The Cambridge Engineer: Michaelmas 2013

The

Cambridge

Engineer A 2013 Student Publication

MICHAELMAS EDITION 1

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS

MAIN SPONSORS

BAE Systems Detica Editorial Helen Sheehan, Joanna Chan magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Feature Gan Zi Kang Si Min Lee Julian Willis Tristan Downing Jieying Luo Greg Felter

Cover Photo and Back Photo Overlooking Cambridge, Levin Tan

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) 2013

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CONTENTS 4

EDITORIAL

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INTO THE BLUE

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ROLLING GRANT: ECUADOR

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ADVENTURES IN JAPAN

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MI CASA ES TU CASA: ABOUT ECOHOUSE

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INTO THE WIDE WORLD

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ROLLING GRANT: UGANDA

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One of the LEGO Mindstorm robots in action, MathWorks

Welcome to the Cambridge Engineer!

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ith the Michaelmas edition, we are welcoming the arrival of our new magazine editor, Helen!

The world of Engineering has been busy these past months, but don’t worry we have collected together the most interesting of these daring tales to share with you. Once you have put this magazine down, after reading it cover to cover, of course, you will have knowledge which will astound fellow Engineers and other students alike. We have thrills in Japan, deep sea adventures with the mysterious Barracuda, not to mention many inspiring tales of how Engineering is helping to improve people’s lives throughtout the world.

Helen Sheehan

As always, CUES has loads coming up to look forward to, including the Annual Dinner in Lent Term, which will hopefully be as much of a success as the Christmas Dinner. The lunchtime presentations have had great turnout, with more companies lined up to give great talks, along with great free lunches of course.

It has been so much fun hearing all these enthralling tales and we hope you enjoy them too. Remember we’re always looking for more articles from all aspects of Engineering from tiny robots to the biggest space stations, so if you ever have anything you want to share with the Engineering comunity then this is the place to share it. Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Helen and Joanna

Joanna Chan

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survival instinctsin a

I found my

submerged helicopter At BP, anyone who works offshore takes part in survival training. It’s intense, but when you realise you can handle being trapped underwater in a helicopter simulator it’s a real confidence boost.

Benjamin Demicol, process engineer, SUNBURY

What will you discover?

At BP, we offer the most exciting and challenging global opportunities for high performing graduates in engineering, science, business and trading.

bp.com/ukgraduates/benjamin facebook.com/bpcareers

Into The

Blue CAMBRIDGE AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE have had an incredible year. Here GAN ZI KANG reveals the secrets of Barracuda...

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t is difficult to make any sort of machine work under 10 metres of saltwater. Building an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle to not only survive, but operate unassisted – completing useful tasks without external control – is even harder. Read on to find out more about the team that is building robot submarines for science and exploration.

Barracuda, the fourth and latest AUV

Background The Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle team (CAUV) develops, designs and manufactures general-purpose Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for science and exploration. Starting out as a project run by the design club of the Cambridge University Engineering Department, it has evolved into a university-wide society. The team comprises members from a range of disciplines – including Computer Science, Engineering, Natural Sciences and Mathematics

– and works on all aspects of out over large distances, without the mechanical, electronic and requiring someone to constantly software design of the AUVs. provide commands.

The long-term goal of the society is to develop an AUV to aid in academic research underneath Arctic ice sheets. The aim is to develop a vehicle that can be deployed through a standard bore hole – making it simpler and cheaper than deploying a large vehicle beneath the ice. The vehicle is designed to be fully autonomous.

This allows missions to be carried 6

To reach this goal, the team currently participates in the Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe (SAUC-E).

This is an annual competition where teams from across Europe develop AUVs and vie to complete an underwater obstacle course involving practical tasks such as pipe following and surveying of underwater structures.

The Competition SAUC-E has been held at the NATO Underwater Research Centre in La Spezia, Italy, for the past four years.

As the competition takes place at a harbour, teams have to contend with real life sea conditions, including limited visibility, saltwater and disturbances. The main tasks this year involved passing through a gate marked by two buoys, inspecting an underwater structure with an imaging sensor (while maintaining a stand-off distance), finding an anomaly along a wall, finding a black box and building a map of the arena. The competition also introduced the new idea of collaboration – one of the tasks involved communicating with a second AUV.

Barracuda, in the competition arena

SAUC-E 2013 has been a huge success for CAUV. For the first time in the society’s history, the team claimed first place. In addition, we were also awarded the competition’s “innovation award”, rewarding our use of mobile ARM processors and advanced software algorithms for acoustic localisation of an underwater pinger. Despite the success, we were unable to

The modular design of Barracuda allows individual sections to be changed, allowing vehicle upgrades without a complete redesign

complete all of the tasks in the competition. In SAUC-E 2014, CAUV will be looking to build on this year’s performance and achieve even better results.

students took up summer placements provided by ARM and Autonomy to work on the design.

