Newsletter Issue 8 | Summer 2009 Department of Engineering

In this issue 2 Student numbers up 2 Engineers develop their entrepreneurial skills 3 Dr Julian Allwood awarded EPSRC Leadership Fellowship 3 Control your TV simply by waving your arm 4 Students win the Award for Innovation in Systems Engineering at Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition 4 Project Pebble 5 New international nanomaterials research programme launched 5 New reasearch collaboration for health announced 6 A paper about pile jacking has netted Engineering PhD student Andrew Jackson more than £2000 6 Oliver racing towards a bright future after gaining first motor sport blue 7 Happold Brilliant Award 8 Teds in space – one small step for bears, a giant leap for Cambridge outreach Picture entitled ‘Moth’ by Dr Ingrid Graz, won second prize in last year’s Photography competition 9 Design of a timber framed multi-storey and has been used extensively in the University 800th Anniversary celebrations car park 9 Yak Yak Best Engineering Research in UK 10 The future is 3D liquid crystals 11 PowerSi Technologies wins prizes The Department of Engineering has come top of the rankings for 11 Strictly Come Cambridge General Engineering according to the national Research Assessment 12 Enhancing CAPE-abilities in photonics and electronics Exercise. 13 New home for Institute for Manufacturing The results were published in December transferring research skills to industry and, 14 The Chancellor, His Royal Highness Prince 2008 and show a superb outcome placing for some of them, becoming the next Philip visits the Department of Engineering Cambridge far ahead of other institutions generation of engineering academics. The 15 A new centre will generate the scientists in its class. 90% of the research scale and quality of the Department needed for Britain’s future submission by the Department was judged enables it to secure the best support staff 16 EDC graduates participated in the 48-Hour Inclusive Design Challenge in Tokyo to be either internationally excellent or and facilities. Scale and quality also make it world-leading in terms of originality, easier for the Department to build long- 16 Why materials crack significance and rigour. Remarkably, the term relationships with other academic 17 Alumni feature: from Cambridge to Kabul breakdown shows that 45% of the disciplines, other institutions, companies 18 New British entry to the World Solar submission achieved the world-leading and the entrepreneurial community. These Challenge status; this far exceeds the result for any connections for undertaking collaborative 19 The Intelligent Airport other submission in General Engineering research are also vital for transferring 20 Clockwork plants and is not surpassed by any institution in outputs to have material benefits for 21 To Centre Court: Paul McIlroy any other engineering or scientific society. All of these factors reinforce each 22 Cracking the code of a killer discipline. other in a virtuous circle by attracting the The result represents not only the 23 Liquid crystal lasers promise cheaper, high best academics, students and colour resolution laser television excellence of individuals comprising the collaborators. 24 “What’s going on underground? Tunnelling Department’s 132-strong faculty, but also into the future” shows the power of uniting these The result of the Research Assessment academics in a single integrated Exercise is a tremendous endorsement of department. They span a remarkably wide the Department’s staff and strategy, but range of engineering disciplines and, ambitious plans and continual change are An integrated engineering department within this one department, can easily essential if the Department is to keep its founded on core strengths spanning all team up to address the world’s most world-leading position. engineering disciplines and also cross- pressing challenges. Their expertise and connected by three strategic themes: capacity for research is augmented by 195 • Cognitive Systems Engineering contract research staff and research For more information on research • Engineering for Life Sciences fellows. 573 research students also play a collaborations please contact Philip • Sustainable Development. key role in undertaking research, Guildford: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/~pg28/ www.eng.cam.ac.uk Student Engineers develop their numbers up Entrepreneurial skills

Another success for the Department is the Six students from the Department have been awarded the number of students starting the “Certificate in Enterprise” after attending the highly successful undergraduate Engineering course which Enterprise Tuesday series. has seen a substantial increase on previous years. 324 first year students started their Mash-Hud has also benefited from the Engineering degree this academic year series. He explained, “From attending most compared to 301 the year before. of the Enterprise Tuesday lectures I learned a Two hugely successful projects that great deal about how to develop my without doubt have helped the entrepreneurial skills. All of the key-note Department to achieve such an increase speakers demonstrated a huge amount of are the Headstart summer schools and our motivation and provided valuable Engineering Outreach programme. suggestions that could be helpful to young Dr Geoff Parks is involved in organising entrepreneurs. Being motivated, believing in Headstart courses open to students in Year yourself, being determined and persistent 12 (or equivalent) who are interested in are the key issues to start with. After that knowing more about working in the world comes understanding the business structure, of science, engineering and technology. knowing the market and customer needs, Dr Parks said: “Headstart provides a and seeking help from experienced key- fantastic opportunity to discover what it is players. Finally, in order to actualise an idea like to be an undergraduate at Cambridge Shakir Mohamed, awarded the Certificate one needs to raise funds, convince investors, and to learn more about the scope and in Enterprise with distinction hire experienced people, and understand importance of Engineering in the modern how boards of directors and business To receive the prestigious certificate partners work. Learning these exciting world. It is very gratifying to see many candidates had to prepare a portfolio which aspects of entrepreneurship has enabled me students whom I first met on our addressed eight of the twelve themes to think constructively about the way to Headstart course going on to great things discussed at the Enterprise Tuesday lectures. materialise my research ideas into a as undergraduates, and indeed In total, fifty-nine people were awarded commercial product.” postgraduates, at Cambridge.” the Certificate in Enterprise and of the The Enterprise Tuesday programme, The Headstart Engineering summer eleven gaining distinctions for the quality of managed and delivered by the Centre for school at Cambridge gives participants a their assignments, two were from the Entrepreneurial Learning, is a free evening taste of the Cambridge style of teaching Department: PhD students Shakir Mohamed programme open to the local business and the broad scope of the Engineering and Mash-Hud Iqbal. community and all the staff and students of course. Shakir’s portfolio addresses issues in the University of Cambridge. It is proving Participants live in Jesus College to give entrepreneurship such as how to recognise ever more popular with the number of them a taste of collegiate life. The four- business opportunities, the ways in which candidates submitting portfolios doubling, a day programme incorporates lectures, resources can be gathered, and how to 38% increase in registered attendance on practicals, supervisions and a team design- avoid mistakes in setting up a new business. the 06/07 series and an average of around build-test project plus social activities. Shakir said, “I thought the programme 300 people attending each of the twelve Through these, they have the chance to was well structured and included a wide lectures. During the last year, people have meet and talk with current Cambridge range of speakers whose knowledge, travelled from Cranfield, London, undergraduates, graduates and teaching experience and passion for each of their Manchester, Wales and even from Finland to staff. businesses came through in their attend lectures. The quality and expertise of Dr Joy Warde is the Department's presentations. I find that entrepreneurial speakers such as Karren Brady of Outreach Officer who runs the skills are particularly useful for an engineer Birmingham FC, Lord Karan Bilimoria of Department's Engineering Outreach whether one chooses to engage in a new Cobra Beer and Duncan Goose of One programme. Staff and students from the business venture or not. These skills allow Water, is clearly a draw and kept people Department are involved with many you to think about the impact of engaged throughout the entire programme. activities to promote Engineering in both engineering work in the context of Over a quarter of the registered attendees the local Cambridge area and nationally. generating profit and usefulness to the are from the local business community The outreach undertaken by the consumer, and also gives an additional which is around a five per cent increase on Department engages children, families and viewpoint from which to be objective about last year. One of the main benefits of the young people in the challenge of hands- an engineering product, whether it be programme is that it brings the academic on activities – such as building rockets and hardware, software or a design. The and business communities together adding planes, skyscrapers and bridges.Working Enterprise Tuesday series is a great way for to the chemistry in the networking sessions with more than 120 undergraduate and anyone to gain additional skills outside of which follow on from each lecture. graduate volunteers, Joy stages a busy their field of study. It is also useful to test or programme of outreach activities. Each even develop your networking skills in the year these attract participation by around networking sessions held after the talks. In Further information about the 2,000 people. many cases the speakers are at these programme can be found on the Some activities are staged for schools networking sessions and it is interesting to Enterprise Tuesday pages of the Centre and groups; others are open to the speak to them and quiz them about their for Entrepreneurial Learning website general public. experiences.” at: www.cfel.jbs.cam.ac.uk.

2 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 Dr Julian Allwood awarded EPSRC* Leadership Fellowship

Dr Julian Allwood has been awarded an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship for his work to reduce global carbon emissions that arises in the production of steel and aluminium parts.

Julian is a Senior Lecturer in the Department optimistic forecasts suggest only a further and as well as leading research activity on 30% reduction in emissions per unit novel metal forming processes and the output – which isn’t enough to meet the environmental impact of production, has target. The fellowship aims to find out initiated the departmental seminar series on how we could meet the carbon target for of a low carbon metal economy would ‘Engineering for a Low Carbon Future.’ steel and aluminium. be extensive re-use of metal without Julian summarises the research that he Working with academic partners in melting. Accordingly the fellowship will be undertaking: “8% of global carbon several countries, future scenarios of metal includes exploration of several emissions from energy use arise in the flows and associated economic forecasts technological changes that would be production of steel and aluminium parts. will be developed to anticipate what must required to support such re-use. The Demand for the two materials is currently be achieved. These will then be explored fellowship has attracted £1.5m of growing at 6% per year, and is set to with a consortium of 20 major global government support through the EPSRC double within 25 years, yet in response to companies spanning the metals supply and £2m of industrial commitment from concerns about climate change we are chain, to identify the barriers to achieving companies including Boeing, Ford, Jaguar aiming at a 60% cut in carbon emissions by them and find technical, economic and Land Rover, Corus, Alcoa, Novelis, 2050. How can this occur? policy measures required to overcome the Siemens, Arups and many others.” Industry efforts to improve energy barriers. efficiency and increase recycling rates have Although all plausible scenarios will *Engineering and Physical Sciences both been effective, but the most be examined, it is likely that a key element Research Council

Control your TV simply by waving your arm

Consumers will soon be able to control their TV screens or home entertainment systems simply by waving their hand, thanks to technology developed by Toshiba’s Cambridge Research Laboratory in collaboration with the Department of Engineering.

The new gesture-based interface for flat both Department of Engineering alumni. panel displays was recently shown at a “The gesture interface may not replace major consumer electronics show in Berlin. a remote controller, but can provide an Using the Toshiba experimental TV alternative way to interact with a PC or viewers are able to interact with the display display. Imagine never having to search for system simply by gesturing with their hand. the remote controller to turn the TV volume Once the viewer is in front of the display down when receiving a phone call. screen, the system will ‘see’ them and invite “Having developed the system, we are A hand signal pauses the new TV them to take control of the display simply now working on expanding its capabilities including colour, motion and appearance. It by raising their hand. As the system can to ensure an easy-to-use and reliable system can reliably recognise and track the user’s robustly track their hand even under for the consumer which will work in real gestures even under rapid motion or different lighting conditions, the visitor can word scenarios, such as shops or peoples’ changing light conditions. Since different enjoy controlling the on-screen cursor. living rooms.” cues are less reliable in different situations “The gesture-control research is Another vision-based interface has also this multiple-cue approach is key to making extremely exciting and is opening an array been developed, viewers will be able to a human computer interface work robustly. of possibilities for consumers, such as new switch the display’s language or contents The team’s current research focuses on interfaces for TVs and interactive displays in simply by showing different picture cards. how to deal with multiple users (in a living shop windows and information kiosks,” Identification interfaces like this offer the room setting for example), how to track explains Professor Roberto Cipolla , who user the ability to personalise either the with finer control and how to deal with with Dr Bjorn Stenger at Toshiba and Tom interface or the contents. difficult lighting systems. Woodley at the Department of Engineering, The system uses a single camera has been pioneering the use of computer mounted on the top of the display and is For more information please visit vision in human-machine interaction since started by the user raising their hand to Professor Roberto Cipolla’s webpages: 1992. Tom is a PhD student here at the initiate the interaction. The software then http://mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/~cipolla/index. Department and Roberto and Bjorn are tracks the person’s hand using multiple cues htm

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 3 Students win the Award for Innovation in Systems Engineering at Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition

The University of Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (CAUV) team competed in the third Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge-European (SAUC-E) competition and won the Award for Innovation in Systems Engineering.

