Developing Engineers

With the environmental awareness increasing on the planet day by day and the depleting fossil fuels coupled with sky rocketing fuel prices becoming more of a concern than ever, scientists and engineers of the plethora of industries worldwide are focussing their research towards fighting emissions and reducing fuel consumption. The automotive industry has already started gearing up to face the challenges, which is evident from the state of the art technologies that the current generation vehicles are equipped with. A few common ones are hybrid powertrains, start stop systems, regenerative braking strategies, alternative sources of propulsion and so forth.

The awareness is now spreading out into motorsports and most importantly into F1. Of late, drastic regulations have been put forth by the FIA that bid for counteracting the depletion of fossil fuels and increasing emissions. The foray of Kinectic Energy Recovery System [KERS] into F1 dates back to 2009 which since then, has been in the limelight owing to its ability to recuperate braking energy and give the cars an additional boost when required. Engineers believe there will be a much higher demand for KERS power in the future due to the fact that engines will be of smaller capacity from 2013. A massive downsizing from 2.4L V8 to 1.6L I4 is certainly going to impact the thrills of wheel to wheel racing and the regulations are already being lambasted by fans and critics.

Besides the KERS and downsizing strategies, there are also rumours about electrifying F1 altogether which is causing a widespread criticism. Is this just a gimmick?

What do you think about such eco friendly measures? Will they spoil the charm of the sport or benefit the sport and the globe?  Will F1 no longer be the pinnacle of motorsport?

Hello budding engineers. This is my first post in the blog and presumably I am the newest member. I am chuffed to find enthusiastic contributors here. Here’s an outline about me.

I am a passionate automotive engineer looking forward to contributing my talents to the research credentials of a reputed company. Fascinated by cars and bikes in my childhood, pursuing automotive engineering had been my ambition. I chose to study mechanical engineering as this always lays a strong foundation for any specialization. I got a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering [B.Tech Mechanical Engineering] from SASTRA University [India]. During my undergraduation, I gained a substantial amount of industrial experience from an inplant training and project work at Hyundai Motor India Limited and Hindustan Motors.

After undergraduation, I went on to pursue Automotive product engineering at Cranfield University [MSc Automotive Product Engineering, 2009-2010]. Currently I am employed by the university as an Engine Research Assistant for a short term project. I was working as a Ricardo WAVE consultant for a few weeks in the month of January and trained the students of MSc Automotive Product engineering (2010-2011) in the one dimensional package Ricardo WAVE.

My area of specialization is Internal Combustion engines and my interests include Formula one, other forms of motorsport like GP2, gaming, cricket, cooking and blogging. I was a cost judge in Formula Student 2010 where I grabbed the opportunity of judging some of the world’s best car designs with both hands.

I will be primarily blogging on the news and debates in the automotive and motorsport industry but would also like to share my views on other general engineering stuff. I am eager to get started and I look forward to becoming an active member of this blog.