Blog from the Faculty of Engineering
PhD students Abhishek Gautam and Lewis Munshi, and five undergraduate students from the Aerospace department have had the amazing opportunity to work on flight dynamics, wing design and developing a jet suit exoskeleton for Gravity Industries. Truly putting engineering theory into practice.
It’s 50 years since US astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first ‘small step’ on the moon, and as he poignantly stated at the time, the Apollo 11 Moon landing was unquestionably a giant leap for mankind. Half a century on as a spacefaring species, government-funded programs have seen us inhabit a space station, master low-Earth orbit and make incredible strides in the development of satellite technology. But, in terms of the advancement of space exploration, what will the next 50 years bring us? What will be happening in the skies above us in 2069?
Bristol University’s Professor Lucy Berthoud, a lecturer within the Faculty of Engineering who teaches the space aspects of the Aerospace Engineering degree, believes it could be a great deal.
“Hopefully, in a few years, people will be travelling in low earth orbit just as frequently as they travel now on commercial aircraft.”
“In the short term, we will see the establishment of space tourism in low earth orbit and if they can manage the safety aspects, hopefully, in a few year’s time, people will be travelling in low earth orbit just as frequently as they travel now on commercial aircraft.” Space tourism is space travel for recreational purposes – and the possibilities, including orbital, suborbital and lunar, are seemingly endless. It is no wonder, then, that it is an area of great interest to a new breed of space entrepreneur, with dot.com billionaires such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos investing heavily.
Another field where the technology is currently evolving before our eyes is in the development of reusable rockets. Indeed, space companies are ploughing millions into this area with the promise of huge rewards. The prospect of sending rockets into space and then bringing them back to Earth is a tantalising one. As Professor Berthoud attests: “Being able to recover rockets is a necessity in terms of making space tourism financially viable.” At the moment, sending a rocket to the International Space Station costs in the region of £48 million and each rocket can only be used once. Bezos, founder of spaceflight company Blue Origin, famously compared this to using a Boeing 747 to fly across the country once and then throwing the plane away. He has a point.
You would think that predicting long-term developments in space technology is a much more difficult prospect, but this doesn’t faze Professor Berthoud one bit. “There’s a path you have to follow for space exploration. It’s an obvious progression, we’re nothing if not logical in my industry!”
The first mid to long-term development she expects to see is an inhabited base on the Moon. “There is debate as to whether it should be the Moon or Mars,” she states. “But it seems to me that the Moon would be a strong progression. It’s much closer, comparatively simpler to resupply and if things did go wrong, it’s easier to get people back. Mars is a much higher risk.” Professor Berthoud’s comments link closely to the Deep Space Gateway, a proposed NASA programme that would bring astronauts to the moon to operate a cis-lunar space station. The concept has generated a wealth of research since 2017, especially because NASA’s stated goal, under the current Trump administration, is to return to the moon before going to Mars.
According to Professor Berthoud, other possibilities include the mining of the asteroids (“That has to be done”), the establishment of fuel depots in space – the so-called ‘galactic gas stations’ – as well as the research and exploration of exoplanets, the bodies beyond our own solar system.
“In terms of the next 50 years, discovering life remains the biggest milestone of them all.”
Primarily, she believes that looking for life on other planets remains the ultimate goal. “It’s clearly challenging and deeply difficult to establish whether there is life. For instance, recent research indicates that there is an underwater lake under the ice near the south pole of Mars, which could be a suitable place for life to develop. Mars is fascinating. In terms of the next 50 years, discovering life remains the biggest milestone of them all.”
The sustained activity and increasing investment in the fantastic potential of space from both government agencies and Silicon Valley billionaires such as Musk and Bezos is welcome. The growth in the ‘everyday’ applications of space means that a lot more people can now readily see the benefits of space.
“I’ve seen a real surge of interest from students,” says Professor Berthoud. “Whereas previously somewhere in the region of 10 per cent of the aerospace engineering students would be interested in space, in the last few years, it has really jumped. These days, in the region of half the class would like to work on space projects if they can.”
