EIS Young Engineers Forum
The group aims to facilitate the development of
early-careers engineers, through a combination of technical seminars and webinars, carried out in partnership with a group of highly-respected companies. We also focus on improving soft skills and self-awareness, both vital for the development of a well-rounded professional
knowledge | growth | network
We are committed to supporting early careers professionals in achieving their ambitions. We provide free technical seminars and webinars alongside opportunities to access unique practical experiences. Our team of highly-experienced engineers are also on hand to offer advice and contacts.
FUTURE young engineers events
WEBINAR: Force Measurement at the Bleeding Edge of Wind Tunnel Testing for Advanced Aerospace Applications
Date: 5 July 2023 1-2pm
Abstract
As the global heating crisis accelerates, the next generation of passenger aircraft will demand a substantial improvement in engine efficiency. The advent of ultra-high bypass ratios will introduce new aerodynamic challenges which are likely to require changes in nozzle geometry between each flight stage.
In close collaboration with Rolls-Royce, ARA has developed a dual stream jet propulsion rig for test and evaluation of variable geometry engine nozzles. This unique, world leading capability has been made possible by creating a bespoke force measurement balance which delivers reliable, highly accurate engineering data while cold, high pressure jets pass through it.
With a focus on the critical stages in the life of the balance, we will introduce the thermal modal analysis which informed design, the planning and installation of strain gauges and wiring following machining of the balance, and the performance monitoring during testing which ensured confidence in the engineering data.
Presenters:
Houda Bdeiwi
Manjit Ubhi
Simon Lawson
Aircraft Research Association
About Your Presenters
Houda Bdeiwi is a Senior Aerodynamics Engineer (MSc in Advanced Computational Methods for Aeronautics, Imperial College). She has led aerodynamic and structural analyses for multiple wind tunnel models and rigs. Manjit Ubhi is a Senior Instrumentation Engineer with extensive expertise and experience in all aspects of strain gauge installation including consultation, planning, installation and thermal optimisation. Simon Lawson is a Principal Aerodynamics Engineer (MSc in Aerodynamics, Cranfield); he is highly experienced in the design and delivery of complex wind tunnel tests and has been the technical leader of grant funded research projects. He is also an expert in the development and use of bespoke force measurement balances.
Registration
Whilst this webinar is hosted by our Young Engineers Forum, we welcome attendance from any engineer who is interested in this topic. Attendance is free of charge. Please email info@e-i-s.org.uk to register for your free place.
PAST YOUNG ENGINEERS EVENTS
WEBINAR: WEBINAR: Suspension Analysis & Tuning
Date: 2 March 2023 1-2pm
Abstract
Suspension is arguably the most important subsystem on a race car. It’s the link between the tyres and the rest of the race car. Naturally, in motorsport the analysis and optimisation of a suspension system is key to maximising performance on the racetrack. Tuning and refining the handling characteristics of a car serve to provide more driver confidence to push the car to the very limit of what it, and the driver, can achieve. This does however pose an important question; how do you quantify suspension performance? Quantifying something that is so closely tied to individual preference is a tricky task, and will ultimately contain a certain level of subjectivity, but several good practices and philosophies can give a solid foundation to build upon.
Presenter: Tryggvi Eidsson
University of Wolverhampton
About Tryggvi
Tryggvi is in his final year, studying for a Bachelor of Engineering in Motorsport Engineering at the University of Wolverhampton. Partaking in the Formula Student UK competition with the university team led to a great interest in suspension and vehicle dynamics, which is the field he aspires to work within after his studies.
WEBINAR: Strain Gauges are everywhere
From first principles to real-world applications
Date: 19 January 2022 1-2pm
Presenter: Anton Chittey
Vishay Measurements Group
Abstract
Strain gauges are absolutely everywhere. They interact with your daily life, both directly and indirectly, whether you are aware of them or not. From the food on your table, the vehicles you travel in, bridges your cross, supermarket self-checkouts and even biomedical applications. If you ever have dental work or are unlucky enough to undergo surgery, strain gauges are used in ways often beyond imagination. In this short presentation we’ll discover what a strain gauge is, how it works, a brief overview of how to install them and review some real-world application case studies.