The robots that the students build must featured x86 mainboard, the PICO-ITX, to be able to travel through an underwater power the autonomy software which guides assault course consisting of validation gates, it through the underwater assault course. submerged buoys, marker dropping targets Paul Esparon, team captain said “The and surface zones. However, the most best part of the competition is meeting the impressive aspect of this competition is that people from the other teams. There is a the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, as fantastic amount of camaraderie between the robots are known, must complete the all the teams. Every team was quick to help task on their own. This means no remote the other teams by lending the various nuts controls and no communication from or bolts that they were missing.” equipment on the surface. Once the AUV is CAUV is a student-run Society of the placed in the water it is on its own and University of Cambridge and relies on new must navigate its way based purely on its recruits to keep the project a success. The AUV in the water own sensors. Preparations for the 2009 competition are The competition challenges university The Cambridge AUV team have a much underway. students from across Europe to design and improved robot from their 2007 model, Cambridge AUV would like to thank build their own underwater robots and then with large thanks to sponsors Schlumberger, everyone who is involved with the project in perform realistic missions in the underwater Composite Engineering and SimplySim. The one way or another. Particular thanks go to environment, and by doing so advance entire hull was brand new and custom built Dr T. Nickels, Alistair Ross, Steve, Professor Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) including the carbon fibre shell. Peter Wadhams, all the staff at the technology. The CAUV is 1.1m long and has a Department of Engineering, and the teams The competition encourages young 90mm diameter with 4 internal vectored and organisers of SAUC-E. engineers and scientists to think about thrusters to provide manoeuvrability and a underwater technology and its future 100W rear propeller for a maximum speed possibilities, as well as fostering ties of around 4.2m/s and a maximum range of For more information, please visit the between the students and the organisations 40km at a cruising speed of 2.4m/s. It Cambridge AUV website: involved in AUV technologies. makes use of the world’s smallest full- www.cambridgeAUV.co.uk

April 2008, is concentrating on Pebble’s Project Pebble structure and mechanics. Robbie Howshall, a fourth year signals processing student, is focussing on Pebble’s electronics and Project Pebble aims to design information systems. They are being and build a small, deep-sea supervised by Dr. Digby Symons, a lecturer photographic vessel. from the Engineering Design Centre, and Dr. Joan Lasenby, a lecturer from the Signals “Pebble” will be deployed onto the ocean Processing Group. floor, to document some of the exotic, Pebble has progressed quickly since the undiscovered species that live more than a design was finalised in November 2008. The kilometre underwater. build is nearing completion and the testing Whilst deep-sea photography has been phase is about to begin. If Pebble done before, Pebble differs in one key successfully passes testing, then she will be respect. Cost. Pebble is being built for under deployed on her first deep dive. £1000, making her tens of times less Project Pebble would like to express its expensive than comparable deep-sea craft. gratitude to its many contributors, without This is achieved by using off-the-shelf whose time and effort the project would not is supported by Tritech International, EADS, components, almost no moving parts, and a be possible. Project Pebble are sponsored by and Pentax. pressure-balanced design. BAE Systems Submarine Solutions, which is The Pebble Team comprises four currently building the planned seven-strong More information on the project along members from the Engineering Department. class of Astute submarines at its base in with a gallery of photos can be found Ben Sheppard, who founded the project in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Project Pebble at: www.projectpebble.co.uk

4 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 New international nanomaterials New research research programme launched collaboration As part of a unique collaborative agreement, the Japanese for health government has located a new research satellite at the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Centre. announced A new partnership between Cambridge University and the National Health Service will aim to improve everyday hospital care for people with major conditions including depression, dementia, stroke and childhood mental illness.

The University has been awarded a Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care, (or CLAHRC) following the decision of an independent international panel. Photo by Dr James Bendall. The collaboration is funded by the Cambridge is one of four institutes located centres staffed at their core with the world’s National Institute for Health Research outside of Japan which will host a satellite leading researchers. NIMS is one among five (NIHR). Cambridge is one of nine of the ‘International Center for Materials participants selected from Japan to Universities which will test new Nanoarchitectonics’ (MANA). (The University participate in the World Premier treatments and ways of working in specific clinical areas to see if they are of California, Los Angeles, the Georgia International (WPI) Research Centre effective and appropriate for everyday Institute of Technology and CNRS, France Initiative. use. The hope is that over time this will will host the other three satellites.) Two Professor Masakazu Aono, Director- improve standards of health care for NHS branches will be located in Japan at General, MANA, NIMS, Tsukuba, recently patients. Tsukuba University, Tokyo and Hokkaido said, “It is critical to the success of this 10 “This new Partnership will undertake University, Sapporo. year project that we have leading high-quality applied research and develop MANA is expected to create world-class international partners. Professor Welland’s new ways of translating research findings research centres with global visibility and group at Cambridge and Dr Bowler’s group at UCL will significantly enhance our work into improved outcomes for patients,” will be implemented under the supervision said Professor Sally Davies, Director of a number of top scientists from Japan’s in the area of nanomaterials for a sustainable environment.” General for Research and Development in National Institute for Materials Science the NHS. (NIMS). The 10 year, $150M programme is Professor Welland, the Principal Investigator of MANA & Co-Director of “They will be conducting work at the aimed at developing innovative materials front line of the NHS, so that the benefits that contribute to sustainable development MANA Satellites said, “It is a huge honour to be part of one of the world premier and findings from research can be swiftly – realising a major shift in materials incorporated into routine clinical research. institutions funded through the Japanese Government. The resources this will bring practice.” The Cambridge University satellite will both directly to Cambridge in collaboration Many departments of the University be led jointly by Professor Mark Welland, with facilities in Japan will have long term of Cambridge will be involved in the who heads the Nanoscience Group in the and substantial benefits to our research.” partnership, including the Department’s Electrical Engineering Division of Dr David Bowler added, “Both groups Engineering Design Centre (EDC), the Cambridge’s Engineering Department, and involved in the satellite have long-standing Department of Pyschiatry, Institute of Dr David Bowler from the London Centre links with NIMS and this project will Public Health and the General Practice for Nanotechnology and Department of considerably strengthen them. It also builds and Primary Care Unit. Physics & Astronomy, University College on the strong links between UCL and Alongside the research and high level London (UCL). It builds directly upon the Cambridge which were established by the of patient care, education and training strong international links developed as part IRC in Nanotechnology. The close carried out in the NIHR aims to “support of the Research Council funded collaborations between experiment and outstanding individuals, working in Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration theory, between UCL and Cambridge and world-class facilities, conducting leading (IRC) in Nanotechnology and provides for a between the UK and Japan promise to offer edge research, focused on the needs of long term platform to substantiate and exciting opportunities for new research.” patients.” enhance scientific exchanges with the premier materials laboratory in Japan. For further information about the MANA provides priority support for The Nanoscience Centre website: EDC please visit their website: projects aimed at creating top level research www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 5 A paper about pile jacking has Oliver racing netted Engineering PhD towards a student Andrew Jackson more bright future than £2000 after gaining first motor sport Blue

Oliver Turvey, a 21-year-old from Penrith, who is in his fourth year as an undergraduate, has managed to juggle a successful international motor sport career with his engineering degree.

In recognition of his achievements Cambridge recently awarded him an extraordinary Blue. He made history at Silverstone as it is the first time that a Full Blue has been awarded for motor sport. A Andrew Jackson (left) receiving his prize certificate from ICE Director General Tom Foulkes Full Blue is the highest honour that may be bestowed on a Cambridge sportsman Andrew beat off competition to win the findings then assist engineers in ensuring or woman, and is a much-coveted and UK final of the Institution of Civil Engineers that the piles can continue to support the prestigious prize. In general, the Full Blue (ICE) Graduate and Student Papers weight of the building above. As part of standard is approximately that of being Competition. In March he won £250 for the ongoing Department of Engineering/ successful at a national level of student coming top in the regional heat. Giken collaboration Andrew spent a total competition, and the Half Blue standard is He presented his paper ‘Pile jacking in sand of two months in Kochi in Japan, working that of being successful at county or and silt’ to a panel of senior civil engineers with Japanese engineers and other regional level. and an audience of students and graduates Cambridge students to install and test full- The award was presented to Oliver by in London. The paper explores the size piles on site. the secretary of the University Men’s Blues problems associated with traditional pile- Said Andrew: “I am delighted to have Committee, Dr John Little, who said: “We jacking and was the result of a won because the standard of entries was judged Oliver’s outstanding achievements collaboration between the Department’s extremely high this year and it is an honour on the race track to be wholly worthy of geotechnical group and Giken a Japanese to have been chosen by the judges. I will this, the first ever Full Blue for piling company. certainly encourage others to enter in motorsport.” Pile jacking is a relatively new process future.” Oliver started racing karts at the age of for pushing foundation piles into the In addition to the prize money Andrew eight and won two national titles. He ground. Benefits over alternative methods also receives his choice of three days of moved up to cars in the Formula BMW include reduced noise and vibration during professional training courses, £150 of civil series, but lack of funds threatened to end installation and improved performance of engineering book vouchers and a his career prematurely. He finished second the pile in use. A pile jacking machine can commemorative medal. in the championship, despite missing six of be used to grip previously installed piles Presenting the prize ICE Director the races, and was awarded the McLaren and use hydraulic rams to press (or ‘jack’) a General Tom Foulkes said: “I congratulate Autosport Young Driver of the Year new pile into the ground. This project Andrew and indeed all the finalists for the Award. This brought him to the attention aimed to improve understanding of the innovative content of their work and for of The Racing Steps Foundation who have behaviour of the piles during jacking. This delivering such impressive performances.” picked up the £500,000 bill that enabled understanding can then help the designers him to compete in F3 this year. He has and operators of the pile jacking machinery Andrew’s paper ‘Pile jacking in sand also received the Dunhill Future Champion in specifying and controlling the machines. and silt’ can be downloaded as a prize from The Racing Steps Foundation It can also assist engineers in checking that 763KB PDF at: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/ ambassador John Surtees, an award which the piles will continue to be able to support news/stories/2008/ICE_Student_Papers_ aims to highlight the most promising the weight of the building above. All the Competition British driver.