“The space industry is no longer deemed to be a space-agency-dominated world, but rather an exciting commercial industry.”
But why the surge of interest? “Students are regarding space much more like an industry. Even some of my entrepreneurial students who wouldn’t have typically particularly leaned towards space are now doing so because it is no longer deemed to be a space-agency-dominated world, but rather an exciting commercial industry.”
Indeed, these are exciting times at the University of Bristol in terms of space research, with the opening of a new state-of-the-art satellite laboratory and ground station. As Professor Berthoud explains: “The lab enables students to work on University of Bristol space missions with the design and testing of our own satellites. The ground station can track satellites in orbit, and, in theory, we will be able to talk to the astronauts on the International Space Station.”
This shift in perception of space as a commercial opportunity as opposed to the impossible stuff of dreams is something Professor Berthoud has observed closely over her career in the space industry. But what was the initial inspiration behind her fascination with space?
“When I was a kid, I really loved science fiction and so I decided I wanted to be an astronaut at the age of 11! The idea of working in space and on another planet seemed to be too good to be true. I was also fascinated by how things work and so that led me to choose engineering as a career. I really like the exploration part of space, because it appealed to the adventurous side of me.”
Now, as an inspiration to her own engineering students, Lucy hopes they will help develop the technologies, vehicles and infrastructure needed to power the next 50 years of space exploration.
Name: Dr Lucy Berthoud MEng (Bristol) PhD (Toulouse)
Title: Professor of Space Engineering
Courses: MEng Aerospace Engineering
Background: Professor Berthoud has worked for 25 years in Spacecraft research and in industry. She started out with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bristol, then went to Toulouse where she studied for a PhD in Space Physics at Sup’Aero/ONERA (French National Research Organisation). She then did post-doctoral fellowships at the European Space Agency and NASA Johnson Space Centre. In 2009, Dr Berthoud started teaching at the University of Bristol and is now a Professor of Space Systems Engineering in the Aerospace Engineering department.
Our second-year Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Design students did a practical experiment to see which types of vehicle travel through water as well as they run on roads.
The competition saw 190 students working in teams of three to four to design, build and test a successful amphibious vehicle. Their vehicles had to traverse the water obstacle course in less than 40 seconds and weigh in at less than 450 grams.
The purpose of the project is for the students to model and physically realise engineering systems, to manufacture working prototypes and to assess their vehicle’s performance.
And, as you can see from the video, it’s about enjoying the process too!
A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library – Shelby Foote
This definitely doesn’t hold for University of Bristol. We do have libraries and a lot in number, but the buildings also house several exciting things. Most importantly, our labs.
Very shortly about me – I am an MSc student, pursuing Advanced Computing – Machine Learning, Data Mining and High-Performance Computing here in Bristol. I am currently in my second and the penultimate semester for this programme.
I realised that it would be interesting for you all, who are preparing to join UoB in the coming months, to know life functions as a University here. Hence, this post. Fasten your seatbelts and let’s go for a ride.
Time to wake up. Today is Tuesday and I have 2 lectures to attend and coursework to work on. Even though my lectures are from 11am, I prefer to wake up a bit early to prepare breakfast and do a bit of ‘planning the day ahead’. I stay in a shared private accommodation, so I grab the breakfast I require and go to the communal kitchen.
Breakfast doesn’t take long and I’m back in room by 9.30am. I generally prefer to make a TO-DO list for the day that also includes information about my extra/co-curricular engagements, if any, for the day, along with my study objectives. We do have a different sets of assignments each week and I feel it’s better to plan it to avoid missing deadlines.