With the competition deadline approaching, Barracuda was shipped in parts. Due to the care The Vehicle and attention the team had taken, along with the significant use of Four vehicles have been built so computer aided design, the AUV far in the history of the society had almost no integration issues, – Big Bertha, Blackghost, Red and was ready to perform by the Herring and Barracuda, and fifth day of the competition. many lessons have been learnt, and improvements made, on each vehicle.

The design of Barracuda marked a return to CAUV’s earlier design criteria: a sleek, cylindrical, highly integrated AUV equipped with a variety of sensors and computing platforms. Past experience had shown that designing a vehicle within a single year resulted in insufficient time for all elements of the vehicle to reach a standard the team would like. Therefore, Barracuda was designed and manufactured over a two-year cycle. Starting at the end of 2010, the vehicle was completed just in time for SAUC-E 2012.

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The ocean is a tough, challenging environment

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Barracuda has a highly integrated modular design, comprising six body modules with two side battery modules. Recognising the importance of an efficient interface between the autonomous algorithms and the operators developing and testing them, CAUV has developed a graphical The design and manufacture user interface (GUI), which nonof Barracuda was a significant intrusively connects to other undertaking for CAUV. Four components of the software over the distributed messaging system.

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This allows easy configuration of the current mission, parameters of algorithms and the image processing system. All parameters can be graphed, to easily monitor important variables during testing.

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Work is done in the first week of vacation after each term – known to us as “Blitz Week”

The Team

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As a completely student-run society, the team mainly comprises undergraduates, with the help of a few graduates. The students come from different years and departments, with the majority from Engineering and Computer

Science. The team tends to be – a system that provides estimates small, consisting of about 15 active of the vehicle’s current position members each year. and orientation.

As CAUV works on all aspects of AUV development, there are three sub-teams: electical, mechanical and software. This helps organise the team and divide the workload, but the small team size allows much flexibility, with members able to work across sub-teams on multiple aspects of the vehicles.

Most of the work is done in the first week of vacation after each term – known to us as “Blitz Week”. Due to the lack of other water bodies, most water testing is done in the River Cam. CAUV is a good source of ideas for interesting 4th Year Engineering projects. Past projects members have worked on include algorithms for acoustic localisation of an underwater pinger, design of lightweight and efficient rimdriven thrusters, and Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM)

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Get in contact with the team to find out more about us or what sponsorship opportunities we offer: info@cambridgeauv.co.uk getinvolved@cambridgeauv.co.uk The Cambridge AUV team would like to thank our sponsors – Schlumberger, ARM Holdings, Tritech International, Cambrand, Cambridge Circuit, VPS.net, Student-led Projects and Industry Partnership (SPIP) (supported by Boeing, BP, Jaguar Land Rover and National Instruments), Cambridge Precision, Autonomy, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., Altium Limited, SBG Systems, Seco, Fischer Connectors, Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), DIAB and SEACON – for their support. Without them, the work of the team would not be possible.

The team at SAUC-E 2013, pictured with Barracuda

Rolling Grant: Ecuador SI MIN LEE, a fourth year Engineer at Fitz, received a CUES Rolling Grant to

carry out work with a team from the EcoHouse Initiative, in Quito, Ecuador. Here she tells us about it...

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y trip with the EcoHouse Initiative to Ecuador was subsidised by a CUES Rolling Grant. The EcoHouse Initiative is a multidisciplinary program that aims to facilitate sustainable low cost housing in the developing world. The society collaborates with Un Techo para mi Pais (‘A Roof for my Country’), an organization that have built more than 80,000 transitional houses.

Meeting the locals

Roof work

I was based in Quito, Ecuador for 5 weeks in summer. As part of the permanent design team, I researched and built a transitional prototype for low cost social housing in Latin America. I also designed a prototype for the permanent design, which will be built in Quito. With information and experience gained, the team hopes to build a full-scale 9

permanent housing pilot project in summer 2014.

As I will be working with the Building and Construction Authority in Singapore after graduation, this placement has been especially invaluable to my future career. As a young engineer, this experience provided me with insights into the construction

process and gave me networking opportunities with the local construction firms in Ecuador. I have also learnt to lead and manage a large scale development project.

