All posts by b6009997

Meet the Engineers

Interviews, , , , ,

Recently we hosted the Engineering Education Scheme at Newcastle. Year 12 students from the local area worked with industry to come up with solutions to real life engineering problems. We spoke to some of the engineers who helped on these projects to see what it’s like to be an engineer.

BAE Systems

img_4241

Where and what did you study at university?

Naomi studied a Masters in Chemistry at Heriot Watt University.

Martin studied Aerospace Engineering at Bath University.

Why did you choose to study engineering? 

Martin enjoyed studying Maths, Further Maths and Physics at A-Level, so decided to do engineering as it involves them all.

What do you do at your job?

Naomi is a product safety engineer. She looks at all the different types of engineering in submarines such as ventilation and the electricity and makes sure that they all mix well. She is responsible for putting processes in place to make sure that if something happens it doesn’t escalate.

Martin is a systems Engineer and has to make sure things work and integrate engineering systems.

What is the best thing you have done as an engineer?

Naomi’s favorite thing was working on Conning tower flooding (where the doors of the submarine are). If all the hatches are opened at the top of the submarine, when its at the surface it could flood. She looked at how much water a submarine could take on using models on a computer, it was really successful as it meant they stopped a big redesign of submarines.

Martin enjoys providing support for boats that are currently out on the sea. The project gave him a chance to collaborate with lots of different departments and they solved a big problem of one boat’s secondary motor  which kept turning itself on and off by mistake.

Do you have any advice for students thinking about studying engineering?

Their advice is to have confidence in what you do and pick something you enjoy.

Pearson Engineering

img_4244

Rosie is a graduate engineer for Pearson Engineering, who’s job involves looking at mine clearance vehicles, some of which can defuse bombs by lifting them in the air.

Where/what did you study at university?

Undergraduate in Chemistry and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University.

Why did you choose to study engineering?

Rosie initially became a primary school teacher after her undergraduate degree in chemistry but missed being challenged intellectually so decided to become an engineer.

What is the best thing you have done as an engineer?

Rosie has really enjoyed working with the students at EES, as she likes working with young people.

GE Oil and Gas

img_4246

Joshua and Charlie are both in their second year of studying Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University. They work as interns at GE Oil and Gas alongside their studies.

Why did you choose to study engineering?types-of-engineering

Joshua always liked physics and did some work experience in engineering when he was at school that he really enjoyed. He decided to go to university rather than be an apprentice as you get more hands on experience.

Charlie enjoyed studying maths and physics at school and wanted to apply it in a practical way.

What do you do at your job?

Both of them are interns but have the opportunities to do lots of different jobs.

Joshua is currently looking at the clamps, fixtures and fittings for pipes. This is really important for transporting things such as gas and oil. He carries out analysis and design using computer programmes and lots of maths.

Charlie is also working on pipes. Lots of what she does is communicating with customers to design pipes and talk about things such as price too, showing there is lots more to engineering than just being an engineer.

What is the best thing you have done as an engineer?

Joshua has really enjoyed doing an internship as its allowed him to link the real world with what he is doing at university.

Charlie had been working as a STEM ambassador to encourage girls into engineering. She wants everyone to know that engineering is much more than just fixing things and anyone can be an engineer.

Do you have any advice for students thinking about studying engineering?

Joshua’s advice is try and do some work experience, but be prepared to work hard.

Charlie says that you shouldn’t be put off by what you think engineering is, try and find out more about it as it spans many areas.

 

 

#TryThisTuesday: Valentine’s Day Optical Illusion

Try This Tuesday, , , , , , , , , ,

Happy Valentine’s Day! Love can confuse your brain, and so does this week’s Try This Tuesday.

You don’t need any equipment to try this experiment at home – you just need to stare at your screen, or more specifically the + in the middle of the picture below. You can blink but don’t look away.

heart-optical-illusion

If you stare long enough the pink dots should disappear!

The Science

It looks like the pink dots have disappeared due to a visual phenomenon called Troxler’s fading or Troxler’s effect. if you fix your eyes on a certain point, then anything in your peripheral vision will fade away and disappear after about 20 seconds. In this experiment our sight was focused on the + in the middle of the screen and the the pink dots in your periphery slowly fade and finally disappear. It works especially well in this experiment at there is such low contrast between the light pink dots and the grey background.

