Student Research Projects With Industrial Impact

This paper describes six final year undergraduate research projects supported by a collaboration between the Whittle Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and Reaction Engines (RE), a UK aerospace company. The collaboration is now in its fourth year of projects relating to RE’s Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE). The approach taken in these projects combines modern teaching pedagogy with a best practice methodology for industrial-academic collaboration and a well established framework for structuring research problems. This paper explains how the three methodologies are tailored and adapted for use with final year undergraduate research projects. The approach is mapped on to an annual project cycle which begins with the industry and academic partners deciding which topics to investigate and proceeds through student selection, the project work itself and concludes with student assessment and end-of-year reporting. The projects combine analytical, computational and experimental work and have covered counter-rotating turbomachinery, S-ducts in compressors and Helium Turbine design, all of which are topics of primary importance to the design of SABRE. Following descriptions of each of the six completed projects, the impact of the work and lessons learned are considered from the point of view of the students, the industrial partner and the academic supervisors. Overall, the students found the work extremely engaging and have all been encouraged to pursue careers in engineering, either in industry or through post-graduate study. For the industry partner the collaboration provides expertise and an approach which is not available in-house as well providing a ‘second look’ at key technical questions. For the academics involved, the opportunity to lead research on a ‘real’ problem with an industrial partner has proved highly motivating as well as providing opportunities for personal and career development.