6 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 “It has been an extraordinary year for “If I have three or four days away education and all they do is race. me in more ways than one,” says Oliver. racing, I would have to fit in course work “It has been hard work but having an “The Racing Steps Foundation UK, a group around that. There was a lot of burning of engineering degree is a big advantage. F1 is which identifies and funds Britain’s best the midnight oil. Sometimes I worked all becoming more and more technical and the drivers, stepped in and saved my racing night to meet a deadline. relationship between a driver and engineer career with a fully funded drive with Carlin “Cambridge is one of the top is very important. Motorsport. I’ve come through my third universities in the world and very successful “Top F1 drivers know about cars. year at university successfully. And now I academically so I wouldn’t have missed that Michael Schumacher was a good example have been awarded a Full Blue.” experience for the world. It’s rare for a of that as he knew everything about his car, He said: “It’s been tough fitting in driver to be studying at university but I’m and Lewis Hamilton puts a lot of work in on motor racing and course work over the last hoping that will be my trademark that sets all aspects of his career. three years. I’ve had to be very determined me apart from other drivers. “I can communicate much better with and focused, and be prepared to make a lot “Most racing drivers and people I race the engineers and help to develop the car of sacrifices. against haven’t continued with their and get more out of it.”

Happold Brilliant Award Congratulations go to the team of lecturers at the Department who have been awarded the Happold Brilliant Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Building Physics in the context of a Low Carbon Economy.

President’s Award Dinner last month. Physics. One of Randall’s suggestions is The money will be used to support and that final year engineering and reward student work and interest in the architecture students should work together subject. on this subject, and this has been taken up Buildings contribute almost half of by the Architectural Engineering course. the UK’s carbon emissions, and Building Around 100 students from the two Physics has thus risen rapidly up the Departments work together in political agenda in the past few years. multidisciplinary groups on a low carbon The award recognises the work of many building design project. This year the people in the Department who, in close students have been challenged to design a collaboration with colleagues in the solar powered house for entry into the Department of Architecture, have been European Solar Decathlon. A student-led working to raise the profile of this Cambridge team has entered the increasingly important subject. Along competition, which will involve building with Allan and Randall, the team such a house and transporting it to Madrid includes Mauro Overend, Ruchi Choudhary for the competition in 2010. Professor Randall Thomas (left) and Allan and Chris Morley at the Department McRobie (right) receiving the Happold Brilliant Award from Lady Happold and Michael Ramage, Torwong Chenvidyakarn, Ben Foo, Alan Short For more information on the On behalf of the Department, Allan and Koen Steemers at the Department Cambridge interdisciplinary team’s McRobie and Randall Thomas collected the of Architecture. participation in the 2010 Solar prize of a beautiful crystal column with Much of the teaching innovation has Decathlon please visit: hand engraving, along with a cheque for been stimulated by the arrival of Randall www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk/ £1,000, at The Chartered Institution of as the Royal Academy of Engineering researchnews/solar-decathlon-europe- Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Visiting Professor in Building Engineering 2010.aspx

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 7 Teds in space – One small step for bears, a giant leap for Cambridge outreach

A team of students from the University of Cambridge sent four teddy-bears into space this week as part of an initiative to engage local schoolchildren in science and engineering.

luck, be some hugely talented people joining CU Spaceflight in a few years time!” Teacher, Steve Hinshelwood, who runs Science clubs at Parkside and Coleridge said: “This was a super activity for the students to be involved in. They had great fun problem-solving as they tried to turn their original space suit designs into something that they could actually build. Suddenly scientific ideas such as insulation, convection, conduction and radiation became important. Thinking about weight made ideas of buoyancy, pressure and the composition of the atmosphere relevant. The need to get the teddies back gave the students a chance to think about computer control and radio communications. I don’t think that the students realized how much science they were learning – they were just having fun. CU Spaceflight is a super team to work with. They were able to engage with the students at just the right level, stretching their understanding and always Earth from 30km encouraging. They’re superb ambassadors Bravely going where few of their kind have “This was a really fun thing to do. The for the fun that can be had following gone before, the Teddy-nauts were dressed best bit was when we set the balloon off science.” in special space-suits designed and made by with the bears. The CU Spaceflight team No treasured possessions were 11 and 12 year-old pupils from Parkside and made us really involved and we helped endangered in this experiment. The four Coleridge Community Colleges as part of a assemble all the equipment.” Aiyana Stead teddy-bears used were purchased project with Cambridge University age 12. specifically for the mission by Mr Spaceflight to help them learn more about “It was really fun when the balloon was Hinshelwood. science, engineering and space. blowing up. We had to hold it in the Engineering students involved in this After a nail-biting wait for optimal freezing winds. It felt like we were being project were: Rob Anderson, Jeremy weather conditions, the children were smothered by a giant dumpling.” Megan Appleyard, Sal Drummond, Robert Fryers, scrambled by their schools to the mission Makinson age 12. Henry Hallam, Ed Moore, Daniel Strange launch site at Churchill College, Cambridge. “I really enjoyed launching the teddy- and Iain Waugh. From there the four intrepid space pioneers, bear into space and I also enjoyed designing dressed in their special suits, were launched and building the teddy-bear suit. The on a foam-padded box containing balloon was enormous compared to the instrumentation and cameras attached to a normal balloons, and it was really hard to helium balloon. keep hold of, but it was great fun letting go The Teddy-nauts spent two hours and of it.” Kane Robbins age 12. nine minutes in flight from the launch site Ed Moore – one of the CU Spaceflight in Cambridge reaching heights of more team involved in the project said: than 30 thousand metres – known as Near “Space is inspiring, and getting there Space or the Edge of Space. In spite of brings together science, engineering, enduring temperatures of between minus imagination, and lots of fun. As a team, we 40 degrees and minus 53 degrees, all have stories of the spark that lit the fire depending on the effectiveness of their and motivated us to choose science and spacesuits, all four landed safely just north aim for Cambridge. There can be few more of Ipswich to be retrieved by the team of worthwhile things for us to do than to try student scientists who had travelled from and provide that spark for the current Cambridge by car, following the Teddy- generation of school kids. We had a nauts’ progress via an onboard GPS system. fantastic time working with the kids and Video of some of the launches and a The enthusiasm of the pupils for the their teacher, Dr Hinshelwood, and as a gallery of many of the photos can be project was evident: team we’re delighted that there could, with found at: www.cuspaceflight.co.uk

8 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 Design of a timber framed multi-storey car park

Benjamin Torrance has won 1st prize in the TRADA (Timber Research and Development Association) Timber in Construction Student Prize for his 4th Year MEng project.

Benjamin received prize money of £1000. around 80% compared ProEngineer model of The project grew out of research in the to a steel frame. 512 space car park Department into timber-concrete composite The design was flooring. It was a chance to put the findings based on the of this research into a design, investigating Eurocode 5 the commercial and structural viability of design code for timber in construction by following a brief timber, but finite to design a 500 space multi-storey car park. element analysis The structure is primarily glue-laminated was used to further timber columns and beams, based around a investigate plasticity in the 15.5m x 4.8m column grid. A composite partially composite behaviour floor system consisting of a concrete deck of the timber and concrete system. slab secured onto the timber beams with The results are an encouragement to coach screws provides an efficient flooring engineers to embrace timber design with system. The concrete helps to stiffen the the new codes. Benjamin says; ‘Timber has structure, whilst the use of timber for the been used to build fantastic structures for The abstract from the project report, bulk of the structural elements within the thousands of years, and I hope we shall which provides a brief but more technical building provides a lower embodied carbon continue to see exciting new ways of discussion of the work can be downloaded structure. incorporating it into structural and as a 63KB PDF document at: www.eng. The use of this composite flooring architectural design.’ cam.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/timber_ enabled long span column free parking Benjamin would like to thank Richard framed_car-park/ space to be achieved in a structure type Persaud for access to his PhD work on usually dominated by steel and reinforced timber-concrete composite flooring systems, For further information please contact concrete. Furthermore, using timber his supervisor Digby Symons and Ramboll Dr Digby Symons at: reduced the structure’s embodied carbon by Whitbybird for their support and advice. [email protected]

finalised, but progress has been made on with fewer resources, and not out of choice Yak Yak trialling hand tufting of the down, collecting but because they are forced to.” spun samples, and knitting prototype hats Funding for Sarah’s initial project was and scarves. The fineness of the down lends provided by a bursary from Engineers Yak down (fine hair) is set to itself to knitwear and Yak Yak is planning to Without Borders UK, an NGO dedicated to contribute to the revitalization target high street consumers. “We decided funding projects that help human of the economy of one of the on producing finished goods to maximise development through engineering, and the world’s most remote regions the employment potential for the locals,” Royal Academy of Engineering. The early thanks to efforts from a Sarah said. “The biggest problem is to stages and ongoing work have been funded separate the down from the hair - along by other sources. Cambridge University with improving quality, we also need to engineering graduate. establish reliable production if we want to export garments overseas.” The ‘Yak Yak’ Project has been set up by Sarah now plans to return for another Operation Mercy, a non-governmental two years, to follow up on her initial work organisation (NGO), with the help of Sarah by testing the reliability and quality of Ong, who recently completed a degree in production and beginning the search for manufacturing engineering. The project is partner organisations. She said: “I didn’t intended to generate income from fine yak want to work at a regular factory in the UK hair for the inhabitants of the Pamir and central Asia gave me the chance to use mountain range in Tajikistan. Little industry my skills where they will make a big exists in the area, which covers almost half difference. It was wonderful to be able to of Tajikistan, but the mountain range is apply university knowledge in somewhere home to a sizeable yak population. so completely different. My stay there has Although the animals have been herded changed my perspective on life. From these there for centuries, their down has generally people, I have learnt the difference between Sarah Ong been discarded. a luxury and necessity. Earlier I would think Its potential as a source of income was that taking a shower is a necessity, now I first identified by Operation Mercy Tajikistan think it’s a luxury. I also believe that the For further information about the and Sarah worked throughout the spring West can learn a lot from them because project visit www.yakyakstory.com or with their team to decide how best to put it eventually we are all going to face a contact Sarah at: to use. The end product is yet to be resource crunch. They know how to live [email protected]

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 9 The Future Is 3D Liquid Crystals

Dr. Tim Wilkinson from the Department’s Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device structure.

