About Debi Roberts

Chartered Engineer and Senior Lecturer in Automotive Engineering and Award Leader for the Automotive and Motorsport courses at Staffordshire University. Extremely passionate about cars and aircraft of all eras, especially the aircraft of former local manufacturer Boulton Paul Aircraft, classic Rovers and the Mini.

Formula One 2017 – Unveiling Time is Here

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Debi Roberts

Ahead of the Winter Testing dates in Barcelona (late February/early March) and the first race on the 26th March in Melbourne – the teams have been launching their 2017 cars.

Although some information about the 2017 cars already leaked in late January with the images of the Manor MRT07 – this is the first view of many of the new 2017 vehicles.

Williams teased a video preview of the FW40 late last week and this has been followed by Sauber (being the first to fully unveil their vehicle), Renault, Force India, Mercedes and today, McLaren and Ferrari revealing their 2017 challengers.

The new wider swept back front wing is the first noticeable element of all the new cars – the regulations mean that the cars are becoming wider again – as well as the front and rear wings. On top of that the tyres are 25% wider – this indicates an increase in downforce, increase in grip and we should see faster lap times as a result of this.

The wider tyres mean that teams will have likely had to focus, in part, on reducing the drag coefficient as much as they can. This also seems to have had an effect on the rear wings – with the end plates shaped and curving in towards the lower part of the vehicle.

Another returning feature, that had very much disappeared in recent designs, is the large fin on the engine – this tends to be used to control air flow to the rear wing in yaw airflow – this shows an expectation of higher apex speeds than recent years.

It will be interesting to see how different the cars look as they line up for the first practice session in Melbourne – as there are often significant changes from the unveiling vehicle.

Student gets ‘Drive of his Life’ for Placement Achievement

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Final Year BSc(Hons) Motorsport Technology student, Matthew Brill enjoyed the ‘drive of his life’ recently courtesy of his placement company.

Matthew undertook his year-long placement with Staffordshire University partners Slidesports Race Engineering, who currently undertake a wide variety of consultancy motorsport engineering projects alongside their racing commitments in the UK and internationally.

Matthew with the Pallex Slidesports Porsche Cayman GT4 in Hungary recently. Photo: M Jenkins

His excellent progress and commitment to the placement didn’t go unnoticed with Slidesports providing him with an end of placement experience to remember – tuition and solo laps in a race prepared Volkswagen Scirocco.

Team Principal Mark Jenkins said,

“Matthew came to us in September 2015 and he’s made himself an invaluable member of the team, he’s worked extremely hard all season and that’s why we arranged this experience for him. I’d be happy to do that again for any placement student that showed the same calibre Matthew did.”

Slidesports have worked in partnership with Staffordshire University for nearly a decade to provide ‘live’ work based learning experience to students on the Foundation Degree and BSc(Hons) Motorsport Technology awards.

Matthew following his solo laps in a race prepared Volkswagen Scirocco. Photo: M Jenkins

During Matthew’s placement year he has worked on an extensive range of cars including the Pallex Slidesports Porsche Cayman GT4, the Team BRIT Volkswagen Golf GTi and rally cars.

Matthew had very little mechanical experience prior to his placement, and feels he;

“gained an amazing amount of experience during the placement, allowing the classroom knowledge I’d gained to be put into practice.”

For more information on Staffordshire University Motorsport courses, click here, or contact enquiries@staffs.ac.uk or to contact Slidesports Race Engineering, info@slidesports.co.uk

Staffordshire Greenpower Event

Posted on July 2, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Debi Roberts, Award Leader for the Automotive and Motorsport Awards at Staffordshire University, gives her personal view on volunteering at STEM activities…

“I’m not normally one for making this blog personal – while there might be the odd personal reflection in an entry, I’ve always tried to make sure that this blog reflects the courses it represents, that I am responsible for, in my role as Award Leader for Automotive and Motorsport, rather than it being me standing on my soapbox offering opinion on everything. However given how personal the STEM Ambassador scheme is to me – how it was one of the activities that gave me confidence to step out side my comfort zone as a new lecturer – perhaps it’s entirely fitting that this entry takes on a personal tone.