About Anton
Anton has worked with strain gauges for more than 30 years. In that time he has repaired and calibrated instrumentation, installed gauges and captured data on a variety of materials in many environments, including bone for evolutionary biology investigation, a hydroelectric power station, sea trials for a missile system, vehicle testing on a well-known test track. Presenting training workshops has been a key part of his career. Anton has also been a member of the British Society for Strain Measurement’s CERCO committee for several years which includes the role of examiner for the strain gauge installation certification scheme.
WEBINAR: Basics of transducers for materials testing and how to use them
Date: 29 June 2021 1-2pm Presenter: Peter Bailey (Instron)
Summary
Force and displacement measurement are essential to materials characterisation, since these are the “raw” measurements from which we derive stress and strain. Firstly, this talk will cover the basic transducer technologies commonly used in materials testing machines and how they can and should be used for real tests. A large proportion are conventional strain-gauge and LVDT technologies, but piezoelectric and optical devices will also be addressed briefly. Secondly, some of the less obvious factors which will affect the accuracy of your measurements; the professional user should be aware of the impact of environmental effects and a some basic aspects of data acquisition and conditioning.
Biography
Dr Pete Bailey is principal applications specialist at Instron Dynamic Systems. An experimental materials scientist, focusing on advanced mechanical testing and characterisation techniques, he works on all types of material characterisation, as well as some small component testing. His background includes considerable experience in polymers and composites research and a variety of production and quality control methods for thermoplastics and thermosets, while more recent work has been biased towards fracture mechanics and fatigue of metals.
WEBINAR: The Importance of Mechanical Material Properties and a Critical Appraisal of Mechanical Testing Methods
Date: 10 June, 1-2pm
Presenter: James Dean, Plastometrex
Summary
This presentation concerns the strength of metallic materials, mechanical testing and mechanical test data. We will first outline what strength really means, and we will review the common tensile test, discussing differences between true and nominal values, misunderstandings around ductility values, necking instabilities, and some limitations of the tensile test. We will also cover hardness tests, and will explain why hardness numbers can be vague and ambiguous, despite their common and widespread usage in non-destructive testing. The third technique we will cover is Indentation Plastometry, an indentation-based test technique that can measure full stress-strain curves and metal strength parameters from measured indent shapes using inverse finite element methods. Some example case studies will also be shown.
James Dean
James has an undergraduate degree in Materials Science from Imperial College, London, and a Masters in Gas Turbine Engineering from Cranfield University, where he was supported with a Rolls Royce UTC scholarship. He has a PhD from Cambridge in Materials Science, where he subsequently held Research Assistant and Senior Research Associate positions. He then moved to the Centre for Scientific Computing at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he was Co-ordinator of a Centre for Doctoral Training in Computational Methods for Materials Science. In 2012 he founded Double Precision Consultancy, a company specialising in the provision of advanced mathematical modelling services that he sold to Element Materials Technology in 2021. He co-founded Plastometrex in 2018 and is the current CEO.
Flyer
WEBINAR: Destination Zero: Sustainability of the electrified vehicle whole life cycle
Date: 21 January 2021 1-2pm
Presenters: Dyrr Ardash (Williams Advanced Engineering) & Jonathan Saul (Millbrook Proving Ground)
Automotive Sustainability: Vehicle Eco-System Considerations Dyrr Ardash, Williams Advanced Engineering
Over the past 20 years, the automotive sector has seen the developing demand of having to produce efficient, sustainable and environmentally sound vehicles.
The compliance to sustainability in automotive vehicles goes beyond the vehicle itself and transcends to economic, environmental and social impacts of the whole procedure to produce a vehicle, from raw materials to end-of-life decommission.
This presentation aims to identify a number of factors along the journey from production to end-of life and to highlight the industrial development and implementation of technologies and processes towards more sustainable mobility solutions. The approach and requirement considerations that car manufacturers should consider at the process of designing and developing their vehicles will be presented.