refractive index profile in the LC layer. This looks optically like a tiny lens which is centred on each MWCNT, hence for an array of CNTs spaced 10 m apart we end up with an array of microlenses 10 m apart. By changing the voltage applied to the CNTs we can switch the microlenses on and off and also vary their focal length. There are many applications for such a switchable microlens array such as in adaptive optical systems where the ability to self-focus a lens is important or as an active diffuser in a head-mounted display system. More importantly this breakthrough changes the way in which we think about creating liquid crystal devices. It allows us to include a 3D element to the design of modulating characteristics. If we address each individual CNT with a separate voltage then we can build more complex 3D refractive index profiles similar to those you would see in a full 3D photographically recorded hologram. However the difference with the LC/CNT device is that the Simulation of the electric field surrounding a single MWCNT in vacuum hologram can be changed dynamically as This offers completely new ways to control create an array of micro lenses which can you would change an image on a LCD. molecules in liquid crystals, allowing the have a focal length that varies with the This allows full 3D displays to be built crystals to move in a variety of directions to applied voltage. Such a reconfigurable array using this sort of technology.” create optical components such as lenslet has many uses in adaptive optical systems Articles on this research appeared in arrays. The technology is still in the early and 3D holographic displays. EuroPhotonics trade magazine (August phase of development, but recent trials Talking about his work Tim says “My 2008), in Advanced Materials and in indicate that potential applications exist in idea is to combine two well-established Advanced Imaging Magazine (January adaptive optical systems such as the technologies – liquid crystals and 2009). wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital nanotechnology – to make a new hybrid video cameras, optical diffusers and device. The LCs has the ability to create a emerging head-up display devices. reconfigurable optical modulator (such as Liquid crystal (LC) molecules are shaped would be seen as 2D pixels in a liquid so that they naturally align with each other crystal device (LCD)) with the vertically if put in a cell to form an optically active grown multiwall carbon nanotubes pixel. In a display device the liquid crystal (MWCNT) which act as a 3D electrode pixel is used to change the polarisation of structure. In a traditional LC device (such as the light passing through it and the degree a display screen) the pixel electrodes are of change (seen as contrast) is done above and below the LC and allow it to be through an applied voltage onto electrodes switched in a simple way. In the hybrid at the top and bottom of the cell. The device the lower electrode is the MWCNT applied voltage makes the LC molecules grown on silicon which sticks out from the rotate in the cell and changes their surface into the 3rd dimension. This is also a orientation with respect to the light passing more complex electric field profile which in through the cell. This cell geometry limits turn creates a more complicated 3D the ways in which the light can interact refractive index profile in the LC layer. with the liquid crystal molecules to a 2D Hence we can make very complicated Tim Wilkinson uses an Olympus BR11 microscope plane. If we add a 3D element to the lower optical elements using a very simple device to display the switching of a lenslet array in his electrode we can change the way in which structure and an applied voltage to switch laboratory. Picture credit: Phil Hands the voltage interacts with the LC molecules it. to make a 3D optical structure. A simple An example is when the MWCNTs on example is shown above, where a thin the lower electrode surface are all More information can be found on the conducting rod is added to the lower connected and switched with the same Centre of Molecular Materials for electrode to create a Gaussian electric field voltage. The resulting electric field profile Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) profile which forms a tiny microlens in the surrounding each MWCNT electrode is group website: www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/ LC material. With many rods it is possible to Gaussian in shape which creates a Gaussian CMMPE/nanolc. html

10 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 PowerSi Technologies wins prizes Strictly Come PowerSi Technologies Limited, a spin-out from the Department of Cambridge Engineering, have won prizes at both the 2008 Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) £5K Challenge and the 21st Century The University’s ballroom dancers China UK Entrepreneurship Competition. were the toast of the Empire Ballroom in Blackpool last month when they won the national universities competition there for an unprecedented fourth year in a row.

The Cambridge University Dancesport Team (CUDT) competes against other universities up and down the country at five competitions during the course of the year, culminating in the nationals in Blackpool. It consists of 16 couples, each dancing one of waltz, quickstep, cha cha or jive. The 16 couples are divided into four teams of four. The team competed in the Empress Ballroom, the spiritual home of ballroom PowerSi Technologies founded by Dr Patrick Palmer, Reader in Electrical Engineering (left), and two dancing, against 80 teams from 29 of his former PhD students, Dr Zhihan Wang and Dr Yalan Wang (centre) universities. Of the 32 Cambridge dancers, two are October 2008, 336 teams entered the serial industrial converters of renewable energy from the Department of Engineering; Blaise CUE Challenge business plan competitions. applications, including wind power, solar Thomson and Krisada Chaiyasarn. The team of PowerSi Technologies won energy and hybrid vehicles. The total Blaise a PhD Student in the Dialogue both Technology Prize and Cleantech Prize, available market of controllers in these Systems Group, Machine Intelligence pitching in front of a panel of Cambridge three sectors is worth $1.3bn in 2008, of Laboratory in the Information Engineering entrepreneurs, business angels and venture which we will take 20% within 5 years.” Division talks about how he got involved: “I capitalists. The team also won the first place Research on the control of power got involved with the dance team four years in the 21st Century China UK semiconductors has been led by Dr Palmer ago, when I initially came to Cambridge to Entrepreneurship Competition out of more since the early 1990s. The AVC has been do an MPhil. I went along to the trials to see than 200 entries from both the UK and developed as an intelligent and cost- what it was all about, got selected for the China. The team presented at the China UK efficient method to drive and control power team and couldn’t stop competing ever Showcase held in London in June with semiconductor devices, including Insulated- since! prestigious delegates from both the UK and Gate Bipolar Transistors or IGBTs which are Krisada a PhD student in Computer vision China. The two prizes include £12,000 semiconductor devices, noted for high for tunnel inspection, in the Geotechnical cash, free IP services worth £5,500 and efficiency and fast switching, and Research Group, says “I started dancesport other free advisory services. Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect with the Cambridge University Dancesport PowerSi Technologies was recently Transistors or MOSFETs which are devices Team and competed in a beginner level founded by Dr Patrick Palmer, Reader in used to amplify or switch electronic signals. during my 3rd year in the Department. Electrical Engineering, and two of his The AVC exerts intelligent feedback control Despite having to stop dancing in the 4th former PhD students, Dr Zhihan Wang and on conventional power devices for the first year, I began dancing again during my 1st Dr Yalan Wang, from the Electronics, Power time that enables them to have user- year of the PhD study in the intermediate and Energy Conversion group of the defined and well-behaved switching latin dance and became a finalist in most Department. Their winning business plan is performance. The team has been actively major competitions including the Inter-Varsity to promote the technologies for power cooperating with Cambridge Enterprise on Dancesport Competition (IIVDC). semiconductors and controllers in the patent filing and commercialisation. The 36th Varsity match was held on renewable energy applications. The AVC demonstrator products are Saturday 2 May 2009. Cambridge won PowerSi Technologies has developed currently in production and expected to be making it three wins in a row against their and patented a technology AVC (Active adopted to control tens of IGBTs in series Oxford rivals. Voltage Controller) that will revolutionise connection in a large-capacity Static Dancesport is a half blue sport for both energy conversion through the intelligent Compensator in China which is a national men and women. Cambridge dancers have control of power semiconductor devices. By project funded by the Ministry of Science also won extraordinary full blues for 4 of our using AVC, electric energy can be more and Technology of China. This will be a women whose performances demanded efficiently transformed from one form into big challenge in the power electronics greater recognition by virtue of their the other form (e.g. from AC to DC). field. outstanding success, both against university Zhihan says “Our Active Voltage Controller, competition and on the open circuit. the most intelligent controller today, will reduce the total cost of a conversion system For more information, please contact The Cambridge University Dancesport by 40%, improve the efficiency by 10% Dr Zhihan Wang at: [email protected] Team website: and enhance reliability. Our entry market is Website: www.powersitech.com www.srcf.ucam.org/cudt/pages

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 11 Enhancing CAPE-abilities in photonics and electronics

A unique model of industrial-academic partnership is demonstrating how UK Research and Development can stay ahead of the game in a rapidly moving electronics market.

retained within the University and the industrial partners benefit from preferential licensing. This closed model of partnership is intended to provide the best and most rapid route of linking breakthrough research to market implementation.

Looking forwards Getting CAPE off the ground required initial funding of £10 million, raised entirely from its industrial partners (which originally also included Marconi as a founding member), and CAPE remains self-funded. As the Steering Committee now looks forward to the next five years, it recognises the importance of building on this successful partnership, aiming to expand back to four, or perhaps five, Strategic Partners whose business interests retain the cross-supply- chain nature of CAPE. Provision is also made for CAPE Associate companies in special areas of technology; the involvement of Carl Zeiss SMT as CAPE Associate for From left to right: Bill Crossland (CAPE), Shinichi Sasagawa (ALPS Electric), Bill Milne (CAPE), Peter Electron Beam Imaging has been particularly Woodland (ALPS Electric), Ian White (CIKC) and Terry Clapp (Dow Corning and CIKC) successful. The SPA already allows for ‘Third-Party’ projects with companies The fast-expanding advanced photonics and Corning, with Carl Zeiss SMT as an outside CAPE, which may become electronics field is dominated globally by Associate Member. important in the recent CAPE initiative on large, often non-European, industrial An important remit was that the the role of electronics and photonics in the operations capable of investing tens of industrial partners be global players with a sustainability of the built environment. billions of dollars in research and wide geographical spread and should development. This creates certain represent non-overlapping areas of the challenges, as Professor Bill Milne, Head of supply chain (ALPS makes electronic Innovation to commercialisation the Electrical Engineering Division, components and Dow Corning is a CAPE’s success has been instrumental in explained: “The problem in Cambridge and materials supplier). “Without this we allowing Electrical Engineering to bid the UK is how do you stay involved, engage couldn’t hope to have sufficient oversight of successfully to create the Cambridge with global players and maintain a the market,’ explained Professor Bill Integrated Knowledge Centre (CIKC), competitive edge in an industry when the Crossland, CAPE Chairman, ‘and the fact funded by the Engineering and Physical bulk of investment is being made that Strategic Partners were not in Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Dr Terry elsewhere?” The Centre for Advanced competition enabled us to develop the Clapp, one of the CAPE founders and CIKC Photonics and Electronics (CAPE), which degree of trust and readiness to share Director, explained: “Although the CIKC Professor Milne directs, is Cambridge’s strategy and road-mapping that was works very differently to CAPE – it’s an answer: a unique way of working with needed.” open partnership funded with government industry involving an equal partnership An imperative from the outset was that agency money – the two are highly between the University and a small group CAPE would not be about contract research complementary, with the CIKC providing an of key industrial companies. – instead, the partnership is focused on integral role in moving proof-of-principle inventing and developing materials, research carried out in CAPE on to the Strategic Partners processes, components and systems that prototyping stage.” Professor Milne added: CAPE, based in a purpose-built building at will have a major, long-term impact in “CAPE and the CIKC effectively represent the West Cambridge Site and housed photonics and electronics through research the two poles of how academia can interact within the Department of Engineering’s effectively jointly commissioned within the with industry. Together, they enable cutting- Electrical Engineering Division, is now four partnership. edge research to be effectively and quickly years into its five-year strategic agreement Uniquely, the governance of CAPE transferred for the benefit of society.” and has attracted international attention as through its Steering Committee is shared This highly successful model is bringing a model of university–industry collaboration. between the academic and industrial results: two ground-breaking projects have The two current Strategic Partners are the partners with precisely equal votes. Through reached important milestones in their Japanese company ALPS Electric Company CAPE’s Strategic Partnership Agreement development. Professor Ian White, CIKC’s Ltd and the US-based company Dow (SPA), ownership of intellectual property is Principal Investigator and also Head of the