Standing at 8:30 am on a quiet but windswept former airfield just outside Stafford, after only one cup of coffee (or even worse, only one cup of earl grey!), likely doesn’t sound like most people’s first idea of a fun day away from the office – but then, this is me!

Around me, a group of volunteers from various companies and industries – coming together to build safety barriers and set up for the events going on during the day.

The Seighford site was about to become the venue for a range of motorsport events – a drag race, timed lap and slalom challenge took up the morning before a set of races consisting of heats and a final took place in the afternoon. All of the teams were local schools and the cars? These were Greenpower Formula Goblins – designed for 9 -11 year old school children to experience engineering within the curriculum.

Newcastle Under Lyme School (with thanks to the School for the image)

This is an event I’ve volunteered for a number of times over the years – the excitement and the energy of the children always reminds me why I became a STEM Ambassador in the first place – to use my passion and experience to inspire others, but to make sure they have fun at the same time. I guess my experience as a Brownie Leader and a University Lecturer mean that it becomes very easy for me to step into that ambassador role, and I tend to make a beeline for events where I am leading an event or section of an event – playing on my strengths I guess! However there are so many roles that are needed at the various STEM events over the year – something for everyone.

As usual I was part of the team managing the slalom event – great because it gives me a chance to work with another STEM Ambassador and former colleague Alex. While a huge benefit of the STEM Ambassador role is getting to work with different groups and people, some of whom you wouldn’t generally see in your work environment, sometimes it is nice to work with colleagues, both past and present. Especially when you’d worked together for almost a decade (ouch – cue feeling just a little bit old on realising that!) – the part of the event that you’ve been involved in seems to run just that little bit more smoothly.

Kingsland Academy’s video of the event below (reproduced here with the school’s permission) gives an idea of the day’s events.

The day ends of a prize giving for the teams with a multitude of categories, these are awarded by Phil Brocklehurst of the local IMechE branch and myself in my Staffordshire University, Senior Lecturer role (thanks to Malcolm and Kevin for delightfully dropping this on me at the last minute!). Another thing I’ve found when working as a STEM Ambassador or volunteer – always be flexible!

Newcastle under Lyme School wining the main award at Seighford. (Picture kindly provided by the school)

So, as a STEM Ambassador, you can bring a passion for your area of STEM, or perhaps any area. You can help to engage and enthuse young minds and perhaps even educate them on a new area. More than that though, as is often the case, the teacher becomes the student – you can stretch yourself, increase your confidence and remind yourself just why you became interested in science, technology, engineering or mathematics in the first place. I’m working on encouraging my students and graduates to became more involved in STEM activities as it will give them just as much as the people they work with.”

Happy Birthday Ma’am – A 90th Birthday study of The Queen’s Car History

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Today is Her Majesty’s 90th Birthday and while the news is filled with different stories about her life and her family – here in Automotive we’ve decided to celebrate The Queen’s Birthday in a more appropriate way for us – with a look back at some of her cars.

The Queen learned to drive as Princess Elizabeth during World War Two – she was serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service. She also fixed military vehicles during this time.

Princess Elizabeth driving an Ambulance in World War II – Getty Images

While she is often chauffeured around in the course of her Royal duties, The Queen is known to enjoy driving and has owned many vehicles over the years, including the expected Daimler, Rolls Royce and Bentley vehicles.

Apparently the Queen’s latest addition – the Bentley Bentayga

It’s believed that The Queen doesn’t hold a driving licence and she is the only person in the UK allowed to drive without a licence. That hasn’t stopped her from getting behind the wheel and her cars have included Jaguar X Type Estates (once cutting over the grass to get past a family walking in the road on the estate), Land Rovers and Range Rovers a plenty and the aforementioned ‘state vehicles’.