I’m ready to go to my first lecture, which is on Robotics Systems. Must say that it is a very fun module, wherein we get to work with actual robots. It’s very challenging also. The Robotic Systems lecture is scheduled in the Chemistry Building, which is about a 12min walk from my place. So, I do reach on time, if you were curious 🙂
Lecture time. Today we are learning about how use a robot to explore an environment and encode a few crucial bits of information about it. Each lecture ideally lasts 50 minutes, given a few exceptions.
We also have 2 or 3 hours lectures and labs, but those generally are scheduled once a week.
Done with the lecture and now I am heading to another building called the Merchant Venturers Building to meet a few friends, who happen to be my course-mates. We are going to discuss a few ideas on the upcoming robotics assignment and head off to grab lunch at 1pm. Just to let you know, 1-2pm is the lunch hour.
Lunch done. Need to go to the next lecture now. This is one of my favourite subjects right now, because I have always been extremely intrigued by the human brain and its advanced functionalities. The lecture is on Computational Neuroscience. This lecture also lasts for an hour and is held in the Queen’s Building.
Yes, you guessed it right. A CS student like me has to walk a lot every day because we have our lectures spread out across the campus. I take it as a perk, because it saves me from gym subscriptions 🙂 Moreover, you get to take classes in different buildings, which are all architecturally varied. How cool is that!! I love architecture 🙂
Done with the lecture. Learnt about neurons and now heading to deal with my coursework, which is also on Computational Neuroscience. So, I prefer to work in the MVB (Merchant Venturers Building), because it has got the computer labs. Our lifeblood!
I am working with a few friends and we try to help each other out as and when we get stuck with something. Sometimes I also drop into my lecturer’s office to get clarity on a specific concept. But, today I hope, I don’t have to do that. I believe I shall be able to solve the problem given the resources at hand and with some collective intelligence.
Almost done with the coursework. Need a break from studies and what can be better than indulging in an Engineering talk with a lot of free pizzas. Yes, there is a talk today by a renowned faculty member on the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. So, I am tagging along with my group to attend that talk in Queen’s. I’m sure it will be fun.
That was a fun talk and loads of info! Time to call it a day from Uni. Dinner is waiting to be cooked back home and after that I need to finish my coursework.
Have finished dinner. Met my housemates. Chitted-chatted. Let’s get done with the coursework.
Coursework done and dusted. Now the thing that is left is verification and validation of what I have done as part of it. I’ll take this up tomorrow with my friends.
Extra-curricula’s on. Yeah, I know, I am odd. I go for a run every day at this hour. Fresh air gives me a fresh mind. I should mention that Bristol is very safe and I’ve not had any problems.
Got back. Re-hydrated my body and now I wish to engage in some co-curriculas. Food for the brain is important too. I am going to watch a few TEDx videos now for about 40 minutes. I have made the list of videos to watch in the morning. That’s how I know the time it will require.
Woow!! Great videos. Awesomely inspiring and intriguing. Was a good day. Should sleep now. Tomorrow is a new day and will be a new schedule too.
Hope you all have got an idea of how an ordinary day looks like here. Some days are quiet, some are really eventful. Some can be productive and some might be pretty annoying too. But as we say, variety is the spice of life. Challenges make it more exciting. There are loads of opportunities and things to do here than just study.
Good luck!!
Our second year Civil Engineering MEng students compete to create the most resilient structure using the knowledge gained through their course. The shaking table runs a series of greater magnitude shakes until only one tower remains intact.
MEng in Civil Engineering students learn about the design of steel and concrete structures in the context of realistic multi-storey buildings incorporating common beam, column and slab arrangements.
If you want to gain a greater knowledge in earthquake engineering, we have the MSc in Earthquake Engineering and Infrastructure Resilience. One of the highlights of this programme is a field trip to an earthquake affected area, where students can visit structures and inspect recent damage.
Find out more about Civil Engineering at the University of Bristol
They’ve even been described as a ‘crystal ball’ we can use to predict the future… and, yes, maybe one day, they’ll figure out the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Yet outside of the scientific community, these monolithic machines aren’t as well understood as they deserve to be.
