29.04.14
IMechE Railway Division appoints new chair
Professor Simon Iwnicki, head of the Institute of Railway Research at the University of Huddersfield, has been appointed as chair of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ (IMechE) Railway Division.
In his role as chairman, Prof Iwnicki’s mission will be to close a “serious” skills gap faced by the profession. He said: “My theme for the year will be education of the next generation of engineers.
“This issue is becoming really important to engineering, especially railway engineering. There is a tremendous skills shortage and we at the IMechE need to try to address that.”
Prior to starting his year of office as chairman, Prof Iwnicki has played a central part in developing an important innovation – IMechE’s Railway Challenge.
The initiative challenges teams of students to design and build a small-scale locomotive, addressing specific technical problems. In 2013, the University of Huddersfield itself won the contest, with its energy-efficient loco, coming up against other universities at Stapleford Miniature Railway in Leicestershire, while 2012 saw the UK’s first hydrogen-powered locomotive, built by a team from the University of Birmingham. The challenge takes place again this year, with new teams joining in.
“This year the challenge is make a locomotive that is as quiet as possible and ours is actually rather noisy! So the students are working on a silencer to get the noise down as low as possible,” said Prof Iwnicki, who expects the competition to be especially tough.
A team of 16 Huddersfield students – mainly in the final years of their degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering – will enter the Railway Challenge, which takes place in June.
Also in July, the University of Huddersfield is to host a residential course that will introduce year 11-12 school pupils to new rail technologies. The event is organised in tandem with the Smallpeice Trust.
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