Today I got to visit Rolls-Royce to see their largest collection of aero engines in the country! The bus ride there was two and a half hours and we had to get up really early but it was all worth it. We got to see engines ranging from World War 1 piston engines to Merlin to modern day jet engines. We even did an activity where we put together a small engine in teams of three. My team was the fourth team ever to correctly assemble the engine without instructions or help!
We even got to see the world’s first jet engine made of Lego! It had 152,455 lego bricks, weighed 307 kg, and was just over two meters long! It took four people 8 weeks to build!
After the visit Catherine and I had dinner and headed straight to a principal lecture by Professor Perla Maiolino, an Associate Professor at the Engineering Science Department at the University of Oxford. Dr. Maiolino’s research focuses on new technological solutions for developing artificial skin to provide robots with the sense of touch. The artificial skin technology called Cyskin has been used for several robotics platforms. Dr. Maiolino even did live demonstrations and brought the technology with her to show us which we found really fascinating! We learned about what soft robots are useful for, how to activate them and generate motion, and the importance of the robot’s environment.
Stay tuned for Catherine’s post tomorrow!
-Manjot