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I was also able to apply my knowledge from the past three years of university

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Moreover, this placement has equipped me with relevant skills and knowledge for my studies in Energy and the Environment next academic year. I was also able to apply my knowledge from the past three years of university studies to it. Besides the benefits to my academic progress, I have developed personal skills through working with a big team on a small scale development project. I have acquired the skill of managing deadlines and delegating work to my teammates. Furthermore, I have learnt to respect others for their views and expertise.

The practical side of Engineering

All in all, I am grateful to the Engineering Society for subsidizing my trip to Quito. It has been an enlightening experience.

Image Credits: EcoHouse Ecuador Placement Team 2013

Many EcoHouse members worked on the project in Ecuador

Si Min Lee and Greg Felter (Rolling Grant: Uganda) were recipients of CUES Rolling Grants.

Rolling Grants are available for individual students, either undergraduates or MPhil students at the University of Cambridge, who are members of CUES. The next applications open on the 23rd January 2014 and close on the 13th June 2014.

More information on both Rolling and Major Grants can be found on the CUES website, at http://cues.soc.srcf.net/index.php?page=grants 10

ADVENTURES IN

JAPAN

JULIAN WILLIS, a fourth year NatSci, discovered the

wonders of Engineering (and Japan) during the summer. Here he recounts his epiphany...

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aking advantage of a research exchange in existence between Cambridge’s Chemistry Department and the Graduate School of Chemical Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology (more commonly known as either Tokyo Tech, Titech or Tokodai), this summer I spent 9 weeks in Japan for a lab internship. Part already in existence and part selforganised, formally I was there as a SERP (Summer Exchange Research Programme) student, one of six, but among all the different internship programmes going on we all just thought of ourselves collectively as international exchange students. There were at least 30 of us, from all around the world.

The University Professors and lab students I worked with were extremely welcoming and accommodating, giving me a

fantastic place to carry out my experiments. I enjoyed spending time in the lab learning new experimental techniques and conducting my own research in a cutting-edge area of science relatively new to me. Outside the lab, complementing my research with Japanese language classes proved incredibly useful to help with living abroad in Japan and understanding the culture more fully; extra lectures on Modern

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Japan and Japanese Technology were really insightful and a pleasure to attend. A trip to Sony HQ and the governmentfunded science research institute RIKEN were also awesome.

While the largest aspect of our time involved research, it certainly wasn’t the only thing we got up to. Off campus, the chance to explore Tokyo along with the other international students, as

well as travelling further afield, is something I will never forget.

Fortunately for me, summer time turned out to be festival season. The period I was there was inundated with festivals and fireworks. The whole time. Be it drumming, lantern or dancing festivals, I took every chance I could to root out Japanese culture.

As a gaijin (foreigner) I think the locals were certainly bemused to see us get stuck in with traditional Japanese dancing… And then the fireworks! Japanese firework displays are simply incomparable to their English counterparts, with up to 27,000 fireworks fired at each event, lasting well over an hour. Needless to say I went to almost every one I could.

Certainly every weekend and usually most evenings had something exciting lined up – I’m not the one to let such an opportunity pass itself up. I’d be lying if I said my favourite pastime in Japan wasn’t karaoke.

Hitting my record of singing with friends for 9 ½ hours straight was definitely an achievement. That

said, the highlight of my time in Japan was definitely the travelling I did further afield: at Kyoto, Kamakura, Hakone and Nikko, exploring everything from temples and shrines to Japanese gardens, castles, palaces and parks. All incredibly beautiful; all amazing to see. Trips to both the Imperial Palace and Pokémon Center on the same day rounded off my discovery of the contrast that is Japan.

I can definitely say I have experienced Japan. I was not a tourist, I lived there. Learning some of the language really helped me enter further into the Japanese culture, and explore Japanese culture I did. What a rewarding experience it is to learn such different ways of doing things – different customs, lifestyles and ways of living. I return home a more interesting person, with a strong love and appreciation for another country and of course a load of interesting stories to tell.

Without a doubt my experience at Tokyo Tech as a SERP student has been the best time of my life. I am extremely grateful to

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Tokyo Tech for the opportunity of a lifetime; I wish I could repeat my stay a hundred times over.

Shortly after my return the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were announced…

I’m definitely going back.

Image Credits: Julian Willis

Mi Casa es Tu Casa: About Ecohouse TRISTAN DOWNING talks about

the EcoHouse Initiative and his amazing experiences in Ecuador and Brazil with the EcoHouse team.

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ne would be hard-pressed to find a student society with the scope of EcoHouse. It’s not simply a photogenic society that sends people to poor countries for photos with poor children. It’s not just CV points. It’s a group of people who care about their work, who put effort in because they hope that this work can improve lives; a good group of people.