This is a type of optical illusion. If you want to see another, have a look at our spinning disk Try This Tuesday.

 

Engineering Education Scheme

Articles, , , , , , , , , , ,

This week we’ve been helping out with the Engineering Education Scheme. Lots of year 12 students from the local area have been working with industry to come up with a project based on real scientific, engineering and technological problems. The students have come in and had a chance to work in the engineering laboratories and workshops that university students and researchers would use. After lots of problem solving and hard work, they presented what they had done so far. These are just a selection of some of the projects.

Mechanical Engineering – Lifting

This group was working on creating a lifting mechanism for a heavy item/box. The current method of lifting isn’t very good as its centre of gravity is in the middle so it wobbles when they lift it. They created a design with a cradle for the box which spreads out the centre of gravity. It is more stable and quicker to lift, saving the company time. The use of shackles mean the box can attached by hand, no tools are needed, again saving time.

img_4247

Mechanical Engineering – Shield

A mechanical engineering group created an extendable shield. This is important for keeping people safe in war. In general all shields appeared to be really big or small, but there were none that could adapt to the situation. Use of cogs allowed the shield to be extended or retracted, solving the problem.

img_4243

Electrical and Civil Engineering – Solar Power

The brief from WSP Global was to provide renewable energy through use of solar panels to the 350 people who work in the office. The students made a to scale model of the office based on blueprints and used a fixed angle light (as the sun) to look at the shading on the roof of the building. They also ran computer simulations to look at which areas would capture the most sun.

img_4242

Civil Engineering – Leisure Centre

The brief was to design a leisure centre on land near to St James Football Park. There were lots of problems to be overcome in the design. The centre was to be built on top of an old mine shaft, which might mean the building would fall into the ground. They calculated that it was too expensive to fill the land underneath with concrete, so calculations had to be made for how heavy each part of the leisure centre would be.

img_4249

Marine Engineering – Underwater vehicles

This marine engineering group was helped by engineers from BAE systems. They looked at making an underwater unmanned vehicle. They had to do some problem solving with getting the submarine to sink, working out the exact amount of weight required to make it neutrally buoyant. They used electromagnets to power the vehicle.

img_4240

Marine Engineering – Underwater pipes

This group worked with GE oil and gas looking at using flexible pipes underneath the seabed. They compared two different materials; thermoplastic and thermoset.  They did lots of tests, looking at things such as compression (squashing) and torsion (twisting) to find out its properties. They also looked at factors such as the price. Testing found that it was really important that there were no faults in the thermoplastic as it broke a lot easier. Underwater pipes are really important for transporting things like oil and gas.

img_4245

 

Dippy the Diplodocus

Articles, , , , , , , ,

Dippy is a famous diplodocus skeleton cast that has been on display in the London Natural History Museum since 1905. Today it was disassembled as Dippy is going on tour throughout the UK! Dippy is visiting eight places across the UK between February 2018 and October 2020. We are very excited as Dippy is coming to the Great North Museum between May and October 2019.

dippy

History of Dippy

Dippy’s history begins when a skeleton was discovered in Wyoming, USA in 1898. It was a new type of diplodocus and at the time it was described as ‘the most colossal animal on earth”. Andrew Carnegie acquired the bones for the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburg, USA, hence the new species was named Diplodocus carnegii  after him. King Edward VII saw a sketch of the diplodocus and mentioned how he would like a similar specimen for the Natural History Museum in London. Andrew Carnegie then made a cast of his specimen and Dippy was created.

Dippy was disassembled during World War II to protect it from bomb damage. It made the move to Hintze Hall (the main entrance hall of the museum) in 1979. Dippy was taken down today, as it is going on a two year tour of the UK.

The unveiling of Dippy in 1905
The unveiling of Dippy in 1905

Diplodocus Facts

  • They were up to 27m in length
  • They weighed about 10,800 kg (as much as a large truck).
  • Lived at the end of the Jurassic period (154-150 million years ago)
  • Its heavy tail was used to scare off predators.
  • They were vegetarian.
  • Diplodocuses lived in North America.
  • Its name means double beam, due to the unusual double row of bones on the underneath of the tail.
  • It was a slow moving dinosaur, moving at 5-9.3 mph.