To help shed some light on the subject, we spoke to our very own Professor Of High Performance Computing, Simon McIntosh-Smith, to find out more about how we’re all benefiting from the power of supercomputers.
Simon picked up the Outstanding Leadership In HPC Award at the international supercomputing awards – SC18 – this month. He’s also leading a unique new supercomputing project called Isambard, as part of the GW4 Alliance, together with Cray Inc and the Met Office. The Isambard project is exploring the use of mobile technology in supercomputers, in order to build them at a fraction of the cost and make supercomputers more accessible for everyone.
Last year, 76% of organisations experienced phishing attacks, with nearly half noticing an increase from the previous year*. According to the FBI, American businesses lost $12.5 billion through corporate email attacks. Closer to home, the NHS ransomware attack of 2017 affected dozens of authorities; staff resorted to using pen and paper, and operations were cancelled, with potentially life-threatening results.
Not only are these attacks on the rise, but scammers are turning to ever-more sophisticated methods, exploiting moments in our everyday lives when we’re at our busiest and most vulnerable.
This is an area which interests Rob Larson, whose PhD focuses on online social engineering attacks. He questions the long-standing idea that individuals are the weakest link in the security chain, instead seeing them as an asset and the first line of defence. He believes that a strong organisational defence is multi-layered, with systems fortified through technology and staff trained to understand the psychology of phishing attacks.
Rob explains the prevalence of phishing attacks: “When it comes to defences, organisations have traditionally put up a perimeter, to keep the bad guys out, and locked down the systems inside it, in case they get in. So it’s often easier to just target the users of the systems, sitting behind the defences.”
We asked Rob about the wide-ranging aspects of phishing – and for some advice on what to look out for online.
“I’ve always had an interest in the psychology of social engineering, such as phishing scams, and why something so simple remains so effective.
“As a computer scientist, I wanted to understand how they’re performed, why they’re successful and what defences are available. I really wanted to bring our understanding of social engineering up-to-date and address this belief that the people who fall victim are at fault.”
“Phishing can be a very low-cost, low-overhead attack as opposed to using exploitative code to break through a hole in the system, or other costly techniques. Traditionally it was deployed willy-nilly with hundreds to thousands of emails being sent, as spam. Now, we’re seeing not only an increase in the number of attacks, but also an increase in their sophistication. Instead of casting a wide net with a mass generic email, they’re targeting a small number of people with content which is more relevant to the recipient.
“Take a university, for example, the email might talk about systems such as ‘Blackboard’ which students within the university actually use. It might reference specific personal details to seem more legitimate, such as their student ID number or course name. Links in the email might then take users through to a website which is tailored to look like the university’s web portal login, asking the target to input their username and password.
“It’s common to see emails putting pressure on the target to elicit an emotional response. Fear of loss is a common one, like replicating a university email and warning the student that they’ll be withdrawn from their course if they don’t respond quickly. If the student clicks on the link they’re redirected to a fake university system and once they’ve logged in the system steals their credentials. The email will thank them for confirming attendance so they’ve no reason to suspect anything.
“These emails have a greater degree of sophistication and subtlety… They’re similar to earlier, more generic phishing scams, but are well-targeted and done in a way that users are less likely to report them, or even notice they’ve fallen victim to anything.”
“Part of my research is trying to understand the spectrum of spear phishing and how sophisticated the attacks get. Spear phishing is a bit of a different animal to the more generic, widely distributed spam-like email; it might be a bit more specific, mentioning you by name. It could come from a contact which looks familiar or appropriate, such as a friend or a colleague, or may include some personal information. It’s quite common to see scammers deploying persuasive techniques in these emails, that leverage authority. For example, they might impersonate your boss and importantly, it might be requesting urgent action.
“Scammers often want a quick reaction – they want you to just respond on auto-pilot. You’re taking a heuristic route and going off your gut, rather than taking time to think it through. It’s something we do naturally, that we need to do to work effectively, and they take advantage of that.”
