room. Mid-sentence on my essay I am interrupted with a request for help – everyone else is too busy, they say, and I think, well, actually I may have been messing around all day but I do need to do something some time.

________________________________________ [*] Correction: 4 Engineers and an MET.

The grind of 8 week terms...

I agree nonetheless and find myself acting out scenes of getting up and sitting on a bus measuring the amount of leg room I need using a ice hockey stick for lack of a meter ruler. Everyone should be looking out for an innovation to our public transport system, it’s sure to be finished soon. Dinner time, I think merrily to myself as I leave the pretend bus behind me and wonder into the kitchen to find all the hobs already being used to cook four different types of equally boring and predictable pasta. I sigh and offer to cook stir fry for anyone who isn’t already opening their jar of pesto or Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce but end up cooking for one as ‘vegetables are a waste of eating time and space’. I suppose when the canapés at the Michaelmas networking-gasm are the height of variety and nutrition in an annual diet I shouldn’t really expect them to cook imaginatively for themselves.

Over dinner the debate over future careers is brought up again; the house is divided between those who are sticking with engineering and the ‘financial traitors’.

‘Give me a job that finishes at 6pm and doesn’t require me to do maths!’

I exclaim but that doesn’t support either of their points so I am politely but emphatically ignored and I mope back to my bedroom to carry on with my essay.

I get a couple of sentences in before one of the boys brandishing two, pale blue shirts enters asking which one will look best for his interview – ‘I want to look reliable, hard-working and clever but also personable and interesting and fun’ – Looking at his face I’m not sure the shirt will make any difference but I pick one out and he goes to iron it on the kitchen table because we never got round to purchasing an ironing board and they don’t give those away at careers fairs or networking events. An appeal to OC&C, Newton and others: please rectify this – we don’t need another

...just keep calm and think of May Week.

brightly coloured rubber duck or plastic piggy bank, give them something useful!

“We had a disagreement over whether happiness should be a factor in policy as it can’t reasonably be measured.”

Suddenly I hear thumping footsteps down the stairs and a group burst into my room throwing a miniature rugby ball with a company’s logo on the side to each other. I’m not sure if I’m being included in the fun or just purposefully %&!ed off but, (and boys please take note), either way it is not appreciated. There is a lull in the game of catch and as they are all already gathered in my room I take the opportunity to try and have a conversation about classics, current affairs or politics. The last time this happened, however, we had a disagreement over whether happiness should be a factor in policy as it can’t reasonably be measured so shouldn’t really be taken into account over the important concerns like efficiency, cost and quality. I ask innocently before they leave if anyone is free to help me with a couple of things; I need a heavy box putting on top of my wardrobe and my bike chain has fallen off and gotten jammed behind the gear cog thing. I could do these things myself I’m sure but I don’t really want to. When it is suggested that I should do it myself, however, I indignantly respond that ‘if there is one thing I shouldn’t have to do in this house it’s carry and fix things!’ ‘That’s two things,’ I’m told, but, you know what, that really isn’t the point, although, I wouldn’t change them for the world.

Eliza Prettyman

Classics Undergraduate Student, University of Cambridge

All photos provided by Eliza Prettyman.

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