#TryThisTuesday Mini Fire Extinguisher

Try This Tuesday, , , , , , , ,

You will need: large tall glass, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), vinegar, a candle and some matches

image11. Add 4 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda to the glass

2. Pour in roughly 150ml of vinegar, the mixture will fizz.

3. Light the candle.

4. Once the mixture has stopped fizzing, pick up the glass. Without pouring out the vinegar, gently tip the glass from a few centimeters above the candle. Imagine that there is an invisible liquid inside above the mixture. The candle will go out!

The Science

You have produced a gas, carbon dioxide, by mixing the bicarbonate of soda with vinegar (also known as acetic acid). Bicarbonate of soda contains carbon dioxide, but it is attached to other molecules. When you mix it with vinegar the bicarbonate breaks down and releases carbon dioxide as a gas.

The following reaction takes place:

bicarbonate of soda + vinegar → sodium acetate + water + carbon dioxide

NaHCO3 + HC2H3O2 → NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2

Carbon dioxide is heavier than air so stays in the glass until you tip it over the candle. When you pour carbon dioxide on a candle it stops the flow of oxygen which is needed for a flame to burn, and the candle is extinguished.

Real fire extinguishers also use carbon dioxide to put out fires, it is compressed (squashed) into cylinders and sprayed at fires.

Our top STEM jokes!

Listicles, , , , , , , ,

It’s nearly Christmas and that means it’s time for awful Christmas cracker jokes. Hopefully our favourite STEM jokes will be a bit more funny! Scientific explanations are underneath each one.

joke7

Neutrons make up the middle (nucleus) of atoms and don’t have any electric charge, unlike protons (positively charged) and electrons (negatively charged).

joke5

Light is made up of small particles, these are called photons. Therefore, a photon is travelling light.

joke6

The chemical symbol for oxygen is O and potassium is K.

joke4

H2O is water, but H202 is hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide would cause chemical burns and choking if it was drunk.

joke3

Atoms are very small and make up everything, including us.

joke9

Schrodinger’s Cat is a thought experiment in physics, where a cat is kept in a box with a radioactive source and poison. Until the box is opened, the cat can be assumed to be both dead and alive.

joke1

Helium is a noble gas, this means it is doesn’t react with other elements so is inert.

joke10

Extrapolation is when you estimate what the result may be beyond what you measured. The joke is that some people can’t extrapolate from data so can’t work out the end of the joke

joke2

Binary is a way of using two different symbols, 0 and 1, to represent any number, this is often used to create code for computers. 10 in binary is the same as writing 2. Therefore, there are two types of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t.

joke12

If an atom loses an electron (a negatively charged particle) it will become positively charged.

joke11

If time travel is ever invented, it doesn’t matter when as you can just travel back in time with the time machine.

jokes8

Anti gravity is a place or object that is free from the force of gravity, so would float around.                       joke13

This is a play on words, as the atmosphere in a restaurant is how you feel when you are there, but in science terms the atmosphere is a mixture of gases that surrounds the Earth. The moon has a much thinner atmosphere than the Earth and was originally thought not to have one.

 

#TryThisTuesday: Pop or not?

Try This Tuesday, , , , , , , , , , ,

Today we will be experimenting to see what happens when you put a lighter or a flame underneath a balloon filled with two different states of matter: air and water.

popornot

You will need two balloons, some water and a lighter

  1. Blow up one of the balloons with air and tie it up.
  2. Fill the other balloon with a little bit of water, blow it up the rest of the way and tie it up.
  3. Hold the lighter under the balloon with the air in it and see what happens. Be careful as it should pop!

    Balloon with air in
  4. Light the lighter under the balloon with some water in it, be careful to hold the lighter under the part of the balloon where the water is. The balloon won’t pop!

    Balloon with water in

The Science

This happens because water can absorb heat a lot easier than air and is a better conductor of heat. Water keeps the heat away from the balloon. This is called its ‘heat capacity’ and is why water is often used to cool things down in places such as power plants. The air is not very good at absorbing the heat, so the balloon heats up and pops!

 

Marine Projects Society

Articles, , , , , , , ,

There are loads of societies that you can get involved in at Newcastle University. These are clubs based around your interests or what course you study. One of our newest STEM ones is a hands on engineering society: the Marine Projects Society.

