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Students and academics from the University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences have lifted Five’s Gadget Show presenter Jason Bradbury into the skies above Worthing for the International Birdman competition.

Engineering lecturer Dr Alexander Forrester, the design team leader, explains, “We were approached by The Gadget Show to design and build an aircraft for the Worthing Birdman competition, but with only a few weeks in which to do it. We pulled out all of the stops to try and create a winning craft for them, to uphold the Solent area’s heritage in high-performance aircraft engineering.”

The School of Engineering Sciences brought its full spectrum of design, manufacturing and testing expertise to bear on this near-impossible task. A scale model was tested in the University’s RJ Mitchell wind tunnel, computational simulations carried out to optimise the wing design, and laser and precision foam cutters used to create aircraft components.

Dr Alexander Forrester, working with Dr Kenji Takeda and Jennifer Forrester, led a team of PhD students for the build: David Toal, Andy Cook, Giles Endicott, Alex Purdue, Stephen Powell and Lindsay-Marie Armstrong. David Toal even squeezed in his PhD viva in computational engineering in the week leading up to the Birdman competition and passed.

Gadget Show host Jason Bradbury was thrilled by the experience, “It was glorious, the machine did exactly what it was designed to do. It was seriously wonderful and I'll never forget it as long as I live.”

The competition took place last weekend and plans are already afoot for a group of final-year Southampton Aeronautics undergraduate students to design a new aircraft for the 2010 Birdman event, building on this year’s experiences. It is just one example of the engineering projects students work on; others include racing cars, spacecraft, airliners, fighter aircraft, unmanned air vehicles, helicopters and wind turbines.

To see the whole story behind this magnificent flying machine, watch the Gadget Show challenge on Bank Holiday Monday 31 August 2009 at 8.00pm on Five.

28 August 2009

New scholarships announced as part of strategic business relationship between University of Southampton and Boeing

The University of Southampton and The Boeing Company have extended their strategic business relationship.

As part of the relationship, Boeing has announced sponsorship for several prestigious scholarships for study in the Schools of Engineering Sciences and Management at the University of Southampton.

In addition, the company will fund prizes for the best MSc students in Engineering, Operational Research and Management Science.

These new scholarships build on strong foundations, with previous research collaborations having taken place through the University's world-leading Optoelectronic Research Centre.

Sir Roger Bone, President of Boeing UK, says: “Boeing is active in supporting innovation in the UK with a variety of projects. Our new relationship with the University of Southampton will nurture the talented minds that will make a great contribution to the future of the aerospace industry.”

Douglas Macbeth, Professor of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management, says: “These scholarships will provide excellent opportunities for our students. We hope to develop the relationship, and are exploring potential for further involvement through possible research and student projects, courses and internships.”

The University of Southampton has a strong track record of collaboration with industrial partners – through collaborative research and consultancy, as well as through student and graduate projects and placements. Engaging with organisations of all sizes, Southampton is the leading UK University with regard to working with small to medium-sized companies.

29 May 2009 - www.southampton.ac.uk/ses

Students reach for the skies to beat European competition

High-flying students from the University of Southampton have beaten universities from across Europe to win an international design competition.

The six students, from the University’s School of Engineering Sciences won a cash prize in an industry sponsored European UAV (unmanned air vehicle) competition for designing, building and flying a UAV.

The team successfully test flew their design at Draycott Airfield, near Swindon, and were judged by an industry panel to have produced the most professional approach and to have made the most progress towards fully autonomous flight.

Uniquely amongst the competitors, the University’s UAV was equipped with an autopilot and control system, developed by PhD students at the University. A telemetry link provided the team with very accurate real-time flight data including altitude, airspeed and control surface movements. Using this, the competition students were able to compare actual performance with design predictions based on computational fluid dynamic analysis and wind tunnel experimentation.

The team, which consisted of James Basham, Garry Battams, Kelvin Cheung, Will Simpson, Neil White and Patrick Yau, were supervised by Professors Jim Scanlan and Andy Keane.

Professor Scanlan comments: “There is explosive growth in the use of unmanned systems, particularly in civilian applications such as weather forecasting, surveying, traffic monitoring and agricultural applications. These applications demand low-cost solutions which the students have been able to demonstrate. These students did a fantastic job in tackling a difficult multidisciplinary task and the skills they displayed are exactly what the aerospace industry now demand in high-flying graduates.”

The latest Research Assessment Exercise confirms Southampton’s position as one of the UK’s top engineering universities. The University joins Imperial College and the University of Cambridge in a ‘golden triangle’ of engineering research excellence, as the top three institutions in the country for their range and quality of engineering.

22 December 2008 - www.southampton.ac.uk/ses