ASSUMPTIO (Automotive Sustainability Solutions Underpinned by Mobility and Propulsion for Teaching Initiatives and Objectives)

Project Leader: Dr Nicholas Evans, Mechanical Engineering

This project, which was awarded funding by the Teaching Development Fund (TDF) Seed, aims to increase the informed diversity and focus of lab activities and other activities that are imminently appropriate to the industry to increase the breadth as well as depth of understanding for the students. The development of these areas will offer more opportunities for students to investigate different energy storage and propulsion systems through individual and group projects that will reinforce the focus of the new Automotive MSc course towards system level thinking. Identifying the aforementioned areas of development with other institutions could also lead to a high quality engagement and activity that could be fulfilled through the IAAPS site in Bristol.

The Propulsion Sectors of the Automotive and Mobility Industries are changing at an increasingly rapid rate. As propulsion systems shift towards less traditional solutions in the pursuit of true sustainability through technologies such as Solid-State Batteries, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Combustion Engines, this has led to increased diversity of deployed technologies within a vehicle. This has inherently led to greater overall system complexity that must be harmonised for their effective interoperation as one technology can no longer be assumed to be superior on its own.

These technologies have now begun to move beyond emerging technologies into mass production and it is vital that future engineering and science graduates in the automotive & mobility sectors, have an understanding and an appreciation for these technologies to adequately support the growing diversity.