Road for Zero - Battery safety Jonathan Saul, Millbrook Proving Ground
Since the automotive industry began & vehicles started being mass produced, the use of fossil fuels within transport has gone hand in hand. Over recent years government limits on vehicle emissions have influenced automotive trends, in a bid to reduce the impact on the environment and public health. These limits have been ever reducing, but now there is a strategy for Europe to be the first major economy to go carbon-neutral, which includes the transport sector. The UK government’s response to this is the “Road to Zero” which states that by 2040 they intend “all new cars and vans to be effectively zero emission”.
This has challenged the automotive industry to change the convention they have followed for c.100 years. They have reacted by investing in electrification of their fleets, which has uncovered some unique challenges and safety considerations. This presentation will look at the safety concerns that the automotive industry is having to overcome to certify their new electrified vehicles.
WEBINAR: Sound and Vibration Engineering: what, where and how?
Date: 11 February 2021 1-2pm
Presenters: James Sutton (HKB), Dave Fish (JoTech) & Andrew McQueen (SIemens)
Summary
Interested in a career in Sound and Vibration (S&V) engineering, or wish to increase your awareness of this specialised engineering field? Presented by three experienced sound and vibration engineers, this webinar looks at what S&V engineering is about, where in industry it is practiced, and how it is used within those industries.
Sound and Vibration Engineers: Ever heard of us? James Sutton, HBK
From offshore wind turbine CAE correlation to coffee machine grinder sound quality, aerospace ground vibration testing to automotive vehicle refinement, James will provide an overview of what S&V Engineering is and why it plays such an essential role in the product development cycle.
James graduated from Loughborough University with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and currently consults across a broad range of applications and industries on S&V for the Engineering Services team of Hottinger Bruel & Kjaer.
Sound and Vibration: Where are all the sound people and what do they do? Dave Fish, JoTech
It is estimated that the expertise of 16,000 people contributes to an acoustics industry worth £4.6 billion to the UK economy each year. Where do these people work and what do they do?
Dave Fish graduated in 1987 with a degree in Engineering Acoustics and Vibration from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at Southampton University. He has been active in the field of sound and vibration for over 30 years working in a range of fields and industries, helping to deliver quiet and refined products for the automotive, environmental, transport, and industrial sectors.
Tools & Processes For Sound & Vibration Engineering - Andrew McQueen, Siemens
The 3rd part of this webinar will look at a typical product development process and focus on the types of analysis workflows that are completed to ensure compliance to noise and vibration targets from both a comfort and regulatory perspective. Examples of both test and simulation activities will be given focusing on the required tools, resources and inputs & outputs that typically scale with fidelity and accuracy through program and design maturity.
Andrew is currently a Simulation and Test Solutions Consultant for Siemens Digital Industries Software providing technical guidance to new and current customers. After graduating from UMIST in 1996 with a degree in Physics with Electronics he started his career with the vehicle NVH team at Land Rover. This was followed by 10 years at Ricardo UK that included the completion of a masters degree with a thesis implementing active control methods for sound and vibration. After Ricardo he spent 18 months at Changan UK focusing on powertrain NVH; he now finds himself in his current role following the acquisition of LMS by Siemens in 2012.
WEBINAR: Improving Performance through Effective Coaching
Date: 2 December 2021 1-2pm Presenter: Dyfrig Jenkins
Summary
The way we work, manage businesses and organisations and lead teams has changed. It’s not likely to return to how it was before.
Many people tend to think they’re coaching others when actually they are just telling others what to do, or use ‘coaching’ to get to a pre-determined outcome.
Sir John Whitmore, a leading figure in coaching, described coaching as “unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
This webinar introduces you to this important (if not critical) skill. In ‘Improving Performance through Effective Coaching’ we:
• Discuss the principles of coaching in the workplace
• Talk about the ‘belief in human potential’
• Explain how coaching can be the most effective way to maximise your performance
• Share a simple coaching framework
Dyfrig Jenkins
Dyfrig has spent over 20 years leading, designing and facilitating management, leadership and organisational development initiatives for highly commercial leading brands such as Thomas Cook, Barclaycard and BGL Group. He has led operational teams and Learning & Development functions, so has first-hand experience of the pressures and rewards of leading in business. Since creating YOU. in 2016, he has worked with a variety of clients including many major brands to provide effective coaching, learning and team development solutions. Insightful, creative and passionate about his work, Dyfrig is an experienced and award-winning business coach. He qualified as an Executive Coach with the Academy of Executive Coaching in 2016, is an MBTI Step I, Step II and SHL OPQ 32 practitioner and holds Hogan HDI and HPS accreditations.
