The iMech Greenpower race (25th April 2010) is an annual eco-race organised by the institution of mechanical engineers (iMechE) in conjunction with secondary schools, colleges and manufacturers to introduce and promote the engineering profession to students in the UK. This blog entry covers much in a nutshell what my team of 4 did to prepare ourselves for the national race, which included building an electric race car from scratch and pitting it again other schools and colleges to a grueling 4 hour all electric race on the Goodwood racetrack to the finish. This was done during my first year in university as a freshman.

The event is supported by companies such as Siemens, Ford, Prodrive and Sembcorp just to name afew, the program aims to advance education in the subjects of sustainable engineering and technology to young people.

Building the car
The thought of participating in the competition under representation of Cambridge university eco-racing club, their most prominent creations being Infinity and Endeavor solar cars which competed in the world solar challenge in Australia last year. This Greenpower race is a subset of the eco-racing events we all participate in.

Chassis done!

Looking finished already !

Loaded and ready to go

The car was first conceived through in campus discussions near the start of term, mainly through pen and paper talks over coffee or planned meetings by our workstations, where the final plans are put on CAD model and evaluated before putting the solid plans down for the planned final build.

We were fortunate to have Jan from Tag-on, a friend our team manager got us in contact with. He had participated in the Greenpower race for many years before, with lots of experience on the races behind him. He serves much as a technical consultant in my team’s build with his engineering and technical expertise, as well as sponsoring supplies, tools and providing a sizable and equipped workshop for us to work in.

We started off with purchased tubular steel tubes where they are all marked, band-sawed and bent to shape and size to form the whole steel chassis and roll cage. Thereafter the sub assemblies such as the drive train, steering mechanism and brakes are individually custom fabricated with off-the-shelf parts are bolted onto the main chassis. The steering column was interesting as we planned on an anti-Ackerman design with reasonable camber and caster angles for less over steer on the corners. We employed a composite home made carbon fiber body shell laid over painstalking made foam molds for the body work.

At Goodwood!

Pre-race scrutineering

Shaun’s not the Stig!

Jan is a nice guy, to the extent of allowing us to work on the car in his home yard over the weekend and providing transport back to Cambridge (when we work too late and miss the last hour-long bus ride home) as well. The lunch treats prepared by his wife were always something to look forward to after a whole long day of fabrication. Did I mention he have 2 nice dogs (a lad and a collie) as well?

We entered the Greenpower race as a corporate challenger, on the same line as the manufacturer teams such as Jaguar land rover. The car build took approximately 100 man hours of work, it was completed in time for the race on 25th April 2010 and transported via trailer to the Goodwood track early on race day for the afternoon race.

The race
There where about 30 teams who participated in our race event. There were the favorites, veterans, defending champions as well as rookie newcomers like us. To us the race was all completely new to us, particularly the experience to plan and manage a racing team with team strategies, pit stops and driver changes, it was literally almost racing poetry in motion. The best part is that it’s all pure fun for a motorhead like me.

The busy pit lanes

Grandstand pass

It did well.

We got through the pre-race scrutineering in time on race day for a picture perfect flag off and race. We started the race with a 3 driver strategy with one battery swap (refuel) in mid point of the 4 hour race. Our build mate, Fred got to go first at the starting grid, followed by myself and Jan finishing the third of the driver shift for the checkered flag.

Our car broke down a few times, but it’s quite a fighter with our quick MacGyver slap on fixes which got it back in running in no time. It finally succumbed after 3 hours of continuous running when the motor burned out on Jan’s stint where he pushed the motor for overtaking.

We didn’t expect to win, but to let this participation be an eye-opener and to gain as much experience for next’s year’s race- where we have a better understanding of the race functions. There were limitations too in this first race too, considering the lack of time and a rush job to actually have any final finishings for the car. There are lessons to learn for many too, especially for most students in the team not street smart with technical or practical expertise and only armed with theoretical knowledge of the A levels- what you learn in the text books will not always apply and work in real situations. And I am glad my path in the Singapore Polytechnic served me greatly- simplicity is the key! But it all went better than expected, anyway, it could had been worse.

It was my first time racing at Goodwood too and I can say, it’s not a bad race after all.

View more photos of the racing weekend trip in the Greenpower photo album.

Located in a former Power Station by the London Thames Bankside, the Tate Modern in London is Britain’s national museum of international modern art. You can recognise it with it’s very iconic tall smoke stack located at the front façade of the museum- looking quite out of place in the buzzles around the Thames. The original building was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station.

It was meant to serve the power requirements by the Thames and built in two stages between 1947 & 1963, it closed in 1981 and was converted into a modern art gallery and tourist attraction by architects Herzog & de Meuron and contractors Carillion, retaining much of the station’s trademark features such as it 99m tall smoke stack. The building still retains some (but not much) of it’s power grid functionalities too- The southern third of the building was retained by the French power company EDF Energy as an electrical substation.

