PECM Issue 16 2015 | Page 63

Biography/Career Progression 1992 – 1996 BEng in Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Cluj 1996 – 2000 MEng in Design and Manufacture, University of Central Lancashire 2000 – 2004 PhD, University of Southampton 2004 – Present Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton improve aerodynamic performance. Research impact Dr András Sóbester’s work challenges conventional thinking on engineering design and development, and while its primary applications so far have been in the area of aerospace, his ideas may have implications across engineering and science. Dr Sóbester’s postdoctoral research was on a project for BAE Systems which took him into the field of unmanned aircraft. Here he was able to apply his research ideas on difficultto-model systems and work on a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concept that would have no external moving surfaces, or flaps to control its direction. Instead, the UAV would use a fluidic thrust vectoring system, which would steer the craft by modifying the angle of the jet that comes out of the gas turbine engine. More recent work on high-altitude scientific experimentation has sought to challenge the conventions on the methods for launching balloon-borne scientific instruments into the stratosphere and then retrieving them. With support from Microsoft Research, the ASTRA project explored the use of low-cost, commodity devices such as high-altitude data logging, computing and communications platforms. Dr Sóbester believes these systems can be developed and deployed faster and could also reduce the manufacturing and logistical costs which are barriers to some atmospheric science missions. Another idea is to reduce the mass of such instrument platforms, which would increase their likelihood of regulatory approval and enable their widespread use. “The use of miniaturised systems would therefore increase deployment flexibility and speed, enabling scientists to observe transient phenomena such as thunderstorms,” he said. Future challenges Dr Sóbester will continue to work on high Dr Sóbester will continue to work on highaltitude systems and is working with the ASTRA team to develop a family of highaltitude balloonlaunched instrumented gliders. One of the benefits of working in academic research, he said, is the ability to put new ideas into practice quickly: “In the aerospace industry, the fruits of research are often measured over a timescale of a decade, whereas our timescales are as short as two weeks.” Rapid manufacturing techniques, such as 3d printing, help this – “It means we can get our hands on a physical device much faster, and thus flight testing becomes a much better integrated, more organic step of the development process,” he said. work on climate model tuning. “Exploiting the similarities between modelling and optimising complex engineering systems and optimising models of the Earth system, we are assisting colleagues in the climate modelling community to reduce the computational cost of what are, in general, extremely expensive simulations,” he said. “The Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship allows you to concentrate on a particular area of research, and that’s a luxury most people don’t have after they finish their PhDs” Dr Andras Sobester The work on optimisation technology is also continuing, including the recent Issue 16 PECM 63