“Spear phishing used to be so labour-intensive. It was the preserve of people who had the time, money or interest; state actors; organised criminals after big money; or cyber criminals with a persistent interest in a target;
“But now you can buy this kind of service on the Dark Web, for as little as $25. Criminals can go there and say: ‘I want to impersonate a bank, I would like that bank’s website and login page cloned.’ They can pick-up a similar domain and a security certificate. It’s gotten to the point that for very little cost, they can even hire a call centre, and direct users there to steal information by a different route, or add a degree of authenticity.
“It’s a perfect storm. Stolen personal information can be bought and sold online. You can buy tools and services to generate websites, and software packages to generate phishing emails that already include these psychological ploys within the templates.”
“Whaling, or Business Enterprise Compromise is also increasing dramatically. Think of whaling as ‘phishing’ for a really big fish. For example, criminals target someone in finance and the CEO of the company. They might compromise a device on the company’s network, and send an email appearing to come from the CEO instructing someone in finance to make a money transfer.
“In the past five years, according to the FBI, this kind of fraud has cost US business $12.5 billion. That’s not a small figure by any kind of reckoning. If we’re talking about subtlety or lightness of touch, whaling is right at the top end of the spear-phishing spectrum. The focus is on one person and it will be very targeted and very specific.”
“Another good example of phishing is on Facebook. Someone might visit a club, and check in on Facebook – the scammers message them that they’ve been tagged in a photo at that particular club on that particular night. They click on it because it’s somewhere they actually were, maybe they’re worried that it’s a terrible photo that they don’t remember. If the hackers manage to compromise the target’s social media account they can then use that to launch targeted attacks on their contacts.
“Recruiter scams are also common. Because many legitimate companies recruit primarily through LinkedIn, it’s definitely a good place to be if you’re job hunting. People put loads of information on there about their university and educational history, crucially, the kind of job roles they’ve held in the past and are currently looking for. A prevalent attack comes from fake recruiters or head-hunters. With all the information people are sharing about themselves it’s very easy for a scammer to tailor a convincing job offer email.
“It’s easy to say be careful about what you share online, but it’s always a toss-up between the benefit you’re getting from using an online service and the risk.”
“Despite this greater sophistication in scams, a lot of the advice given about spotting phishing still stands up. So watch out for any of any of the following when you receive an email:
“As I’ve mentioned, a common goal of these scams is to steal your username and password. Don’t forget to use different passwords for different services and use strong passwords too. It doesn’t have to be the letters, numbers and special characters thing that a lot of sites promote – you could use pass-phrases like six random words, tied together with hyphens. But make sure the words aren’t related to you and are as random as possible. Personally, my preference is to use a Password Manager which generates strong passwords and stores them securely. I’d also recommend services with two-factor authentication, that’s when you login and have a second code sent to you. So, even if your username and password is stolen they still need another piece of information.
“There’s been a lot of advice about phishing and social engineering detection. Some of it is really questionable. For example, ‘don’t click on things’ – that’s like saying you should never leave your house if you don’t want to get mugged!
“My advice is to treat any approach like somebody coming to your door to sell you something. If you don’t have the time to check their credentials, don’t play into their time frame. If you’ve got 50 emails and one pings a red flag to you, put it into a folder, crawl through the other emails, and come back to this one when you’ve got time to look at it properly. Don’t reply to it, don’t click on the link, don’t open the attachment. If the email claims to come from an external organisation, such as your bank or University, call the bank directly via information on their official website rather than links or numbers in the message. If it’s from a friend or someone internal to your organisation, drop them a quick call to check.
“At the end of the day, it’s important for individuals and organisations to understand that even with extensive training and a detailed understanding of these scams people still fall for them, because they leverage vulnerabilities present in all of us and happen whilst we’re distracted by other things.”
