Student Member Newsletter - September 2010

It's been a busy summer for the IMechE, with the announcement of an exciting sponsorship deal with the Bloodhound Supersonic Car project, as well as the annual Formula Student competition at Silverstone. In this month's newsletter, we interview Bloodhound team member and Vice-Chairman of the Edinburgh Young Member's Panel Jenna Gaff, and launch the Dissertations and Project Reports pages on the IMechE website. We also take a look at the unfolding Chilean miner rescue story in our interactive Topic of the Month.

Spotlight on our young members

IMechE Member Profile: Jenna Gaff, final-year student at the University of Edinburgh, working on the Bloodhound SSC project

How would you sum up Bloodhound in a sentence?

Bloodhound SSC is a truly awe-inspiring British project to both break the world land-speed record and to provide an iconic project to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

How did you get involved in the project?

Luck! I approached them for a placement as they started to look for students to work on the design team.

What's your role on the Bloodhound team?

I'm responsible for the design of the pedals and the offboard cooling. There is a huge variety of other things you become involved with from being a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) Ambassador to supporting events. I'm continuing to work on the design team for my final year project, designing and optimising the secondary air system.

What are the biggest challenges facing the team?

Keeping the car safely on the ground, we don't want it to become a plough or a plane! Finding the right shape is crucial to succeeding and we now have a stable car throughout the mach no. range.

Would you recommend other young engineers get involved in Bloodhound?

I'd definitely recommend other students get involved. You can learn more about the project and find out how you can get involved here.

Survive the demands of your final year The chances are, at some point this year, you'll have to produce a dissertation or project report. IMechE is here to help you produce a piece of work you can be proud of. We've developed a brand new section of the IMechE Students website, packed full of great advice and tips ranging from how to choose a topic, researching andwriting the final version. On top of these pages, remember you can always visit the IMechE Facebook™ page for support and advice from the wider IMechE community. Flying the chequered flag for engineering This summer saw the return of IMechE's hugely-successful Formula Student competition hosted at Silverstone. This year's big winners were the team from TU Munich, who walked away with the top prize in the Class 1 section and the most points overall, but several teams from the UK also did incredibly well. Guests at the event, including David Coulthard, Ross Brawn and Senior Race Engineer Andrew Shovlin, commented on the exciting levels of engineering talent and innovation on show. Follow these links for more information aboutFormula Student 2010, the final results, and careers in the automotive industry. Topic of the Month – Chilean Mine Rescue The unfolding drama surrounding the Chilean miner rescue is an example of how engineering solutions can be vitally important to people all over the world. Experts including NASA engineers and submarine designers have been flown in from around the globe for this unprecedented operation. The team expects to be able to reach the miners in four months through a rescue shaft currently being drilled, but is working on other options for getting them out sooner. However the miners are eventually reached, one thing is for certain: the world will be watching closely.