Group of students testing antweight robots

Engineering projects – rocket cars, robots and Engineering Without Borders.

The Engineering Practice module, co-delivered by over a dozen Personal Academic Tutors, and led by Dr Angad Panesar, is our first-year flagship module on our Aerospace, Automotive, Electrical and Mechanical courses. We’ve asked three groups of students taking part in the projects for this module, to talk about their experiences.

In this blog Theodore, Connor and Will, our Mechanical Engineering Students, from Group 14 discuss their experience on the module, about sustainability, multidisciplinary projects, and communal aspects of the technical activities, leading to their first-class output and poster. 

Read our other blogs about electrical engineering student Cristian’s experience of these projects and the way Jake, Valentin, Edward, Connor and Isabel worked together on theirs.

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Tech drawing of engineering part

Engineering project exhibition 2023: Harry Michell, Mechanical Engineering BEng(Hons)

“The biggest highlight of my course was the final year. It’s a chance for you as a student to prove to yourself and others what you can achieve. Also, with your final year project you can steer it in the direction you want. This paired with more practical work – there isn’t much better.”

My project is looking to improve the steering of a F24 Greenpower kit car. These kit cars are currently used by the university as an outreach activity for local school children aged 11-16, the purpose of this is for each student to get an insight into engineering and what can be done with certain skills. I chose this project because I have been involved with Greenpower for almost a decade now, participating in Greenpower events throughout upper school and now university also, due to this I know what activities like this can do for people and it’s part of the reason I’m an engineering student today.

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Still of water rocket launching

Challenge to design, build and fire a water rocket

To kick start a project to design and build a water rocket, our first-year engineering students took a trip to Wild Park to see some live test firing. With some final year students helping lecturers to lead the session, it was a great opportunity for the project students to see different water rocket designs in action and understand what they are aiming for.

A fun project firmly rooted in engineering and product design, students focus on measurements, building rigour into the design and keeping in mind what they want the rocket to be able to do. Gathering and using data is key, from fluid dynamics analysis to data assimilation which can be tested in the wind tunnel.

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Smiling photo of Gerard Assoumou engineering student

Investigating a sustainable technology solution to help reduce global warming

Gerard Assoumou is part of one of the project teams working in the Sustainable Technology and Engineering Projects (STEP) lab. Here he tells us about his Aerospace Engineering MEng final year team project, as well as some insights into why he chose to study at Brighton.

“I’ve always been passionate about planes and wanted to be a pilot since really little. In high school my interest for the technicality and complexity behind an aircraft kept growing and pushed me towards applying for aeronautical engineering. I chose Brighton because from the very few universities that proposed this course and that I visited on open days, Brighton had a more interactive touch to the learning process. I was looking forward to some of the classes and projects described on the open day by the students, and of course the Simulation Suite. I also found Brighton to be a really beautiful interesting city which played a huge part in deciding to come here.

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Close of engineering equipment in the STEP lab

Engineering students STEP into sustainable technology projects

Engineering students have created a supportive community to help each other to improve and build the skills they’ll need to be ready for their future engineering career.

Welcome to STEP lab (Sustainable Technology and Engineering Projects). This exciting, collaborative, project-based way of working is open to all of our engineering students.

Led by the students themselves, STEP lab members work on projects that reflect real engineering projects in industry, developing their technical skills alongside the professional skills needed in the work place.

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