It’s not all Rolls Royce and Bentley though – below is The Queen in her Vauxhall Cresta Estate – and she’s been known to drive the later Omega and Insignia models too

The Queen in her Vauxhall Cresta Estate, circa 1980.

However, of far more interest to myself as a confirmed Rover fan are the two Rover P5Bs owned by The Queen and now at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon. A lovely example of the type.

The Queen in her Rover P5B

The Queen’s Rover P5B more recently.

So, Happy Birthday Ma’am and may you enjoy many more years of motoring.

Titanic – The ‘Unsinkable’ Ship and the lessons for Engineers

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Today’s blog steps away from the world of Automotive and Motorsport for a change – to a well known tale with a local connection. The story of RMS Titanic – the ‘infamous’ unsinkable ship.

The Titanic leaving Southampton
By F.G.O. Stuart (1843-1923)

The ship sank on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, succumbing to the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean in the very early hours of the 15 April 1912 – today is the 104th Anniversary of the disaster which claimed more than 1,500 lives from the 2,224 people on board. This was enough to make it one of the most deadly maritime disasters in modern history.

The largest ship afloat at the time, RMS Titanic was the second of three Olympic class liners operated by the White Star Line and was under the command of 62-year-old Captain Edward John Smith RD, RNR, a respected naval reserve officer and the most senior Captain of the White Star Line. He was born on Well Street, Hanley – less than 2 miles from our College Road and Leek Road campuses.

Locally born Captain Edward J Smith
By New York Times

The first four days of the voyage passed without any incident, however First Officer William Murdoch informed Captain Smith that the ship had just collided with an iceberg around 11:40 pm (ship’s time) on the 14th April. Although the ship did have advanced safety features – including watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, the outdated maritime safety regulations at the time meant that she only carried 20 lifeboats on board. This would cater for just over half of those on board during the maiden voyage, and approximately one third of her total capacity.

It soon became clear that the damage was serious, the strike and resulting shock actually resulted in a shearing of the rivets and buckling of hull plates – opening a leak in the hull that was below the waterline. Modern ultrasound surveys of the wreck show the damage to consist of around six narrow openings in an area of the hull that covers 12 square feet (1.1 sq. m). This is slightly different to the original inquiry that indicated openings of around 300 feet (91 m) with the iceberg having sliced the hull.

This lead to five of her sixteen watertight compartments being opened to the sea – the rate of water entering was fifteen times faster than they could pump it out. This started to flood the watertight compartments, each one had a bulkhead which extended well above the water line – however they were not sealed at the top – if too many compartments flooded, water would spill across to the next compartment as the bow settled deeper in the water. This is what happened to RMS Titanic – it was designed to float with, up to, four compartments flooded (in certain combinations, and only two fully), however five meant it’s bow was low enough to submerge the top of the bulkheads. Captain Smith consulted with Thomas Andrews, Titanic’s head designer and builder who was part of the guarantee group, travelling on the maiden voyage to look for various improvements that could be made, he stated that it was a ‘mathematical certainty’ that the ship would sink, given the flooding and that there was only an hour or two before it completely sank. The RMS Titanic sank 2 hours 40 minutes after the collision with the iceberg.

Titanic Wreck
By Courtesy of NOAA/Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island (NOAA/IFE/URI). – http://www.gc.noaa.gov/gcil_titanic.html

In the aftermath of the sinking, there were public inquiries set up in both Britain and the US. The two reached similar conclusions on the number of lifeboats, failure to take proper heed of ice warnings and high speeds. Neither inquiry found negligence, as the standard and long-standing practices were carried out. However, the disaster led to major changes in maritime regulations, including an International Ice Patrol to monitor iceberg presence in the North Atlantic and the harmonisation of maritime safety regulations through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) – both still operating today.