12274762_882005648587253_1046147068607204489_n

It all started when a group of Marine Technology students took part in the International Submarine Race in 2014 in Washington DC, USA. Students who were interested in working on it the following year took over and decided to form a society around it to enable students to partake in a variety of Marine related projects. The society remained focused on marine engineering so a a variety of engineering students across the university could collaborate on projects.

12183002_10153341519859209_724690815158286691_o
Working on the submarine
12670584_823346874458462_8323042721205337930_n
Last years submarine team

This academic year (2015/16) they are working on building an underwater ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), which are underwater robots important in studying deep water habitats that we otherwise couldn’t access . The society aim to take part in the MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) ROV competition in Long Beach, California, USA in June next year. The competition is based on acting as entrepreneurs selling the prospective client a product (in this case an ROV). To achieve this they must draft technical reports, marketing displays and engage in community outreach as well as build an ROV to demonstrate that it can perform certain set underwater tasks.

wp_20161112_001
Working on a prototype

This years team consists of about 30 members, some of whom are a part of the core team and others are ancillary members who have the opportunity to learn from more experienced members and contribute in their own capacity. The current members form 3 sub groups, namely- 1) Structures & Chassis  2) Mechanical Systems  3) Electrical & Computing.

  1. The Structures & Chassis team is responsible for designing the outer framework of the ROV and responsible for waterproofing and making certain design calculations (buoyancy, weights, center of gravity etc.).
  2. The mechanical systems team is responsible for designing & building a manipulator (mechanical arm) in order to enable a person from the surface to control it remotely to perform certain underwater tasks such as picking items up.
  3. The electrical & computing team is responsible for coding the control architecture or the ‘brain’ of the ROV. They are tasked with controlling the motor speeds, manipulator & underwater video-cam transmission.
wp_20161112_007
Essential calculations for the ROV

This society is a really good opportunity for anyone who is studying engineering to get some practical experience. The students across the different sub groups come from a variety of engineering backgrounds (Electrical, Marine, Mechanical, Computer science). We wish them the best of luck with the ROV competition!

 

#TryThisTuesday: Invisibility Cloak

Try This Tuesday, , , ,

Glass is transparent (see through) but we can still see it. In this experiment we will show you how to make it vanish!
1. Fill a large glass bowl or container with cooking oil.

20161108_160935

2. Put a smaller glass bowl inside the large one.


3. Look from the side, can you see it?

The Science

This happens due to the refraction of light and how the speed of light changes when it passes from one state of matter to the other.

Light travels through different objects at different speeds. It travels faster in air than in water or glass. We can see glass normally as light passes from air to glass and slows down and changes direction. This distorts (changes) how we see other objects through the glass, telling the brain there must be a transparent object in the way.

The bowl disappears when we put it in cooking oil, as light travels at the same speed in cooking oil and glass. The light doesn’t change direction so your brain doesn’t know that the light has traveled through the glass, making it disappear!

#TryThisTuesday: Submarine

Try This Tuesday, , , , , ,

This week’s experiment will show you how a submarine works using just a water bottle and a ketchup sachet.

  1. Take a large (2 litre) plastic bottle and fill it with water
  2. Test a few ketchup sachets in a bowl of water to see if they float, not all of them will have an air pocket in.
  3. Add an unopened sachet of ketchup to the bottle. The sachet should float, but if it doesn’t, try adding some salt to the water. Salt increases the density of water, making the sachet float better.
  4. Make sure the bottle is full of water to the top.
  5. Screw on the top very tightly and squeeze the bottle hard.

The sauce submarine will sink to the bottom. If you let go it will float back up.

You can challenge other people to get the sachet to the bottom, lots of people will try and shake it or turn it upside down!

The Science

This experiment is all to do with how things float, or the buoyancy of an object. Water pushes up on the ketchup packet with the force equal to the weight of the water that the ketchup packet pushes out the way.  If the displaced water is heavier than the sachet, then it will float because it is less dense than the water.

When you squeeze the bottle you apply pressure to the liquid inside. Liquids cant be compressed (squashed) so the pressure is transmitted to the sachet. The ketchup sachet has some nitrogen gas in (to keep it fresh). The gas is compressed and the sachet sinks and therefore displaces less water and sinks. As soon as you let go the sachet expands again and floats.

Submarines use similar systems to allow them to sink and float easily.