I wasn’t sure what I was getting in to, when I joined a year ago. But I never could have imagined it would be as good as this. The society has been a perfect way to apply my education, meet new people, and ultimately better the living conditions of South America’s poorest.

Model of the Permanent House

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Prototype on Jesus College grounds 2013

To the sound of locals playing football behind us, we set about the work with the full complement of 7 remaining EcoHouse engineers

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Construction of Mezzanine prototype in Quito

But that’s not all. From transitional housing to give the poorest a step in the right direction, to providing offline learning to poor adults and children alike, EcoHouse proves to be a multidisciplinary organisation. Pulling together engineers, architects, geographers, and even the occasional English student, EcoHouse takes input from anyone who wants to help.

It’s fun too. The people I’ve met, the places I’ve been, the things I’ve learned from EcoHouse have all been priceless. While the 5 weeks I spent in Ecuador were hard work, they were equally rewarding. Our team, consisting of 12 people, was there for a total of 8 weeks, and we were very productive.

“To the sound of locals playing football behind us, we set about the work with the full complement of 7 remaining EcoHouse engineers.

The sun was once again scorching as we hit the equinox with the equator passing directly below the centre of the sun. We finished around 5 with just the roof and the door to attach!”

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The speedometer consistently read 0 km/h. I’m convinced we were going faster than that

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Transitional Prototype construction in Quito

“The trip there was (as many trips are here in Ecuador) interesting.

After walking and bussing, we managed to cram 10 of us into a pickup truck. 3 more hopped in part way along the trip. The driver’s road knowledge must have been limited to central Quito, as our route to the community was far from as the crow flies.

To say the truck’s suspension and clutch were struggling would be an understatement.

The speedometer consistently read 0 km/h. I’m convinced we were going faster than that.”

I’m looking forward to another year of EcoHouse, to say the least.

On the summit of Cotopaxi volcano, 5,897m

Tristan Downing is the Training Team Director of EcoHouse Initiaive.

See the Ecuador blog for more: http://www.ecohouseinitiative.org/ecuador If you’re interested in joining, just message the EcoHouse team at info@ecohouseinitiative.org !

Construction of Mezzanine prototype in Sao Paulo, Brasil

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Into the Wide World JIEYING LUO, a second year Engineer, talks to Joanna Chan about her Year In Industry...

How was the interview process?

There was a group activity followed by an individual interview. The group activity was to run a medicine factory and meet the deadlines, so they can assess you on team-work. There were also some attitude tests on numerical, verbal and mechanical skills. The interview wasn’t too difficult as I was only an A-level graduate Where was your placement at?

My placement was at Delphi Diesel Systems, Stonehouse, Gloustershire and I worked there for a year. It was a big company which meant that I wasn’t the only gap year student there.

What field did you work in?

I was at first assigned to the manufacturing department.

However, after a week there I wanted to do something more relevant to my course so I asked to change to

design the device and I learnt manufacturing skills to turn my plans into an actual device.

the electrical/systems team. My position was systems engineer.

What did you do?

I was tasked with expanding the reference injector storage area; changing the methodology for archiving calibration data and creating a device to prepare reference injectors for calibration.

I created a new storage area with increased capacity and acquired new colour coded storage boxes for reference injectors to reduce the risks of confusion with production injectors. I also arranged for all reference injectors to be individually and permanently laser marked with data-matrices (2D barcodes). In addition I created a bespoke, portable device that can identify any injector by scanning its data-matrix and automatically write the reference information onto a RFID tag within 3 seconds.

I had to teach myself CAD to 17

How has this helped the company?

My work has resulted in a more system that is much quicker to use and much more reliable as many opportunities for human errors have been removed.

A new secure storage area has been installed with sufficient capacity of 5 years; previously the lack of storage space was at crisis point.

The vital reference information is now permanently stored on the

faulty product. My device has helped to reduce this risk. It is transferable and can be used in various departments.

Overall, this system has ensured every injector Delphi produces meets the stringent emissions requirements.

injectors instead of being stored on detachable electronic tags that can easily be lost. When preparing a reference injector for calibration my device reduces the time of tag writing by 90% and also reduces the possibility for human errors.

Miscalibration can result in a potential contractual fine of about ÂŁ260,000 as well as additional costs associated with replacing the

What did you find difficult?

I found it hard to live in a shared house in a unfamiliar city without having my family close to me – but this was good practice for university.

Any memorable moments?

Winning 2012 National Contribution to Business Award!

What did you learn? What are you proud of achieving?