So, what are the lessons for Engineers in all this… We often are called upon to design new and improved technology and these designs are rarely solely for our own exclusive use. We have to consider all sorts of situations and design for things that might never occur. We also have to avoid the tombstone culture – where changes for safety are only made because people are being killed or hurt. In doing this, we make sure our new designs continue to move forward.

App Happy? The rise of wireless technology in the Automotive Industry

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Recent news stories talk about hacking vulnerability found in the Nissan Leaf and Tesla vehicles. That potentially, a determined hacker could gain control of none critical vehicle systems. In the case of the Nissan Leaf – the air conditioning and other power draining systems – risking the driver becoming stranded. In addition, data about previous journeys could be accessed. Nissan responded by suspending the functions of this application. So how big is the risk from the huge rise of wireless and app technology in vehicles and what can be done about it?

Nissan’s Leaf was at the centre of a cybersecurity risk. Image source: bbc.co.uk

How does wireless/app technology work in vehicles currently?

Early in car technology allowed us to connect our phone into a Bluetooth or wired system so we could make/answer phone-calls hands free. However with increasing technology contained within the mobile phone – we’re now looking to access, sat nav and other information while driving, as well as looking to play our music from streaming services or our phone memory.

The NissanConnect in vehicle app is one of several by different manufacturers to connect their smartphones to their vehicles – this means that apps, features and other services can be used to personalize their vehicle – this might be turning the heater on in the vehicle to defrost it on a cold morning or more advanced features to provide music via a phone, sat nav to the car or information on fuel, hotels or other items of interest.

We’ve also seen the use of black box telemetry within cars to monitor driving styles for insurance purposes and this will evolve further.

What is the future of this?

The black box telemetry reports to your insurance company and you can see a report on this data, but Hyundai’s newest system allows parents to monitor and restrict their teen driver’s speed, hours of operation and where it travels. It doesn’t prevent these things happening (yet, and there is a whole new debate there!) but it does alert the parent via text/email/app. The driver is also notified of this.

Moving on from this is the idea of a digital dashboard – already seen to some extent in vehicles and in motor sport with multi function trip computers – this can be seen in the partnership between Audi and NVIDIA – they have developed a fully digital dashboard. This will replace the instrument cluster, and fast processors ensure the frame and render rates are fast enough to display precisely. From this augmented reality and head-up displays are not too much of a step.

These all potentially lead to the biggest change of all, driver-less cars – we’re already seeing the car take control of some aspects of driving. From our initial developments in cruise control to adaptive cruise control and auto braking functions – this is likely to move to adaptive systems that can automatically steer to follow a car in front or keep a vehicle within a lane of traffic. This could develop into the vehicles communicating with each other to maintain smoother traffic flows.

The connected vehicle – communication between cars to ease congestion. Image source: wired.com

Where are the risks? Exploitation of loopholes?

Besides the obvious driver distraction element – which manufacturers claim to be avoiding through the clever use of voice activation and multi function dials – the largest risks are from security flaws within the systems.

The NissanConnect app’s vulnerability issues appear to stem from the level of identification checks it carried out. Those people who had never signed up for the app/an account were never at risk – however those who did, the system would look for the vehicle identification number (or VIN) for security – this loophole could allow an attacker to send commands to the vehicle via a web browser – leaking potentially confidential information such as the owner’s registered username and times and distances of journeys. When the app was unregistered – the car became safe from attack.

This shows that as the development of the connected car moves forward, the cyber-security side of the technology will become vitally important to. Only by focusing on all the aspects of safety and security around the connected vehicle can we work to avoid the dangers.

F1 Regulations 2016 – Preview

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Debi Roberts

Back in December, the FIA published the latest incarnation of the Sporting Regulations – these ones for the 2016 season. Outwardly, there are a few major changes – however it’s the smaller changes that could have the biggest influence on racing in the 2016 season.