“People will still mistakes, such as choosing weak passwords, so organisations need to support them with technology and policy where possible, such as taking measures to prevent weak passwords being used or limiting the speed at which attackers can try to guess a password. An awful lot of the systems and countermeasures out there still fail to support the user adequately, meaning these relatively simple attacks remain a big problem.
“So for my PhD, I wanted to find out what’s really going on. I wanted to give something back to help people devise better training, build better defences and create software to lessen the burden on users and to ultimately make people’s jobs easier in the fight against cybercrime.”
CPNI: Don’t take the bait – https://www.cpni.gov.uk/dont-take-bait
NCSC: Defending your organisation – https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/phishing
NCSC: Password guidance – https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/password-guidance-simplifying-your-approach
The University of Bristol’s Cyber Security Group is part of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) at Bristol. The group’s research focuses on three over-arching but interlinked strands: security of cyber-physical infrastructures, software security and human behaviours.
* https://www.wombatsecurity.com/news/76-organizations-report-being-victims-phishing-attacks
That’s what Indian student Samia Mohinta faced when starting her MSc in Advanced Computing last month. Samia has thrown herself into life in Bristol and has some advice and insight for others in a similar position…
Hello readers,
Are you having cold feet – terrified to leave your home country? Or have you taken the big leap, but missing home? Keep reading! This post lists all that I found useful while coming to the UK and after two weeks of being here.
This is my first time anywhere outside India. I am an avid traveller, but stepping out of India, to go to a place for a year without family and friends, did freak me out. So, trust me, I can understand how you all are feeling. Don’t worry, you are not alone.
Here are a few tips to help organise yourself and shake off the blues before and after you travel to the UK:
Life is all about taking risks. Sign yourself up for an adventure every day and reap the satisfaction it brings. This new world in Bristol is a lot different from yours back in India. It is way more organised. It is also extremely welcoming. Be confident. You shall shine!
Thank you for being with me till the end.
PS : I shall come back with some other fun stuff about my adventures in Bristol. Stay tuned!
There are many options at Bristol if you need any support settling into University life or just need to chat to somebody. Find out where to get help here.
Formula Student is a long-running international competition where the best engineering students across the world design, manufacture and race open-wheeled single seater formula styled vehicles. The vehicles produced by some of the top teams are truly astounding feats of engineering, with some cars able to accelerate from 0-60 MPH in under 1.5 seconds! The big finale is the head-to-head race at Silverstone, where the teams battle it out to find the overall winner.
Chief Engineer, Harry White, explains the uniqueness of this project: “This competition is one of the best opportunities available to university students to experience a complex, real-life engineering problem that requires analytical thinking, design and team work.”
“It allows students to develop important skills that may be less focused on in a classical engineering degree, such as business, marketing and cost analysis.” He continues “We’ll be working hard towards developing our business and marketing case, with the goal of ranking amongst the top teams next year.”
This year’s team are currently building their first car to compete at the 2019 competition. Harry updates us on their progress: “We have most of a rolling chassis, with only a few modifications still required to produce a product that fundamentally works. The next steps this year will be to develop the powertrain, which is no small task, and to continue developing the rolling chassis until the car can drive under its own power. From there the next task will be an extensive testing and commissioning stage. There’s a significant difference between a car that can move and a car that can race.”
One of the great benefits of the project is for the students to work equally as part of team, with all members having the opportunity to contribute significantly to the design. As Harry points out: “There’s a lot of design involved with creating a car from scratch, and this means that younger members of the team can contribute in a way that would be almost impossible in more established teams.”
Importantly, there’s the social aspect of the project: “Working as part of a dedicated team, all focused on achieving the same goal, leads to a tight-knit group of friends, between different years and courses; a social dynamic that is difficult to find elsewhere.”
As Harry sums up: “Formula student is an amazing opportunity that gives real engineering experience and is as rewarding as it is demanding; at Bristol Electric Racing there is the opportunity for anyone who is motivated enough to do great things.”
You can follow the team’s progress on Facebook.