Driving Test, Networking Event, Farnborough Air Show

Ok, so I'm just going to have a post about everything I've done in the past few weeks that wasn't related to Formula Student, then I'm going to have a post directly after this one that will be completely FS related.

First of all, on July 3rd, I took and past the written portion for my British driving license!  I was able to then sign up for my practical test, which I will be taking the day after my birthday, in a little under three weeks' time!  I'm feeling pretty confident about this, I had a really good lesson on Wednesday, where my instructor said I could have passed my test.  I think this would call for a candy bar here called a Time Out.  (I think this is funny, since a Time Out is what you make naughty children do back home.  Doesn't mean that here)

Time Out candy bar.  The tagline is "Everyone need some Time Out"  LOL.

On July 5, I went to South Yorkshire to the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP)Technology Centre.  There was a networking event hosted by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) that was bringing together various industry representatives that are working on Fuel Cell technology in the UK.  I made a lot of interesting contacts that will hopefully begin some form of collaboration with WMG.  I've been working with Nick Mallinson on facilitating these a bit for the funding initiative at WMG that is called the Catapult.  You can read more about this here.

The AMP was a zero-carbon facility, using a wind turbine, in conjunction with electrolyzers and fuel cells to generate all the power for the building.  The wind turbine would generate the energy to product hydrogen that would then run the fuel cells on demand to power the building.  Here are some pictures of that!

The wind turbine at the AMP

The electrolyzer stations right next to the turbine.

On July 10, I went to the International Farnborough Air Show.  WMG had a booth there and I went as a representative of the Engineering Doctorate program.  I talked to a few other EngD students from the University of Southhampton, as well as a few engineers from Rolls Royce.  They were there with a working model of a plane engine, completely built from Legos.  I also got to see some planes do tricks!  I took several videos, see below!

 This is a video of the lego model of a plane engine, with one of the Rolls Royce engineers explaining how it works.

This is a longer video of four blue planes doing a really neat show

This is a shorter video of the same planes, part of the same show.  Really cool to watch.

The day after the air show, I went to Silverstone, but those details are for the next post!