The iconic facade

The vast turbine hall

Special displays

Tate is a name synonymous with many brands, such as the Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate St Ives, and Tate Online, part of the group now known simply as Tate. The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from 1900 onwards and are housed in 3 of the 7 available floors the building have to offer.

Turbine Hall (Level B1)
In it’s active days, the Turbine Hall houses electricity generators of the old power station, the area is cavernous and is five floors tall with 3400sqm of floorspace, giving it a rather neat industrial feel and ambience typically found in large warehouses or airplane hangars. The place is usually employed for the display large exhibition items or trade/exhibition shows, including specially-commissioned works by contemporary artists. The large entrance gates leading to the turbine hall is the only limit to the size of the works which can be featured in here. The first floors also serves as the main entrance to the museum (as well as an escalator leading straight up to the galleries on the 2nd floor) and the ticketing counters to few of the paid galleries are located here as well.

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View of the interior of the Tate from the 1st floor Turbine hall.(Fullsize)

Gifts and Tate café (Level 1)
The museum main gift shop is located here featuring a library of contemporary art books for sale as well as Tate specific merchandise, cards and toys. The shop space is reasonably big. Staircases serving all the above floors can be found here and can be accessed by the gift shop entrance. The Level 1 Gallery is a smaller gallery located on the north side of the building which houses exhibitions of cutting edge contemporary art. Its exhibitions normally run for 2 – 3 months.

Contemporary Art Gallery (Level 2 & 3)
The Tate Collection is on display on levels 2 and 3 of the building, while level 4 houses large temporary exhibitions and a small exhibition space on level two houses work by contemporary artists. Here you can find a variety of wall paintings, as well as nice open concept sculptures. The main lobby areas leading to the galleries have this neat timeline printed near the top of the ceiling showing every single bit of achievement in the arts scene all etched into a chronological timeline.

take on human geography

like my dorm laundry pile

The open displays

Some of the displays are hilariously funny- something which can be uniquely only found in modern art and in stark contrast to the more serious kind of detailed type of artworks and painting evident in the medieval era. There was even a room completely filled with Lithographs giving it very retro feel.

Controversy are some of the fuelings of modern art, some will just make you go huh? while some looks better possibly if it were done by an eight year old. Not to mention mind bending air works which require you to really see art is a distorted perspective or play mind games with you, I guess that’s the magic of modern art I guess. The beauty of art very much lies in the beauty of the beholder and it’s interesting that such art brings the idea of perception to a whole different new level.

The café on the top floors not only serves to fill you up, but the outdoor seating also offers great unobstructed views of the Millennium bridge over the River Thames, as well as St Paul’s in the background. It provides a rather good vantage point for photo opportunities by the Bankside.

Major temporary exhibitions (Level 4)
As with levels 3 and 5, level 4 is broken into two large exhibition areas. This is used to stage the major temporary exhibitions with an entry fee (museum passes/members enter for free). These exhibitions normally run for three or four months at ago, often with a full re-themeing of the floor’s lobby attracting visitors without the museum passes to walk-in for an entrance fee. These two exhibition areas can be combined to host a single exhibition, in retrospective to the size and number of the works to be featured. (E.g. For the Gilbert and George exhibition).

Members & corporate only areas (Level 6 & 7)
Level 6 houses an exclusive members area where supporters are pampered. The 7th floor is a corporate hospitality area spotting floor to ceiling glass walls and corporate function suites offering great views overlooking the London skyline and the River Thames. These places are open to members, exhibitors or company bookings on a reservation basis.

Overall, the Tate is a great refresh from the more traditional take on art, particularly being saturated by historical displays on the many older museums on my last visits. These days, modern art is becoming far from unacceptable as a form of mainstream art and I am glad, if not thrilled to see what kind of contraptions modern artists can serve up next on the platter (sometimes literally). Not that I am particularly sick of medieval art, but it’s a take from the conventional definition of an “art piece” often filling up the highs and lows of what one can perceive as reputable art given it’s unpredictably and the controversy it draws- typical traits of modern art these days and that is what the Tate aims to bring forward.

View more photos of the museum in my Tate trip photo album.

I’ve always been waiting for the successor of the iPhone 3Gs, apparently June 28 may not be the day the phone be announced due to a leak of a confidential unit so as claim by Gizmodo, which they had the chance to get their hands on for a review of the dud unit. Apparently, the phone was found running iPhone OS 4.0 before it was remotely killed. And before Gizmodo could actually see it. It has a much blockier design which looks real sleek and more modern than the iPhone 3Gs. It does make it’s predecessor look old!