WEBINAR: Feedback That Works
Date: 4 November 2020 1-2pm
Presenter: Dyfrig Jenkins
Summary
Everyone needs feedback, most of us want it. But what stops you from giving feedback? Maybe you don’t really know how to do it, perhaps it’s not gone well in the past, you may not want to hurt someone’s feelings or you may be apprehensive about the reaction. How well do you react to feedback when it is given to you? Does your reaction differ depending on who is giving it to you? Why might this be?
The webinar discusses:
Why you might react the way you do when you receive it yourself
What feedback really is and why it needs to be an everyday part of our work
A feedback framework, to give you the confidence to give feedback, now and in the future
Dyfrig Jenkins
Dyfrig has spent over 20 years leading, designing and facilitating management, leadership and organisational development initiatives for highly commercial leading brands such as Thomas Cook, Barclaycard and BGL Group. He has led operational teams and Learning & Development functions, so has first-hand experience of the pressures and rewards of leading in business. Since creating YOU. in 2016, he has worked with a variety of clients including many major brands to provide effective coaching, learning and team development solutions. Insightful, creative and passionate about his work, Dyfrig is an experienced and award-winning business coach. He qualified as an Executive Coach with the Academy of Executive Coaching in 2016, is an MBTI Step I, Step II and SHL OPQ 32 practitioner and holds Hogan HDI and HPS accreditations.
WEBINAR: The Myth of Accuracy
Date: 22 September, 1-2pm
Presenter: Damian Harty
Summary
There exists a commonly held, if rarely spoken, belief that the usefulness of any predictive model is directly related to its accuracy as measured against the real world.
In a deliberately contentious manner, this belief is tested and found wanting with several examples of real world processes. There is a time when sufficient accuracy is optimum. An approach is described which encourages discernment of optimum accuracy by all involved in the process.
Damian Harty
Damian has a rich history of modelling and discovery through modelling, gained through years of working with a wealth of renowned companies including Ford, Prodrive, Tesla and most recently Byton North America. A published author in multibody modelling, he uses both commercial and classical methods. Areas of expertise include motorcycle stability, handling and durability modelling tool generation along with limit/post-limit control modelling and World Rally Car damper & steering research. Since the start of his early career Damian has strived to be deeply technical and his research allows him to draw conclusions which sometimes counter “prevailing wisdom”. His passion for true all-circumstance autonomous control is infectious and his presentations often leave the audience with a desire to review and question established methodology.
WEBINAR: RLD Collection & Analysis - are you forgetting the basics?
Date: 23 July, 1-2pm
Presenter: David Ensor
Summary
This webinar was aimed at those who collect or analyse road load or real life data. It provided a refresher for more experienced engineers or served as an introduction for those new to the field. It can be easy to take the fundamentals for granted and inadvertently make simple mistakes when collecting or analysing data. David addressed the questions you should ask before setting off to collect or analyse hours, or even days, of data, enabling you to produce accurate and valuable results
Content
Several topics were discussed including: Sensor basics - are you using the right sensor to measure what you want? Testing variables – do you understand or even trust the data you have collected? Do you know your data is statistically representative? Do you know why you are collecting or using the data? Are your goals clear, and investigating the right things? Most importantly is your data useable & useful in the test, analysis or development?
Slides
View the slides from the webinar
David Ensor
David has over 40 years’ experience in the automotive & supplier industry gained in many companies worldwide. He is a specialist in fatigue analysis, instrumentation, durability, data analysis & RLD and has worked in component durability & full vehicle durability development. He has managed a number of development and advanced engineering departments until being asked to be a Senior Consultant at HORIBA-MIRA. David has developed durability schedules for numerous world markets and delivered durability programs alongside numerous trouble-shooting and problems solving exercises for a range of OEMs & Tier 1 & 2 Suppliers. In addition to this he has produced many technical papers advancing fatigue & data analysis processes.