I learnt the importance of good What was a typical time-management and was day like? impressed with how I was able to My work included balance my workload to ensure p r o g r a m m i n g , that I met all deadlines. The best data-sorting and thing was that I was able to develop SolidWork drawing. various engineering skills that I may A typical day not be able to get from university. involved working on setting up a function What advice would you give to so that the relevant engineers students looking for placements? could access the data from the test Try working in various different machine more efficiently. During departments or with different teams my placement , on top of my main . You can learn a lot of different project I had number of daily tasks. things and you will have a more I also had regular meetings with informed choice when deciding the engineers within the company on your career path. My placement to ensure that my project was encouraged me to pursue my running to schedule. There was dreams further and strive to become plenty to do so I always had enough a successful chartered engineer. tasks for the rest of the week.

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Rolling Grant:

Uganda GREG FELTER, from Hughes Hall, was a recipient of a CUES Rolling Grant,

which he used to see and research the problems of supplying water in Uganda, one of the world’s poorest countries. He details his trip below...

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he receipt of a generous grant from the Cambridge University Engineering Society helped to offset a portion of the expenses incurred during a trip to Kampala, Uganda. This trip was undertaken to provide insight into the social sustainability issues of achieving universal water access for the citizens of Kampala. The trip added a dimension to my dissertation, written to satisfy one of the requirements of the MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development program, which would have been unattainable without travelling to Uganda.

My dissertation, entitled “Water Supply Challenges as a Result of Urbanization”, focused on the slew of issues facing Uganda’s National Water and Sewerage Corporation in achieving universal water access, with an emphasis on water supplies for the urban poor in informal settlements.

Issues such as educational outreach, increasing pollution of source water, and inadequate treatment capacity are just a few

examples of the issues facing the Government of Uganda in their quest for universal water access.

The funding provided by the Cambridge University Engineering Society helped to offset the cost of activities in Uganda. Primarily, the money was used to fund accommodation and transportation within Kampala thus enabling practical aspects of the trip.

Specific activities undertaken were the interviews of industry experts and urban slum residents.

Over fifty slum residents were interviewed with the assistance of local contacts in Kampala, illuminating issues which could not have been established through the review of academic literature alone. Moreover, many industry experts were interviewed including the former director of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, the director of WaterAid Uganda, and private sector employees familiar with the issue of water and sanitation services in urban slums and informal settlements.

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Interviewing locals Photograph: Larna Pantrey-Mayer

Travelling to Kampala provided me with the experience of how working in developing countries differs from more developed countries.

This experience allowed me to see what a career in international development may

entail and how it differs from the traditional engineering firms with which I have previously worked; most notably, how doing business in Africa is much different than the west and the fluid nature of how plans and activities can change drastically throughout the day.

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Travelling to Uganda was an eye-opening experience

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On a more personal level, it allowed me to view first-hand the living conditions of the world’s poorest citizens and better understand the vast amounts of work which remains to be done. Travelling to Uganda was an eye-opening experience which illustrated the daunting task of providing

universal water and sanitation services and the significant amount of work which remains due to numerous hurdles still facing developing countries. From a professional standpoint, I was able to make contacts with different non-Governmental organizations, Governmental agencies and private entities, which all play a role in performing water and sanitation projects in developing countries.

Going to Kampala provided me with a much more complex and inclusive dissertation for my MPhil program. Personally, being in Kampala with only a handful of second-hand contacts challenged me to work to my greatest potential and reach to make connections with useful people in industry. Despite contamination, spring water usage Pushing myself out of my comfort is still commonplace zone allowed me to discover what a career in international development to grow academically, personally might involve, before pursuing and professionally and for this such a career. The generous grant opportunity I am extremely grateful. from the Cambridge University Engineering Society allowed me

Greg interviewed residents to find out about the water supply situation Photograph: Larna Pantrey-Mayer

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CONTACT US President Abhimanyu Singh president@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk Vice-President Madi Aghinitei vice-president@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk Treasurer Stephen Hall treasurer@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Presentations Officer Mihir Bhushan presentations@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Secretary Rahul Pattani secretary@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Social Secretaries Will Harborne Edgar Dakin socials@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Webmaster Shaun Lim webmaster@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Events Officers Kai Yu Tan Will Reid events@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk Publicity Officers Robyn Loubser Sana Waheed publicity@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk Magazine Editors Helen Sheehan Joanna Chan magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk

Cambridge Tower, Levin Tan 21

WANT TO CONTRIBUTE? If you have any interesting Engineering-related experiences to tell, research to write about, photos or images to share, we’d love to include them!

Email them to magazine@cuengineeringsociety.org.uk or to ask us for more information.

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