Engines

Currently, the teams will be allowed 5 power units per driver during the season, an increase of one from last year. The reason for this increase, 2 extra races from the previous season, Azerbaijan and the return of Germany to the calendar. This means each engine is has to last 1,250 km of race mileage (this doesn’t include free practice and qualifying).

However, significantly for the teams – if the calendar drops back to 20 races or less (which is a risk at the moment), then the power unit allowance drops back down to 4 engines. Meaning each engine then has to cover 1,500 km of race mileage. An extra 250 km might not sound like much – but engine designers are working on critical life timing for each component, and this could become close once practice sessions are taken into account.

Homologation for these engines must occur by the end of February – meaning that the engines for 2016 must have been signed off before winter testing has even begun – however there is the ability to make changes after for safety and reliability, and the in season token development system.

Safety Studies

Another key area is safety, thankfully the FIA is continuing its safety crusade, and in 2016 that includes the addition of a high speed camera to each car to study the driver’s head movements during an accident. This will help with understanding what happens during an impact. In addition to this all drivers must now wear in-ear accelerometers during any time in the car.

High Speed Cameras to assess head movement during impact: Image Source and more information http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120831

Wind Tunnel Usage

The FIA have apparently become suspicious of some teams going beyond the 60 tunnel hours/65 runs per week regulations, given their rate of aerodynamic development – leading from this they must supply two digital pictures (with date stamp) of the models before each run. These must show the entire working section of the tunnel with the model in situ. Highlighting any teams breaking the rules, or at least this is the theory – the data theft risk associated with the FIA holding the biggest photographic database of F1 aerodynamic development could fill a whole series of blog entries.

These changes may seem small in the context of the wider changes in regulations – but it is highly likely that we’ll be watching these smaller influences taking on a bigger impact in the 2016 season.

What can Formula 1 teach business leaders?

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Debi Roberts

The World Economic Forum is taking place in Davos, the event is attended by around 2,500 delegates, who mainly consist of world leaders and business people. Doesn’t seem like the first place you would expect to find two-time Formula One World Champion, Mika Hakkinen however, does it?

It took the Finn seven years competing in Formula One to win his first Grand Prix in Jerez, at the 1997 European Grand Prix, he went on to take the Drivers World Championships in 1998 and 1999.

In this BBC News Article by Emily Young, he credits his success, at least in part, to doctor and mentor, Aki Hintsa. He spoke at the forum about the role Dr Hintsa played in helping him sharpen his focus – suggesting that his concerns off the track, were affecting his potential. It is this ‘extra edge’ that interests the delegates though – how can they perform consistently better than their rivals?

“Operating three nights in a row on just five hours’ sleep is equivalent to driving a car drunk”

Dr Hintsa’s message, along with Mika and four time champion Sebastian Vettel, seems to be simple advice to follow – you can not function to your full potential without a good night’s sleep. The other messages, including avoiding alcohol and smartphones/computers before bed, are nothing new – but it’s surprising how few of us actually act on this advice.

Really, the message here is about looking after the whole, all parts of your life to perform better. Not just about working harder, but achieving better in the same amount of time.

Here we see top athletes advising business and world leaders on how to achieve their potential, this isn’t the only aspect of motorsport that can carry across in to the wider world though; technology, marketing, business processes can all feed across too. The skills that motorsport encourages are extremely transferable to the business world.

Welcome Week 2015

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Debi Roberts

It’s been a little while since our last blog post, pre- semester preparation giving way to clearing. This was followed rapidly by our new and old students joining or returning to the campus for the excitement that is Welcome Week and the start of a new term. As the chaos of the first week dies down, we thought this was a fantastic time to bring you up to date with the activities of our students during Welcome Week 2015.

Our new Level 4 Automotive and Motorsport students joined us on the Monday, where Award Leader Debi Roberts briefed them on the awards they were going to be studying and the key rules and regulations they needed to stay on the right side of during their time at the University. Sounds a little dry perhaps, but by knowing exactly what is expected from the start, we can avoid any situations further down the line.