12 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 School of Technology and Head of that can be integrated into mobile phones, furniture – everything from advertising Photonics Research in Electrical Engineering, personal digital assistants and laptop billboards to displays of public information. explained: ’These projects are excellent computers. But, as yet, no current display technology examples of CAPE technologies that have The facilities for assembling prototype can challenge good-quality print. To be been originated, researched and patented in micro-display for holographic projectors able to deliver the size and the reflective the University, licensed to our partner have been built up in CAPE with the viewing characteristics of printed media, companies, and are now being prototyped support of the CIKC. Early tests are now current proposals are turning to electronic under the CIKC.’ being carried out in ALPS UK on a ‘e’-ink. miniature full-colour projector that will be At CAPE, the SiLC project is based on Projecting the future demonstrated at the ALPS Show in Tokyo the use of smectic A liquid crystals and Imagine a projector the size of a credit card, in September 2008. coloured dyes. This is a true e-ink capable of showing real-time images and technology; one electrical pulse colours the expending the minimum of energy. This is ‘Within CAPE, our UK engineers liquid crystal ink and a second pulse clears the goal of a flagship project at CAPE in engage with renowned academics it. Pictures can remain for many years with partnership with ALPS Electric. in Group-funded research, creating no electrical power feeding them. Conventional projectors take a small new business opportunities for our brightly illuminated image of a scene and ‘Our partnership with CAPE helps then make it larger by projecting it onto a UK operations.’ Dow Corning accelerate our Peter Woodland screen. Because the small image absorbs technology development efforts and most of the light that illuminates it, the Managing Director, ALPS Electric (UK) Ltd process is extremely energy expensive. provides access to other potential The idea behind the Video Holographic Displaying the future business opportunities.’ Projection Display System (ViHPS) is to Reflective colour displays that can open up Dan Futter represent the image to be projected by a the world of ‘electronically controlled print’ Executive Director for Dow Corning’s completely transparent, computer- are a grand challenge for the display Business & Technology Incubator generated, liquid crystal hologram – it industry. A CAPE project in collaboration blocks no light, instead representing the with Dow Corning has electronic posters image by delaying the light as it passes within its sights. For more information about CAPE, through. The advantage of these projections Flat-panel liquid crystal display panels please visit www-cape.eng.cam.ac.uk is that they reduce the power consumption such as television screens have finally This article originally appeared in and the size of the projector, making micro- displaced the cathode ray tube, and the Research Horizons (Issue 7 September projectors possible. industry is now worth more than $100 2008), the University of Cambridge Recent developments are creating a new billion per year. A large market sector for research magazine: market for highly portable micro-projectors the display industry lies with street www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk New home for Institute for Manufacturing The newest building on the University of Cambridge’s developing science and technology campus at West Cambridge has opened its doors.

The Department’s Institute for The building, designed by world-famous the West Cambridge site will help foster Manufacturing (IfM) formally took Arup Associates, will create an international links with other researchers in the University. possession of the keys to the building from centre for industrial innovation, its design These include the Computer Laboratory, the developer Kier Marriott this week at a reflecting and enhancing the IfM’s Nanoscience Centre and the Centre for the special event to celebrate the completion of integrated cross-disciplinary approach to Physics of Medicine. the £15 million building. global industrial issues. Several research groups from the Guest of Honour at the event was It is the first University building to have Department of Engineering, of which the leading British industrialist Dr Alan Reece achieved an excellent BREEAM rating in IfM is a part, are also based nearby, (pictured right), whose major donation to recognition of its environmental including the Energy, Fluid Mechanics and the Institute enabled the building to go performance. Features contributing to the Turbomachinery and the Centre for ahead. It will be named the Alan Reece building’s environmental impact rating Advanced Photonics and Electronics. Building in his honour. He spoke at the include the widespread use of natural event of how very pleased he was to be ventilation, good levels of natural light, and involved in such a successful, high quality the installation of a biomass boiler. and worthwhile project. New facilities for the IfM’s technical The striking two-storey split-level research groups will include workshops for building to the south side of the West the design of new commercial products and Cambridge site is based around an laboratories for research into new attractive central courtyard and will provide applications of laser, radio-identification, laboratory and office space for the Institute. and inkjet technologies. The IfM was established in 1998 with Substantial funding for the building has the aim of linking education, research and also come from the Gatsby Charitable practice and engineering, management and Foundation and the Government’s Scientific economics with a strong industrial Research Infrastructure Fund. orientation. The Alan Reece Building’s location on Professor Mike Gregory and Dr Alan Reece

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 13 The Chancellor, His Royal Highness Prince Philip visits the Department of Engineering

The Chancellor, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, visited the Department on Thursday 12th February.

developed a small-scale wind turbine capable of providing a practical solution for electrifying remote regions. Barnaby Sleep is a member of Full Blue Racing, a team who take part in the international ‘Formula Student’ competition. Barnaby explained that ‘Formula Student’ challenges teams of students to design and build a small formula-style race car, with the design brief that the car is a prototype for a 1000 unit-per-year production run for a vehicle intended for amateur autocross racers. Alex Ridge, a second year student, is a member of the Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (CAUV) team. He spoke to the Chancellor about how the team design and build their own underwater robots and then perform realistic missions in the underwater environment at an annual European competition – see p4. This encourages young engineers and scientists to think about underwater technology and its future possibilities, as well as fostering ties between the students and the organisations involved in AUV technologies. Helen Cavill spoke to the Chancellor about the excellent Engineering Outreach work that goes on here in the Department. Some activities are staged for schools and groups; others are open to the general public. Regular free events such as the Discover Engineering family workshops are so popular that they are booked up well in advance. The events are a great opportunity The Chancellor started his visit at the ‘Heat in particular the measurement and control for local families to visit the Engineering Lab’ where he met Anthony Law, a fourth- of pollution. Nick went on to demonstrate Department, meet some real engineers and year Aerospace and Aerothermal the gas engine in the student teaching lab. complete a fun hands-on challenge. Engineering student and team manager of The Chancellor’s party accompanied by Working with more than 120 the Cambridge University Eco Racing team, Professors Collings and Hochgreb, and Mr undergraduate and graduate volunteers, Joy along with other members of the team. The Law shared a buffet lunch with the Warde the Outreach Officer stages a busy Chancellor viewed the eco racing car and following students: programme of activities at the Department was shown how the design and Iain Waugh, a fourth year student who of Engineering for children, families and technologies have evolved. is member of the Cambridge University young people. Each year these attract Professor Simone Hochgreb then Spaceflight team, told the Chancellor about participation by around 2,000 people, many showed the Chancellor the Cambridge High CU Spaceflight and their aim to launch a of whom come from a 20-mile radius of Pressure Combustion Facility (CHPCF), a rocket into space for under £1,000. During Cambridge. state of the art test unit for the study of various test flights to the edge of space a Sakthy Selvakumaran from Cambridge combustion and instabilities. Simone tiny camera, included as part of the University Engineers Without Borders (EWB) demonstrated the type of testing that can payload, has been used to capture the spoke about the work of EWB a student-led be carried out in areas such as combustion dramatic curvature of the Earth. The CU charity that focuses on removing barriers to phenomena and pollutant formation in gas Spaceflight team have also been involved development using engineering. The turbines and car engines. with some exciting outreach work with programmes provide opportunities for Professor Nick Collings showed the schools in the community. young engineers in the UK to learn about Chancellor his engine test cells and Sam Cocks, a second year student, technology’s role in development. By taking explained how these are used in his spoke to the Chancellor about his three part in the activities, and with the support research on internal combustion engines, months working in Kenya where he of the EWB-UK community, EWB members

14 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 are making a difference to people’s lives has analysed the great teaching he has that engineering could be a “legitimate around the world. Sakthy herself is due to experienced as an undergraduate here at career choice”. Helen spoke to the go to Peru to work on a micro hydro the Department, which he shared with the Chancellor about providing support, project. Chancellor. inspiration and information to women Karen Ball, a fourth year student, spoke Helen Randell is studying engineering at working in science, engineering and about her final year project which is in Cambridge, where 27 per cent of the technology. collaboration with McLaren Racing and students on the engineering courses are The Chancellor’s successful visit was concerns the dynamics of vehicles at their female, well above the national percentage co-ordinated by Jane Hunter, enabling him performance limit. of female studentship. She picked the to see a great deal of the work that goes Warren Rieutort-Louis, a fourth year programme after attending Headstart, one on in the Department. student, won the Engineering Subject of a number of education programmes run Centre Student Award 2008 for his essay by the Engineering Development Trust. ‘What makes a good lecturer?’, in which he Headstart opened her eyes to the possibility

A new centre will generate the scientists needed for Britain’s future The University of Cambridge has won funding for a new centre that will help generate the scientists needed for Britain’s future. This was announced by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK funding body for science and engineering. The new Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Commenting on the announcement carbon emissions, and discover new NanoScience will equip the next generation Professor Baumberg said: “This is a healthcare solutions for an ageing of researchers with the skills and experience wonderful investment in young researchers, population. This is an exciting, innovative to become nanoscience entrepreneurs by complementing the strong nano-fabrication approach to training young researchers and turning basic science research into future infrastructure and world-class will help build a better future for Britain. applications. interdisciplinary groups across the University EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training are The DTC offers a unique opportunity to of Cambridge”. a new approach to training PhD students, bring together research expertise and best Professor Peter Littlewood, Head of the creating communities of researchers training practice. The EPSRC funding, of Department of Physics, said: “Cambridge working on current and future challenges. over £6 million, will support over 50 PhD University has a strong track record in 17 of the new centres will be industrial students over the next five years for a four taking innovations in Nanomaterials and training centres that will equip their year postgraduate training programme converting them into commercial students with the business skills they need spanning a range of disciplines. endeavours. Here we will expose PhD to turn pioneering ideas into products and By integrating MPhil-level training, students at an early stage to innovation, services, boosting their impact on the UK’s including highly-rated enterprise and grow the next general of entrepreneurs economy. components, students will be stretched in to feed the Cambridge phenomenon.” The multidisciplinary centres bring new directions. The DTC will provide Minister of State for Science and together diverse areas of expertise to train postgraduates with a broader experience Innovation, Lord Drayson, announced the engineers and scientists with the skills, than currently possible in either graduate £250 million initiative which will create 44 knowledge and confidence to tackle today’s research or technological innovation. training centres across the UK and generate evolving issues. They also create new The training includes a first year of over 2000 PhD students. The students will working cultures, build relationships taught nanoscience courses across physics, tackle some of the biggest problems between teams in universities and forge engineering, chemistry and material science currently facing Britain such as climate lasting links with industry. with mini-projects and nano-lab practicals. change, energy, our ageing population, and Students in these centres will receive a This is followed by an interdisciplinary PhD high-tech crime. formal programme of taught coursework to placement in one of the nanoscience Lord Drayson said: “Britain faces many develop and enhance their technical research groups around the University. challenges in the 21st Century and needs interdisciplinary knowledge, and broaden An important element of the scientists and engineers with the right skills their set of skills. Alongside this they will programme is exposure to innovation and to find answers to these challenges, build a undertake a challenging and original business courses through the University’s strong economy and keep us globally research project at PhD level. Judge Business School. competitive. EPSRC’s doctoral training Drawing together a team from the centres will provide a new wave of Physics, Materials Science, Electrical engineers and scientists to do the job.” For further information please visit the Engineering, and Chemistry Departments it He continued: “These new centres will Nano Science and Technology Doctoral will be led by Professor Jeremy Baumberg help to develop clean renewable energy, Training Centre website: http://np.phy. and co-directed by Professor Mark Blamire. fight high-tech crime, assist in reducing cam.ac.uk/NanoDTC1.htm

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 15 EDC graduates participated in Why materials the 48-Hour Inclusive Design crack

Dr Gábor Csányi from the Challenge in Tokyo Mechanics, Materials and Design division and his team have Five research students and Lecturer Nathan Crilly from the recently had a research paper Department’s Engineering Design Centre (EDC) took part in the published in the journal Nature. 48-Hour Inclusive Design Challenge in Tokyo.

