Engineering - lecture series for Year 12 students

Microscopy At Home - Dr Mark Coleman
A number of house hold items will be placed under a Carl Zeiss stereographic microscope. The microscope will be connected live to the session and all attendees are encouraged to interact and ask questions. We will have a general discussion of the samples during the session on the engineering relevance of some of these structures.

Detecting and Identifying Nanoplastics in Water – Dr Sarper Sarp
Plastics are durable, cheap to produce, and can easily be molded to any shape desired. Therefore, plastics have become an important and irreplaceable part of the modern life and are being used in almost every aspects of manufacturing, from food industry to space travel. However, the widespread usage of plastics has created a series of undesired and unexpected consequences. It is very hard to detect small particle size plastics in water sources. We have developed a method at the Swansea University that can detect and identify nanoplastics in water sources.

Biomechanics and Mechanobiology in Bone Tissue Engineering - Dr Feihu Zhao
In this talk, I will discuss how the cellular activities of bone and stem cells can be regulated through mechanical stimulation, which may be applied through various bioreactor techniques. By first investigating the effects of these processes within the human body, we have used our findings both as a foundation for bone tissue engineering in the laboratory and for computational simulations of bone tissue growth. Through this novel and promising approach, we aim to develop practical and effective methods to combat osteoporosis and thereby improve the quality-of-life for millions of older people worldwide.

Polymers and Composites - Dr Feras Korkees
Polymers and their composites are widely used advanced materials, which are found almost in every material used in our daily life. In this session, you will be introduced to polymers and composites and their applications in different dominions of sciences, technologies and industry – from basic uses to biopolymers. As a part of the session, you will learn how to make a home-made biopolymer!

Powering our Future - Dr Dan Jones
With the impacts of climate change growing increasingly dire, there has never been a greater need to improve the sustainability of our energy usage. But what’s the scale of the problem facing us, and can we realistically replace traditional fuels with available renewable energy technologies? To answer these questions I aim to take a comprehensive look at the economic, environmental and performance characteristics of existing generation and storage solutions, as well as addressing the possibility of decentralising our energy networks by enabling consumers to produce their own energy in a sustainable and financially rewarding wa.

Printing With Functional Materials - Dr Sarah-Jane Potts
Explore a range of functional materials used in inks for printing colour changing and conductive products. There will be a demonstration of painting with conductive, thermochromic, photochromic and phosphorescent inks, with some examples of where they are used in real life and how they are manufactured. I will also go through the science behind how the different pigments and particles work and the rheology of the inks.

Student Journey
A group of our students studying a variety of engineering subjects will talk through their day to day life as a student. All attendees can ask them questions, find out about societies, lectures, accommodation, social life… whatever pressing questions you have about coming to university or what studying engineering is like, this is your chance to find out!

Medical Applications of Ultrasound - Dr Claire Barnes
Ultrasound has a number of important applications across engineering from flaw detection to the facilitation of chemical reactions, in this session we will consider it's medical uses. We will discuss the physical properties of ultrasound and how these are used to create medical images. We will consider some of the advantages and disadvantages of this technique and determine the optimum settings required to create high quality images.

‘Fuel Efficient Flying – Can Computers Help?’ – Dr Ben Evans
In this session Dr Ben Evans will give an introduction to a computer simulation technique known as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and explain how this is being used to explore what aircraft of the future might look like. It will cover how modern airliners are likely to evolve in the future to meet the requirements of a more sustainable airline industry and outline some novel design optimisation approaches that are being pioneered at Swansea University to help in this challenge.

The Bloodhound Project – Hannah Bowen
In this session we will explore the cutting edge aerodynamic design that was undertaken at Swansea University to design the Bloodhound Land Speed Record car. You will also be building your own cars out of household items, and discussing how to enhance their aerodynamic qualities.

Final year projects in biomechanics and biofluid flow - Dr Raoul van Loon
In this zoom session an overview will be given of some final year projects in medical engineering. We will illustrate how the degree prepares the students for these projects through a mix of modules in maths, numerics, mechanics, heat transfer, electronics and/or design. The projects covered will use CAD data, 3D surface scanning data (kinect). You will see how we train our students to become versatile engineers through a range of taught skills that all come together in their final year projects.

Civil Conceptual Design in Civil Engineering – Dr Patricia Xavier
Engineering solutions need creative approaches, you need to be able to use technical knowledge together with awareness of social and environmental constraints and an ability to develop different ideas and solutions. It is a myth that creativity is an inherent trait – it is a skill and a way of thinking that can be learnt by anyone at anytime. This session will introduce you the impact of Civil Engineering designs on society, and introduce some techniques to unleash your own creativity