Time was also taken to help the students find their timetables and learn to access systems such as the email and Blackboard learning environment.

It was not all work for the students though, a School of Engineering buffet was held to allow them to meet their tutors and get to know other students on the Engineering courses and for the Automotive and Motorsport students – a free trip to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon was organised for the Thursday.

After travelling down to Gaydon, we were given a tour of the exhibits by the museum staff, who were able to supplement the students own knowledge with their own tales of the history and the engineering of the exhibits. We then got to explore the rest of the museum and hear the plans for the new hall – currently being build nearby. All of us had a fantastic day with some really interesting discussions taking place.

Students discussing the engineering challenges of one of the first ‘modern’ automobiles

Justin Wilson – Obituary

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Debi Roberts

Just over a month ago we wrote about the sad death of Jules Bianchi – following his serious accident at Suzuka 9 months previously. Overnight came more bad news from the motorsport community, the loss of British racing driver Justin Wilson, aged 37.

Justin Wilson, who has passed away aged 37. Source: www.autoracing1.com

Justin Wilson, who has passed away aged 37. Source: Rob Chinn/www.autoracing1.com

Justin Wilson suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of flying debris from an accident involving race leader Sage Karam during the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway. Karam’s nose cone hit Wilson’s helmet and cockpit area as he passed the accident scene and Wilson immediately veered left towards the wall – seemingly unconscious. He was airlifted from the scene in a coma and passed away yesterday.

Justin Wilson was born and grew up near Sheffield, he began racing karts in 1987 before moving into Formula Vauxhall with Paul Stewart Racing (Paul being the son of Scottish racer Jackie Stewart). International attention came when he won the inaugural Formula Palmer Audi championship.

He was one of the finalists in 1998 for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award – Jenson Button was the winner that year, Justin’s brother Stefan won the award himself in 2007. In 1999, he joined the FIA International Formula 3000 championship, wining the title in 2001.

He then spent a year driving in the Telefonica World Series by Nissan and tested for the Minardi Formula One team – however his height (6ft 4in) meant he was not able to race the 2002 car. He however signed for the team in 2003, when the car was designed around his frame. Although the car wasn’t the fastest, Wilson performed well against highly experienced teammate Jos Verstappen. For the last five races of that season he replaced Antonio Pizzonia at Jaguar Racing scoring a championship point at the 2003 United States Grand Prix.

Justin Wilson in the 2003 Jaguar Racing F1 car. Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/

For the 2004 season he moved the the American Champ Car World Series, also taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Dome-Jude S101. He won his first Champ Car race in 2005 at Toronto. In 2008, the Champ Car series and the Indy Racing League merged to form the IndyCar series. He took his maiden win in the new series at Detroit that year. During this time he also found time to compete in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona several times – winning the event with his co-drivers in 2012. A single race appearance in Formula E at Moscow and a handful of V8 Supercar races show a versatile racer willing to try his skill at any event.

Justin Wilson in the Andretti Autosport IndyCar. Source: LAT Photographic

Mark Glendenning writing for Racer refers to a man who;

“…commanded universal respect and affection from his peers for his speed and racecraft inside the car, and intelligence and generosity outside of it.”

Away from racing Wilson was a passionate supporter of the causes close to his heart, including promoting awareness and understanding of dyslexia – himself being a sufferer. He is survived by his wife Julia and two daughters, Jane and Jessica.

At this time it’s too early to say the impact this latest high profile death will have on the motorsport family, we’re all still in shock, especially those of us who knew well or had spent time with Justin, however as a community – even knowing that our sport is dangerous – we need to look as the recent accidents to see if there are lessons to be learnt, steps to be taken, design changes to be made – and, most importantly, how to keep those competing in the sport we love, people who have become family and friends, as safe as possible.

Quote Source: Racer Magazine: Justin Wilson 1978 – 2015

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Automotive Engineering at Staffordshire University

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