Special configuration of the tip of a crack in silicon The research explores how and why materials crack with the hope that by understanding how cracks propagate, scientists and engineers will be better able to prevent cracks from occurring. Using computer simulations, they studied the motion of atoms that takes place when cracks occur in brittle materials, such as those used in making electronic devices, solar cells, surface coatings and armour. Surprisingly, it turned out that they needed to resort to using Quantum Mechanics, the most fundamental theory that describes the From left to right: Nathan Eng, Ana Medeiros, Malia Kilpinen, Andrew Muir Wood, Anna Mieczakowski physical world, to explain why the motion of cracks in silicon are unstable, and why The Challenge was collaboratively which can be used for both hydration these cracks exhibit jogs and kinks as the organised by the Royal College of Art and sanitation during the times of two halves of the material part at high Helen Hamlyn Centre, Nikkei Design and disaster. This product won two awards, speed. Tokyo University. The teams worked to a one for ‘Best Design’ and the other one brief on the theme of disaster. “Design a for ‘Most Innovative Product’, making product, service or system Team A the main winner of the (communication or otherwise) that will be Challenge. of fundamental assistance to a range of Team B, including Malia Kilpinen and people, including older and disabled Andrew Muir Wood, developed the people, in the event of a natural disaster ‘Crowdscape™’, which is an LCD-based (earthquake, floods, typhoon or fire) navigation system that can be mounted within a high- density urban on floors and walls of such public areas environment.” as train, bus and underground stations, Challenge participants were divided as well as airports. Team C won the ‘Best into three design teams (A-C) consisting Technology’ award. of, among others, in-house designers Team C, including Anna from leading Japanese companies, Mieczakowski, proposed the ‘Know Your engineering graduates from the University Way’ campaign, which stressed the Dr Gábor Csányi of Cambridge and the University of importance of preparing and establishing Tokyo. Each team, led by an experienced a mental image of where the exits in a UK designer, worked with a disabled building are and how to get to them Further information about Gábor’s design partner and had input from before a disaster strikes. Team C won the research can be found on his website: disaster professionals. ‘Best Theme’ award. https://camtools.cam.ac.uk/access/wiki Team A, including Ana Medeiros and /site/5b59f819-0806-4a4d-0046- Nathan Eng, developed the ‘Elixir’ bag, bcad6b9ac70f/lay_crack_blurb.html

16 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 Alumni Feature: From Cambridge to Kabul

Harry Wardill studied Engineering here at Cambridge from 2000-2004. He now lives in Kabul in Afghanistan working for an organisation called the Turquoise Mountain Foundation, working as a project engineer on the Murad Khane (Old City) regeneration project. His initial contract is for one year. Below, he tells his story from Cambridge to Kabul.

Measuring up in the House of Screens

The House of Screens

Thinking back, this journey really began in that I came across that really stood out was my second summer at Cambridge, when a the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (TMF) classicist friend of mine suggested travelling based in Kabul, Afghanistan. As luck would overland from Istanbul to Cairo to take in a have it they were recruiting, so I applied, few of the sites en route. Having never left managed to secure a position, and flew out Europe, I was keen to broaden my horizons, at the end of January 2009. and jumped at the opportunity. The trip not TMF is involved with the regeneration of only ignited my passion for the people, Murad Khane, the historic commercial architecture, art and food this part of the centre in the old city of Kabul, as well as world has to offer, but also confirmed running an educational institute for through its rich built history that the switch traditional Afghan arts, which will ultimately I had made from mechanical to structural be housed in a number of the regenerated engineering was the right one. The buildings. I have been employed as a following summer was spent working at designer and project manager for the Alan Baxter & Associates (ABA) in London, restoration of two courtyard houses dating Harry (left) giving the design presentation to getting a taste for structural engineering from the late 19th century, one noteworthy the team with a conservation leaning. After for its decretive woodwork screens (The graduating from Cambridge, with the House of Screens), and the other for its accommodation for visiting teachers to the memory of my first trip still at the forefront intricate plasterwork niches (The House of institute, and as part of the woodwork of my mind, I decided to head out to Iran Niches). Both of these structures are school. The main thing that has struck me and Pakistan for a few months of currently in poor condition, primarily due to during my relatively short time here is the wandering before returning to ABA to the rubbish that has been allowed to real buzz of activity down on site in Murad embark on my career. accumulate over the years, resulting in a Khane. At the height of the building season In contrast to now, 2004 was a great much higher ground level than the there will be over 300 workmen, many time to graduate, and the work at ABA was buildings were originally designed for. This learning new skills from highly trained interesting and varied. During my four years has led to the rotting of timber sole plates craftsmen. It is the immediate effectiveness there I worked on many different projects and column bases, erosion of earth brick of this project that is most satisfying to ranging from the restoration of a 1920’s walls, and settlement of foundations. Other witness, and I am very much looking steel framed building on Regent Street for problems have occurred due to timber forward to seeing my two buildings the Crown Estate, to the regeneration of a elements being removed for use as progress over the next year and a half. historic tin mine complex in the old firewood to help survive the harsh winters, industrial heartland of Cornwall. Having general neglect, and in some cases direct completed the process to become a rocket hits at the time when Kabul was a You can find out more about the chartered member of the IStructE, I started battle ground during the civil war. The two work of the Turquoise Mountain to look abroad for opportunities in the field buildings, which will be completed by Foundation by visiting of building conservation. One organisation summer of next year, will be used as www.turquoisemountain.org

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 17 New British entry to the World Solar Challenge

Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) has released images of the team’s new solar-powered racing car design.

The vehicle, currently codenamed ‘Bethany’, will compete in the World Solar Challenge in Australia in October 2009. The independent student team, sponsored by Cambridge Precision and HP, hopes to provide the UK’s best ever performance in the 3000km endurance race across the outback. They will compete against university and corporate teams from across the world, some with budgets of over £1 million. By taking an uncompromising approach to efficiency and performance, CUER has developed a vehicle capable of cruising at 60mph using the same power as a hairdryer. The car will weigh just 160kg and sports 6m 2 of the world’s highest efficiency silicon solar cells. In order to achieve the car’s extraordinary performance, CUER’s engineering team has systematically reduced energy usage for each part of the car. Aerodynamics, rolling resistance, weight and electrical efficiency have all been optimised to create a vehicle that uses up to 50 times less power than a normal petrol car and has Capable of 60mph using the same power as a hairdryer, Cambridge University Eco Racing’s new potentially infinite range. Extensive solar racing car showcases cutting-edge environmentally-friendly technology, applicable to the next computer modelling and simulation have generation of electric vehicles. (Image produced by Lovegrove Studio.) been necessary to achieve this, using Dassault Systèmes’ SolidWorks and Simulia vehicle demonstrates the enormous Technical Director Charlie Watt said: packages for mechanical design, ANSYS’s potential of electric vehicle technologies. “Manufacture is progressing well and we Fluent for aerodynamic simulation, as well Transportation currently accounts for around hope to have a finished car by June, leaving as National Instrument’s LabVIEW and The 35% of the UK’s energy use so this is us time for extensive testing in the run-up MathWorks’ MatLab and Simulink for obviously an area in which we can have a to the race.” The official launch of the new systems modelling. big impact on climate change.” car is expected to take place in July. During the race across the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide, four Cambridge University Eco drivers will rotate in four-hour driving shifts. CUER sponsorship packages are Racing’s new solar racing car The drivers will undergo months of training still available at all levels for the to cope with the intense heat of the World Solar Challenge. Interested will undertake a 3000km Australian sun and their unusual seating parties please visit journey through the Australian position. During the race they will only be www.cuer.co.uk/sponsorship Outback during the World Solar required to steer the car and stay alert, or email [email protected] Challenge 2009 and the team because the vehicle’s advanced cruise to find out more. control system (built using HP and National hopes will set a new British Instruments hardware) will automatically record for success in the race. adjust its speed according to road conditions and weather forecasts. Under its solar skin, the racing car is The CUER team has used the experience simply an ultra-efficient electric vehicle. The gained from building the prototype vehicle, technologies used are therefore applicable Affinity, in the new “Bethany” design. to the commercial electric cars that are Affinity was the first solar-powered car to beginning to appear on our roads. drive legally on UK roads and the team Technologies used include a 98% efficient drove it from Lands End to John O’Groats in electric hub motor, control systems June 2008. The team is now part way into providing battery management (supplied by the manufacture of the new World Solar REAPsystems) and regenerative braking, Challenge ‘09 car, with moulds currently lightweight mechanical design, and carbon being machined from material supplied by fibre composite bodywork. CUER’s Team Huntsman Advanced Materials and the Manager, Anthony Law, commented: “At a canopy being built by A V Engineering time when the automotive industry is being Services, whilst Cambridge Precision is forced to look at a low-carbon future, our machining hundreds of other components.

18 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 architecture has been developed to The Intelligent Airport overcome this limitation by dynamically rewriting addresses. The demonstration showed this technology in use for live Airport terminals will increasingly require systems with high levels internet traffic. of computational power to provide the necessary intelligent automation; high quality services to passengers; stringent levels of Active Tag Location by University safety and security that are as unobtrusive as possible; efficient College London: processing of commercial goods and luggage; high quality The ability to locate passengers within a terminal will provide the airport and airlines information systems; airport transportation systems and with valuable operational information. This appropriate support for in-house commercial ventures. demonstration showed how an active tag can be used to locate passengers with approximately 1m resolution.

