Student success at IMechE Railway Challenge 2016
A team of 6 undergraduate Mechanical Engineering students took third place at the recent fifth annual IMechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers) Railway Challenge, at Stapleford Miniature Railway in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. This was the second year that a Southampton team had entered the competition.
Competing against teams of students, apprentices and graduates from other UK universities and industry, the students had to compete in a number of track-based challenges including Energy Storage, Traction, Ride Comfort, Noise and Maintainability. They also had to compete in the Design, Business Case and Innovation presentation challenges.
Last year, with support from our industrial partner Siemens and the University’s Education Enhancement Fund students were able to manufacture a genuinely competitive locomotive, Hartley. They were the highest placed university team and set a new record for the Energy Efficiency challenge. This year, six students from the second, third and fourth years of our Mechanical Engineering courses volunteered to improve the design and enter the competition.
The Southampton locomotive had a number of unique features such as complete Wi-Fi remote control, a brake energy recovery and storage system, a Hybrid drive system consisting of both a small petrol generator and a supercapacitor providing driving power when required.
Tom Parker, a second year student and the team leader, said: “The weekend was a real success. We, the only team to comprise solely of undergraduates, finished as the top scoring university team. A particular achievement was that we were the best team in the traction challenge”.
Dr Mohamed Torbati, lecturer in the mechatronics research group and the team supervisor, said: “This was an extremely demanding competition where teams had to prepare a business case, design and build a compliant locomotive in accordance with a set of rules and technical specifications. Southampton’s success was due to some excellent performances in the traction and ride comfort challenges and the clear way our students presented their design to the judges”. We are also very grateful to Siemens for all their help and support.
The top four teams were: (1) SNC-Lavalin (Formally known as Interfleet Technology), (2) Transport for London, (3) University of Southampton, and (4) Bombardier in collaboration with University of Derby.
