Report on IMechE-UNITEN Student Chapter Talk Series

Title:                Optimising Product Reliability with Computational Mechanics: Applications in High Technology to Heritage Sectors

Speaker:          Prof. Chris Bailey

Venue:             DK1, College of Information Technology

Date:               10^th January 2010 (Monday

Time:               3.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.

By:       Wan Muhammad Djawad Wan Dzahanurin

Committee Member,

Special Task Bureau

On the 18^th of January 2010, Professor Christopher Bailey, Director of the Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group at the University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom paid a little visit to Uniten to deliver a brief presentation on computational mechanics in technology, titled: Optimising Product Reliability with Computational Mechanics: Applications in High Technology to Heritage Sectors.

The talk was attended by a number of students from various engineering classes who were eager to explore the horizons of computational engineering application in the industrial sector and in particular, the heritage sector as how this talk was leaning towards.  Several Uniten Professor and lecturers were present as well.

Professor Chris Bailey is very involved with the maintenance and conservation of the historical, widely-recognized ship, the Cutty Sark, which is currently undergoing rehabilitation works in a dry dock in London.

This talk introduces the students to the methods of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis and Prognostic and Health Monitoring in solving problems and designing solutions before the actual physical work in order for the physical work to be carried be executed perfectly at the first try. These methods ensure that the project done would be cost effective and time saving. It is also important to know exactly what the physical work to be carried out and their accurate effect to the ship, in this case, as the subject at work is a highly vulnerable piece of historical artifact.

Besides its application in the heritage preservation and conservation sector, computational technology in engineering is widely used to design almost everything before mass production. Therefore, students could see how important computer programs are to engineers nowadays. Gone are the days where manual labor are required for every knick and turn where trial and error were always in order before finally acquiring the desired output.

We hope that such an innovative and informational talk would be carried out in the future for more students to broaden their horizon in this momentous field of engineering.