Heading for an electric future? Electronics team tops peer assessment during final presentations for 2017/2018!

Kronos Power Transmission team leader Murray Mackenzie, presented the latest updates from his team.

Our third and final full team meeting for this academic year took place on Monday, amid anticipation to view the latest updated on the work across all teams! The meeting held at Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor was, in fact, the longest we have ever had, stretching over 6 hours (but we did have a lunch break)!

Highlights from the X-Plorer 2 team include major progress on one of the high priority items on our agenda- the finite element modelling of 3D printed parts. The Power Transmission team has been working on recreating the geometry of an actual 3D printed part from the tool paths with the ultimate goal being to calibrate a model using ANSYS so that the significant anisotropy is taken into account. One of the two members leading the FEA research, Paul Strang, said:

I think that our work on gcode-based FEA modelling is one of the most exciting areas to be working on. We have made good progress this semester and I am glad to have had the chance to get involved. Of course, we haven't reached our goal yet and will hope that we'll have a breakthrough in the next few months, as our modelling in ANSYS gets more elaborate and some testing is completed.

Exhaust also presented a newer, more elaborate design for the thrust reversers that will be introduced to the X-Plorer 2, with some additional work required to address scaling issues. Progress from Kronos has been impressive, with the programme running ahead of schedule despite the initially challenging theoretical design stage. The exhaust team stood out, showing major progress on the nozzle and afterburner design and managed to run initial CFD simulations in the limited amount of time for computational simulations this semester. Exhaust team leader, Cami Leslie said:

Having worked on both the X-Plorer 1 and 2, Kronos is the programme was most excited to hear about and despite the heavy workload associated with starting the design from scratch, we were incredibly motivated to deliver some of the most challenging and impressive components. I am very proud of the work we presented today and we are looking forward to seeing it to completion next year!

Kronos Compressor team member Cosimo Nastasia, gave a thorough presentation on the team's theoretical model.

Electronics presented what is expended to be the most major improvement for the entire EMS, both for hardware and software. The team's careful planning and appreciation for the way the systems will integrate with the upcoming engines, enabled the rest of the team to appreciate the work which most others don't usually have to get involved with. The team is expected to deliver the new system by July, when it will be used for an X-Plorer 1 variant.

One of the most engaging features of our final presentations is the ability for members to vote for other teams' presentations in real time and assess them in three areas: presentation skills, technical content and overall progress. This year, this was enabled using MeetingPulse! Through their kind sponsorship, we ran live polling easier than ever before and gathered all data to present at the end of the meeting. 88% of attendees said that the use of MeetingPulse made the meeting and presentations more engaging and 7 out 10 stated that it made the process more competitive!

Overall Top 5

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This meeting has been sponsored by