Dr Richard Hood Welcome Video Transcript

Hello my name is Dr Richard Hood.

I am a Lecturer and Head of Admissions and Outreach for the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham.  I would like to welcome you as you begin your journey to what will hopefully culminate in you deciding to study Engineering at the University of Birmingham in 2021.  Normally I would like to do this in person at our Open Days, however, due to COVID-19 this year I am unable to do so. As a consequence we have moved our provision virtually online and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight a few key aspects as to why I think you should study Engineering at the University of Birmingham. 

The first one is our beautiful historic Edgbaston campus and there in front of us you can see the Great Hall and also Old Joe the clock tower.  Just near to the centre of the University is our current engineering building where most of our labs and facilities are and in the background you can see the two cranes where our new engineering building is being finished. 

We are one of the few universities in the United Kingdom that actually has it’s own train station and you can see right next to Faraday our our new Engineering Building being built there.  The campus is at the heart of everything that we do and only 10 minutes from the city centre.  One of my favourite things is the coffee shop. 

We have a very strong grounding in basic fundamental engineering principles this is most epitimized by our common first year where you will study subjects such as maths, fluid mechanic and energy transfer, electrical engineering, computing, integrated design, materials and mechanics through a variety of lectures, tutorials, problem solving classes laboratories and practical sessions. As a consequence of this all our degree programmes are accredited by the various institution body. 

We are also heavily involved in research in my case I am a machinist and machine parts for jet engines and nuclear reactors and this helps feed into my second year teaching and also my advanced MEng and MSc teaching and you can see some examples there from cutting temperature measurement with machining, work piece surface integrity, latest details in terms of those.  This also helps with things like final year projects for example, one that I ran from the last year ultrasonic assisted milling of hardened steel.  Now this is the latest generation machine tool and the spindle on that machine being rotated at 42000 rpm and it will also go from moving up and down ultrasonically and up to 35000 times per second.  This means we can look at reducing the forces. One of my final year undergraduate students was the first to use this machine.  You can see an example on the right side of the two different surfaces.  See which one you can think is made by ultrasonic machining. 

We are extremely flexible.  We have a common first year whether you come in on Civil, Electrical, Mechanical or the General Engineering degree programmes and you can pick which one you want to do at the end of year 1.  You can go to Civil, Electrical, Mechanical or even some specialities such as Robotics and Mechatronics, Railway Engineering, Industrial Experience, International Study, Automotive Engineering and mix and match that.  Whether you come in on the Bachelors or the Master’s degree programme, so that is the three or the four year programme, you will study the same material for the first two years.  This allows you to have a decision point at the end of two years.  This is a very strong flexible degree programme. 

We have a very strong community between both the staff and the students and I think this is greatly experienced in our student societies which we currently have around about 35 in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. This is where the students are getting together to help design, build, create anything that they are interested in.

 There are strong opportunities with industry both in terms of things like placements so this will perhaps be students taking a summer placement to go and work for a company or doing a year in industry scheme for a full year and also industrial lectures, research projects and a variety of ones there and you can see here examples of companies we work with on a regular basis.

Engineering is a very exciting subject with lots of things going on, designing, building creating and this will be experienced in your degree through both our team design projects and individual projects and I have a few examples here from design of a maker space, helping to improve the plastic flow through the fluid nozzles, to the design of a robotic physiotherapist and a train energy recovery system. Individual engineering project, probably the most indepth subject that you will study, this is typically aligned to a research area that you are interested in, whether it be for freeze water desalination, detection of underground pipes, sensor systems for automation for cars, so Jaguar Landrover can drive the vehicles off road and probably the most exciting one on the right rocket nozzle design.

I have highlighted a few of the reasons why I think that Engineering at Birmingham is a great thing to do.  However, there are many more and I can’t hope to get all these across to you in the few words.  So hopefully you will get the opportunity to have a look through and listen to our presentations, talk to our students and also if you have any further questions please email the address detailed here.  We will be providing additional material all through the summer and all into the autumn to help you make your decision.  Thank you.

Dr Richard Hood