Reception for the start of undergraduate projects
On Tuesday 27th of January a reception was held to mark the launch of the undergraduate final year projects. Guest speakers at the event were Charles Curry, FIET, Managing Director of Chronos Technologies and Roger Whorrod, Entrepreneur in Engineering. In his address, Chares Curry said “I started my company, Chronos, about 20 years ago. We deal with big clients supplying timing for telecommunication networks where nanosecond accuracy is required, for which we need atomic clocks. Chronos looks for people who can work together in a team and the ability to get the job done and your project is the first step.” Roger Whorrod added, “If you came to me I would interview you about your project and look for a demonstration of your engineering flair. You should aim to convey to a prospective employer that you have the ability to go out there and do something. Most business days are involved in sorting out problems – organisational and technical. In your projects you will be doing exactly this.”
Individual and group project
work is a key strength of all degrees offered by the department. The Group Design and Business
Project teaches important technical, design, team-working, communications, and financial and
marketing skills. The Individual Project allows students to concentrate on an advanced piece of
work and often involves working with one of the Department’s internationally-leading research
groups. Individual Projects that are running this year include: digital steering wheel for a
Formula Student racing car; music accompaniment using a neural net; fibre optical communications
for civil aircraft; noise analysis in radar systems; sprites and intense lightning discharges;
microprocessor controlled unicycle using fuzzy logic; recording GPS Signals in the Antarctic;
energy-storage interface power-converter; time-lapse image analysis; autonomous path finding robot;
inertial navigation system for mini-submarine; off-shore wind farm impact on main-line grid
transient overvoltages; ground penetrating radar; sky-wave propagation at 100kHz.