Passive Tag Location and Data Overlay by University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering: If it were possible to extend the read range of passive RFID tags to 10m, it would enable zonal location information, which is sufficient for many applications in the airport. This demonstration showed how the use of a Radio over Fibre Distributed Antenna System (RoF DAS) can improve the coverage of passive RFID and also how the service can be overlaid on a WiFi distribution network. The project has also generated a prize winner; George Gordon, an engineering graduate from Auckland University has won a Rutherford scholarship to do his PhD working on TINA here in Cambridge. George has been studying ways to connect Researcher Michael Crisp demonstrating the TINA passenger location system whereby the passenger information from independent electronic is tracked via monitoring of an RFID tag on the boarding card sources in an “intelligent airport” using fibre optic and radio frequency technologies. The The Intelligent Airport (TINA) project seeks to to view first phase demonstrations by the doctoral scholarship at Cambridge marks the develop a next generation advanced wired Universities. There were also presentations 100th anniversary of Ernest Rutherford and wireless network to meet the potential from speakers representing Ofcom, the Hong receiving the Nobel Prize. The Rutherford requirements for future “intelligent Kong Airport Project and the Department’s Foundation said the Auckland University networks” within an airport environment. To Institute for Manufacturing’s RFID team. The student had shown exceptional academic address this major topic, a wide range of following Projects were demonstrated: ability. skills are required including those in computer architectures, protocols, fixed and Passenger and Data Flow For further information please contact wireless links and sensing units, in particular Modelling by University of Leeds: Professor Richard Penty at: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The [email protected] project involves four research groups: A computer-based design tool was University College London, the University of demonstrated. The demonstration simulated Cambridge (in both Electrical Engineering passenger flow through a realistic departure and the Computer Laboratory) and the lounge in the busy morning period. University of Leeds, who are working Passengers visit retail outlets and business together to address different aspects of the lounges before departing on their flights. network, collaborating with partner The simulation also predicts the time/space companies including Arup, BAA, Boeing, varying mobile bandwidth requirements for Laing O’Rourke, Motorola, Red-M, Tyco and both current and future scenarios. Zinwave. Since the instigation of the project, other companies have expressed interest in MOOSE – Highly Scalable becoming involved. The research groups Ethernet Infrastructure by have forged new links with Professor Henry Chan of Hong Kong Polytechnic University University of Cambridge, who has developed a sister project, involving Computer Laboratory: Cisco and the Hong Kong International As the number of networked devices used Airport Authority. by passengers and airport staff increases, George Gordon an engineering graduate A Showcase Event in October 2008 current Ethernet switch technology becomes from Auckland University has won a Rutherford provided an overview of the advances to unable to manage the number of MAC scholarship to do his PhD working on the date within the project, allowing participants addresses involved. The MOOSE switch Intelligent airport project here in Cambridge

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 19 Clockwork plants How do plants tell the time and the passing of the seasons? Plant scientists are enlisting the help of engineers in their quest to uncover the rhythms of circadian clocks.

concentration goes up and down with a 24- hour rhythm governed by the plant circadian clock. Dr Webb and colleagues have discovered that what causes the rhythms of calcium to change is a molecule called cyclic ADP ribose (cADPR). By studying Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), the researchers found that the concentration of cADPR is regulated by the circadian clock genes and that fluctuations in calcium levels are caused by cADPR binding to protein channels in the internal membranes of plant cells, permitting calcium to enter the living part of the cell.

Loops within loops The next discovery was a surprise: not only is cADPR regulated by the circadian genes but many circadian-regulated genes are themselves regulated by cADPR. This led to the intriguing hypothesis that the clock genes cause 24-hour oscillations of both cADPR and calcium, which in turn regulate the level of activity of the clock genes as part of a new loop in the plant circadian Dr Alex Webb (left) Dr Jorge Gonçalves clock - a sort of loop within a loop. The problem was how to test this hypothesis. Ever since the French scientist Jean-Jacques working to understand the intricate This is where the skills of the engineers d’Ortous de Marian discovered in the 1700s processes of the daily clocks of plants. allowed an advance that could not be that patterns of leaf movement follow a 24- Recent findings have taken a surprising achieved using biological techniques alone. hour clock, our understanding has been turn, one that is benefiting from the By creating mathematical simulations of growing of the in-built clocks that plants application of engineering principles how a plant’s circadian system might and animals live by. ‘Circadian’ clocks are through a collaborative project with Dr behave, they were able to compare these important for living organisms to maintain Jorge Gonçalves in the Department of simulations with the behaviours of the rhythms of life and have evolved Engineering. The research, funded independently at least four times: in blue- principally by the Biotechnology and genetically modified plants with altered green algae, fungi, animals and plants. Biological Sciences Research Council cADPR levels. The results, published in Desynchronisation of the clock with the (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical December in Science magazine, environment has adverse effects - all too Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), is demonstrate the existence of this feedback familiar for those who have experienced the combining engineering control theory and loop. unpleasant feelings of disorientation during plant cell biology, with the result that novel ‘jet lag’, where the crossing of time zones tools are being developed to understand Running fast and slow disrupts the functioning of the circadian oscillating biological systems. One intriguing feature of these findings is system. that by interfering with cADPR signalling Plants, which are literally rooted to the Regulating rhythm the plant clock might be forced to run spot, use their circadian clocks to help them A circadian clock comprising 10-20 genes faster or slower. Dr Webb and Professor adapt to the night/day cycles of light and that form interconnecting feedback loops of Andrew Millar at the University of temperature caused by the rotation of the gene expression is present in every cell of Edinburgh found that mutant laboratory Earth, whether it is preparing for day-time the plant. Initiated by changes in light and strains of plants with clocks that run fast or photosynthesis or preventing night-time temperature, these linked loops of gene slow grow to half the size of neighbours water loss. Seasonal events like fruiting and expression control a huge amount of plant with a correctly functioning clock. leaf drop are also governed by the clock. biology; plants grow rhythmically, with Remarkably, when put in artificial light/dark Increasing our understanding of the rhythms of metabolism and even rhythms cycles that matched the ‘expectations’ of molecular mechanisms at work therefore of photosynthesis, and a third of all plant the mutant clocks, the mutant plants grew has wide implications: from the possibility of genes are switched on and off within a 24- better than normal healthy plants. It seems selective crop breeding, through increasing hour cycle. therefore that matching a clock to the local ecosystem productivity, to control of How can the activity of so few genes day-length conditions could have beneficial atmospheric CO 2. have such a pervasive effect on the biology effects on plant growth. Dr Alex Webb and colleagues Drs of plants? It seems that the level of calcium, By making a plant clock run faster for Antony Dodd and Michael Gardner in the a key regulator of cellular events in all short daylight hours or slower for long Department of Plant Sciences have been organisms, is crucial. In plant cells, the daylight hours, interesting opportunities

20 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 might arise in crop development for bioenergy and agricultural output. This To Centre Court: Paul McIlroy might in fact have been the accidental outcome of the selective breeding of barley by farmers thousands of years ago, Engineering graduate Paul McIlroy, has recently returned to the when they began moving the crop Department of Engineering to study for a PhD in real-time further northwards, where summer day- computer vision. In between graduating and starting his PhD, he length is longer. Working with colleagues at the National Institute of Agricultural has achieved a huge amount. Botany in Cambridge, Dr Webb is investigating the circadian clock of different barley varieties to see if this might be true. New mathematical tools Meanwhile, the collaboration between the engineers and plant biologists is continuing. One spin-off has been the development of new types of mathematical tools to understand complex systems. The tools used by control theory engineers have been very successful at designing a large number of technological systems, from the simple cruise control required to maintain the speed of a car, to more complex controls that allowinherently unstable aeroplanes to fly. When looking at biology, however, it’s clear that new mathematical tools are needed to analyse biological systems. Paul explains how it all happened: “Hawk- Engineering graduate James Leigh. The These systems are highly complex, Eye is a camera-based ball-tracking system system achieved the required ITF accuracy dynamic in space and time, have many that first made its name in cricket standard in New York in October 2005 and components that are often used to broadcasting, but is now most widely has since been employed as an umpiring perform multiple tasks, often involve known as the system which allows tennis aid at most major tennis events world-wide. feedback with clear non-linear players to challenge line-calls at elite-level Hawk-Eye now employs over 50 full-time behaviours, and, perhaps most tournaments including Wimbledon. In my staff with an in-house development team of challenging of all, biological data are fourth year as an undergraduate I had the six. typically expensive, lengthy to obtain and opportunity to pursue a research project “Following the success of the tennis noisy. To deal with the complexities of based on this system thanks to links forged system, Hawk-Eye was invited to work with biological systems, engineers Dr between the Machine Intelligence the Premier League to develop a goal-line Gonçalves and Dr Guy-Bart Stan are Laboratory and Hawk-Eye Innovations technology for football. Despite Hawk-Eye developing new theoretic mathematical Limited. successfully demonstrating its goal-line approaches to study such complex non- “I was offered a full-time role with the system to football’s IFAB committee in linear systems. As collaborations between company upon graduation and joined a 2008, FIFA voted last March to freeze biologists, engineers and mathematicians team of three other full-time staff. Hawk- development for now in favour of a trial of become more common, it seems that the Eye had recently been spun out as separate extra linesmen. The system is on ice for world of biology is changing. And company from Siemen’s Roke Manor now, but I expect the technology issue in Engineering Departments too are Research in Hampshire and in these early football will be revisited in the near future. changing: increasingly, engineers are days was operating from a portable cabin at “I am extremely fortunate to have had turning their expertise towards biological the Hampshire Rose Bowl cricket ground. the opportunity to work for such an systems such as plant growth, gene “I was initially responsible for improving exciting and successful company and to expression, cancer, cognition and the the underlying computer vision algorithms beating of the heart. the system is based on and I also enjoyed have been involved in the introduction of the opportunity to travel extensively to technology into sport. I had originally hoped to work in industry for a year or two For more information, please operate and develop the system at cricket before returning to academia to pursue a contact the authors Dr Alex Webb and tennis events around the world. ([email protected]) at the “In 2004 the International Tennis PhD in real-time computer vision. I am now Department of Plant Sciences or Dr Federation (ITF) announced that it wished to thoroughly enjoying my return to the Jorge Gonçalves ([email protected]) implement a electronic review system for Department and I feel my industry at the Department of Engineering. line-calls. Extensive development and experience has enabled me to fully This research was published in testing was carried out at venues from appreciate this valuable opportunity for Science (2007) 318, 1789-1792. Hampshire to Los Angeles over the course learning and research.” of more than a year to enable the system to This article originally appeared in meet the ITF’s stringent accuracy and Further information can be found Research Horizons (Issue 6 Summer reliability criteria. I took on the role of on the Machine Intelligence 2008), the University of Cambridge Technical Director in 2005 and was joined in Laboratory webpages: research magazine my development team by fellow http://mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/milab.html

