Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering

News

22 Mar 2019

Loughborough Aero Students Visit USA

VT postcard 2019 x 670

Since October 2018, eight of our MEng Aeronautical Engineering students have been working on the design of a submarine-launched UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) as part of their final year of study.

The Loughborough University students have been working in collaboration with another eight students at Virginia Tech. They have spent this week (18 – 22 March 2019) on the Virginia Tech campus in Virginia (USA) working intensively together on the design.

VT 2019 x 300

The students have been supported throughout the design project and on this visit by Dr James Knowles and Dr Christopher Harvey who both lecture on this taught Group Design Project module in the MEng Aeronautical Engineering programme.

Outside of their heavy work schedule, the Loughborough students: Liam McAuley, Max Midwinter, Jack Mills, Daniel Muckle, Elsa Phillipson, Lydia Richley, Ryan Swakeen and Tseno Tsenov have managed to fit in some sightseeing, as can be seen from the top image.

The group have not only toured Washington DC’s most famous monuments, and visited the National Air and Space Museum, but following their first full day at work at Virginia Tech, they climbed “Bald Knob”, a local mountain, which is roughly the same altitude as Ben Nevis!

Liam McAuley, Team Leader for the group said:

“This has been a valuable experience in so many ways: Working in a multi-national team, dealing with different time zones, different units, different software, different cultures, and so on.

“The opportunity to actually visit the Virginia Tech campus has been wonderful. We are so grateful to the Department of AAE for making the trip possible, and to the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech for hosting us. We really recommend undertaking the collaborative project with Virginia Tech option to future students.”

As the team reflect on their experience during the coming months, we hope that this element of the course has added value to their experience at Loughborough University, in ways which contribute positively to their future work and life experiences and we look forward to welcoming them all back next week!