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 21 developed by machine learners allows Cracking the code of a killer computers to extract useful patterns, rules and information from a huge jumble of More than one million people die from malaria every year – data. most of them in the world’s poorest areas. In this case, Karsten, working closely with Professor Irmtraud Meyer at the team of researchers, led by Professor Zoubin University of British Columbia in Canada as Ghahramani, focuses on understanding and well as Dr Arnab Pain and other researchers devising computer algorithms - the at the Sanger Institute, developed software sequences of operations which allow which enabled scientists to make computer programmes to perform a given predictions about where they might find task. It was precisely one such set of certain genes in the sequence. algorithms developed by Dr Karsten “Imagine it this way,” Karsten says: Borgwardt which towards the end of last “We want to be able to give a label to year helped scientists at the Sanger Institute every part of the genome sequence as we near Cambridge to decode the genetic move along it. We want to be able to say: make-up of the malaria parasite ‘This part of the sequence affects that gene, Plasmodium knowlesi. this part of the sequence belongs to this Until recently, only four species of part of this gene.” malaria were known to affect humans. “Finding the most likely label for each Plasmodium knowlesi was thought mainly part of the sequence is basically a to be a cause of malaria in monkeys, but in mathematical problem - it depends on fact scientists had been grossly probability. Machine learning and statistics Electron micrograph shows a Malarial sporozoite underestimating its effects. Today, it is can help scientists to label the sequence migrating through the cytoplasm of midgut emerging as the fifth human malaria and establish how the parasite works. epithelia. Photo courtesy of Ute Frevert published parasite and is particularly dangerous in Because not every parasite is the same, they in a Public Library of Science journal south-east Asia, where people often live can then spot the genes which are only While it is no surprise to find Cambridge close to the monkeys and mosquitos which present in one particular malaria species.” scholars at the forefront of the battle carry it. Ultimately, it is this knowledge of the against the disease, crucial research is Although all malaria parasites are parasite’s code that will lead scientists to underway not just in subjects like similar, each new species has a unique set creating a vaccine. In the meantime, biochemistry and physiology, but in the of tricks and disguises which stop the host’s Borgwardt and his colleagues are interested unlikely setting of the Department of immune system from fighting it off. This is in how they might provide similar support Engineering. all the more important because to treat to those mapping the genomes of entirely Malaria is one of the world’s worst malaria rapid recognition and an early different species using the same health problems and one of its biggest response is vital. By decoding its genome - comparative method. killers. We may not feel its impact very the complete set of genetic information “The probability of finding a gene that often here in the UK, but in South and controlling its behaviour - scientists were is similar to a gene of a related species Central America, Asia, the Middle East and - able to spot the “cloaking devices” used by depends on which species you are looking in particular - Africa, it can be devastating. Plasmodium knowlesi and move a step at,” he adds. “This means that our According to the World Health closer to developing drugs and vaccines to algorithm has to be able to adapt to each Organisation, more than one million people fight the disease. genome you want to decipher. New die from its effects every 12 months. But what does all this have to do with mathematical questions are being Children in Africa can expect to have algorithms developed at the Engineering generated all the time as more comparative between one and five episodes of malaria Department? To crack Plasmodium gene finding gets underway. By answering fever in a year. And every 30 seconds, knowlesi’s code, scientists used a technique them, we may ultimately be able to help to malaria kills another child. called “comparative gene finding”. This solve a whole range of biological The sheer scale of that impact has led to involves taking a similar species (another problems.” internationally-backed initiatives such as Roll malaria parasite) whose genes have already This research was reported in Nature Back Malaria, which aims to have been located and identified, and then journal last year: ‘The genome of the simian significantly reduced global deaths from the looking for the same genes in the and human malaria parasite Plasmodium disease by 2010. Treating it, however, and unmapped species. knowlesi’ in Nature 455, 799-803 (9 creating the as-yet-elusive malaria vaccine, is “In any genome we have a very long October 2008). easier said than done. To cure it, you have string of sequence information,” Karsten to know how it works. To do that, you have explains over the phone from the Max The Machine Learning Group, here at to understand what makes malaria parasites Planck Institute in Tübingen, Germany, the Department, are working on a similar to or different from one another. where he now works. “To work out the number of research projects at the And to achieve that, you have to know position of the different genes within the intersection of machine learning and where to look. genome we need to find parts of the computational biology, ranging from Which takes us from the world’s worst sequence which are shared by the genome new algorithms for predicting how malaria hotspots to the unlikely setting of we already understand.” proteins fold, models for learning the the Department of Engineering. Strange as The problem is where to look. Any regulatory networks of genes, to it may seem, researchers here are producing genome contains a baffling quantity of methods for discovering biomarkers computer software which has already sequence information which makes spotting for diseases. http://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk proven essential in the global fight against the similarities and differences rather like the disease. trying to find a needle in a haystack. This article originally appeared in Newsletter The work is being undertaken in the Fortunately, this is precisely what computer The Magazine for the Staff of the University Department’s Machine Learning Group. This algorithms are designed to do: The software of Cambridge, February/March 2009.

22 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 Liquid crystal lasers promise cheaper, high colour resolution laser television

Researchers at the Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) are leading the way towards the development of extremely high colour resolution laser displays using liquid crystal laser technology.

to alter the degree of periodicity of the macroscopic molecular structure. A further merit of this technology is that the emission can be chosen to be at any desired wavelength across the visible range through careful control, chemically, of the macroscopic material properties. A gradient in the periodicity of the liquid crystal structure can therefore be formed, which gives rise to simultaneous different emission wavelengths across the device. Such a feature is not readily achievable with existing laser technologies. Liquid crystal lasers, however, are not merely restricted in their use to laser displays. Researchers at CMMPE are also developing applications for their use in infra-red medical diagnostic tools, telecommunication devices and holographic projection. This research is on-going and is part of the four-year Basic Technology Research Grant ‘COSMOS’ funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to develop a new generation of micron sized tunable coherent light sources based on ordered organic periodic Polychromatic laser emission from a gradient pitch liquid crystal cell, pumped from a single optical source structures. The research programme is a joint venture between research groups in the Department of Chemistry’s Melville Laser displays are new to the market, and replace the individual RGB lasers that are Laboratory, the Department of are currently being developed by a number currently required in emerging laser displays. Engineering’s Centre of Photonic Systems of electronics manufacturers. In a laser This would facilitate a reduction in the group and the Centre of Molecular display, pixels of light emission are fabrication and materials cost of this Materials for Photonics and Electronics generated from three separate red, green currently fabrication-expensive technology. (CMMPE) group and the Department of and blue (RGB) laser sources. They therefore Furthermore, liquid crystal lasers are less Physics Optoelectronics group and have a much narrower spectral linewidth likely to suffer from problems such as Biological and Soft Systems group compared to the relatively broadband RGB speckle, which are commonly associated sources from other display technologies, with conventional laser display systems. including CRT, plasma, LCD and even the The liquid crystal laser itself is based on More information can be found on latest organic light-emitting diode (OLED) a similar device architecture as a the Centre of Molecular Materials displays. When these three narrow linewidth conventional liquid crystal display. Liquid for Photonics and Electronics red, green and blue sources are combined crystals are fast becoming an alternative (CMMPE) group website: in a laser display, they offer unprecedented medium for use as the feedback structure www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/CMMPE/index. depths of colour resolution over competing for a wide variety of miniature laser devices. html Or from Professor Harry Coles display technologies. Certain liquid crystal phases, in particular directly at: [email protected] CMMPE has been performing extensive the chiral nematic phase, spontaneously research into a new form of laser self-organize to form a helical structure with Articles on this research appeared in: technology based on liquid crystals. In a a periodic refractive index. When combined Optics Express (November, 2008) recent article in Optics Express, they with a gain medium, such as a fluorescent Laser Focus World (January 2009) demonstrated a two-dimensional liquid dye, the chiral liquid crystal provides Nature Photonics April 2009, Volume 3 No crystal laser array, consisting of red, green sufficient feedback to generate lasing within 4 pp177-236 and blue colours simultaneously being a device of thicknesses less than a human Nature Photonics October 2008, Volume 2 emitted from a single liquid crystal laser hair. Unlike most conventional No 10 pp581-638 device, whilst being optically pumped with a semiconductor lasers, the emission Authors: Stephen Morris, Philip Hands, single 430nm source. The article suggested wavelength of a liquid crystal laser can be Sonja Findeisen-Tandel, Robert Cole, that liquid crystal lasers could be used to dynamically tuned using an applied voltage Timothy Wilkinson, Harry Coles.

Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009 | 23 “What’s going on Underground? Tunnelling into the Future”

Professor Robert Mair recently gave a Public Lecture at the Royal Society in London.

involve major new tunnels and stations demonstrate the size, technical challenges constructed beneath many buildings in and complexity of modern underground central London. The tunnels and stations construction. Protection from subsidence is will be considerably larger than a typical critical and new ways to ensure buildings London Underground station and so extra are unaffected during tunnelling are care will need to be taken to protect explained. existing buildings. According to Professor Mair, engineers will use an innovative technique called Your chance to hear the compensation grouting to protect certain lecture for yourself key buildings during construction of the Professor Robert Mair will be giving tunnels. Before tunnelling, steel tubes his lecture for the Cambridge known as ‘tube a manchettes’ (sleeved University Engineering Association on tubes) will be installed in the ground Thursday, October 29th at One Great between the tunnel and the buildings George Street, Westminster, London, above. During tunnelling, grout (liquid SW1P 3AA (the Institution of Civil cement) will be injected from any one of a Engineers). large number of holes in the steel tubes into the ground to compensate for the Tickets cost £20 a head and the ground movements being caused by the evening begins at 6.30pm with a tunnel excavation. The result is that the wine reception. All graduates are building experiences only a slight welcome but space is limited so settlement, compared with what might please book early. The Royal Society hosts regular Public have been a severe settlement if no Lectures, designed to give a perspective of compensation grouting had been Email: [email protected] science in society from leading scientists, undertaken. for a reply form, or send a cheque writers and broadcasters. The title of the Speaking about the technique, Professor direct, made out to University of lecture was “What’s going on Mair says: “The most famous example of Cambridge, to: Underground? Tunnelling into the Future”. the successful application of this technique In Shanghai 140 km of tunnel were was the protection of Big Ben from tilting “Tunnelling into the Future” built in 2008 alone and there will be 400km during construction of Westminster Station Cambridge Alumni Relations Office of new tunnels completed by 2010. In for the Jubilee Line Extension. It has also 1 Quayside Rome a new metro line beneath the recently been used to protect King’s Cross Bridge Street Coliseum is about to be constructed. In Station during tunnelling works beneath it Cambridge CB5 8AB London the exciting Crossrail project has and is now being used to safeguard got the green light. Urban congestion is a buildings from tunnelling settlements in serious problem in many cities, so the many international projects, including creation of underground space and in metros in Amsterdam, Barcelona and particular the development of underground Rome.” transport is environmentally essential. How Other advances in tunnelling include the can tunnels be built in ground sometimes as development of sophisticated closed face soft as toothpaste? What can go wrong? tunnelling machines which provide Department of Engineering Will buildings above be affected by continuous support to the tunnel face while subsidence? What else is underground the ground is being excavated. An 8m Editor, Jacqueline Saggers Department of Engineering already that might get in the way? diameter tunnelling machine was used for University of Cambridge Geotechnical engineering, the application of the recent Channel Tunnel Rail Link project Trumpington Street the science of soil mechanics and that built the tunnels connecting Folkestone Cambridge CB2 1PZ engineering geology, plays a key role in with St Pancras Station for the Eurostar. Telephone: +44 (0)1223 748228 answering these questions. “Tunnels as large as 15m in diameter – Email: [email protected] Professor Mair presented the latest three times the size of a London double- Website: www.eng.cam.ac.uk methods of tunnelling that will ensure that decker bus – have recently been completed Designed by Cambridge Design Studio London’s Crossrail scheme can be safely in the cities of Madrid and Shanghai. In www.cambridgedesignstudio.org constructed without damage to the Shanghai the ground was as soft as buildings above ground. Work on the toothpaste.” Published by dscimm group Crossrail scheme which will connect Professor Mair describes the critical www.dsicmmgroup.com Maidenhead in Berkshire to Shenfield in importance of geology and the © 2009 Department of Engineering, Essex via Heathrow airport and London development and application of the latest University of Cambridge and contributors began in mid-January and the new line is tunnelling techniques. Examples of current as identified. All rights reserved. due to open in 2018. The project will and future projects from all over the world

24 | Engineering Newsletter | Issue 8 | Summer 2009