The big question whether the phone is a geninue item is still open for debate. Gizmodo even dissected the phone to find quality Apple-labeled boards and circuity inside, typical that of apple products and reaffirming that it is not some China clone or rip off. Most of the parts are minitureized, including the introduction of a micro-sim card, all to make way for a larger internal, non-removable battery. Not only does it show up in iTunes, Xcode, and System Profiler, but it has different product identifiers than the 3G or 3GS.

Unfortunately, the phone was wiped and they couldn’t get it to boot out of recovery mode, but a number of new features and changes are evident just by holding it. Obviously, it’s thinner than the 3GS, with smaller internal components and a larger battery inside the metal frame.

Here is a list of the observable features in the new 4th generation iPhone:

I had been considering the 4G iPhone as my next phone, with Android as a very suitable contender. I’ve always had my eye on Android phones even before I’ve got my 3Gs, the 3Gs failed in many ways to make my expectations of a modern smartphone, I mean I was real fad up that I could not even use the phone as a mass storage device, nor even put PDF files into it locally to read e-book (I have to email them to myself to get them on the phone). It does not support Bluetooth stereo controls, (something even my 5 year old phones can do), not to mention unable to change message ringtones as well. The iPhone was just rubbish. However, it does make up for it for it’s style, substance, usability and shitloads of fun and crazy apps, maybe that is just the reason why I am still using it today.

Hello Android!
Android is really catching up on the race with Apple, with almost 50%-50% smartphone share in the US. Even when seeking opinions for my next phone, almost everyone recommends me an Android without a doubt- Strangely.

On the Android area, I did have the HTC Incredible in sight. This phone can be what I call a worthy upgrade from my Nokia N95 8GB and iPhone 3Gs (which was not much of an upgrade in anyway). It sports a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 8GB of internal storage, 748MB of ROM, a microSD slot (with support for up to 32GB cards), an 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash and autofocus, 480×800 AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, and most importantly, Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI on-board. It records video up to 800×480 resolution at 30fps with that 8MP sensor.

One of the key area where Android phones shine is the price, the operating system, provided by google is open source, which cuts down the price of the phone by a considerable bit, a lower version of the HTC incredible, the HTC desire goes at about £350 without a contract here in the UK, the same can be said for the Incredible when it releases end this month too. The cheapest iPhone costs £450, with the 32GB 3GS going at £550, expensive!

It is true that Andriod do not have as many established apps as Apple has and I did mention that apps are what I really like about the iPhone. But what you get on the apple app store is severely regulated, which can be like a double edged sword. The Andriod marketplace may be smaller, but it’s operated on a more free-rein basis and is speedily growing larger everyday!

Remote wipe? A possible anti-jailbreaking measure?
The thing which strikes me the most on the iPhone is the need to Jailbreak it to make the phone is anyway useful beyond the scope of the common idiot it was designed for. Apple had long been fighting the battle against jailbreaking phones, whether it’s the harsh warranty voiding of jailbroken phones, or bricking phones with updates. The ability to wipe this new iPhone NAND memory remotely does paint some interesting speculations of what Apple have in store for potential jailbreakers. Maybe jailbreaking could even be hardware prevented in this new phone, just like the newer generation 3Gs phones. I mean when I spend almost a fortune on a phone, I want it to work how I want it to me and not use it as if I am a criminal or something. That’s another tick for me in the Android department.

This new iPhone does look real good and sleek, but based on these preliminary specs, the HTC incredible trashes it completely. Currently I am leaning and maybe might go Android afterall, impress me Apple.

I was at the science museum early this month in London, it’s one of the few museums which I really wanted to visit in a long time, (considering what they have on display actually floats my boat!) but never always been able to make the opening times (which closes usually at 5pm-6pm). This is so as learnt on my last visit to the nearby National History Museum- you do really need almost a whole afternoon to explore the place. I guess I was too ambitious trying to visit 2 museums on the same day!

Nonetheless I had the chance. Located in the heart of South Kensington, London beside the Imperial college London, the museum does looks old and colonial on the outside, but it is a whole different beast on the inside. It is bursting with modern glass facades, animated and LED displays. Even the lifts have an open concept, with all the innards exposed and tunneling in between the stairwells which circle the lift shaft, serving all full 7 exhibition floors (including basement) of the museum.

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London Science Museum Main Atrium. (Fullsize)

Entry to the museum requires some basic security screening, such as bag checks, etc. Thereafter you will be greeted by a long front museum walk (called the energy hall) which spans from the entrance along the main atrium of the museum. There are plenty to explore, each with their own unique sections to float any science-going enthusiast.

The main museum walk

The flight section

Engines galore!

On the ground floor, there are the space sections as well as another huge area called “the making of the modern world” which features all the key technologies and machines which made the world it is today. One which particularly caught my eye is a genuine Ford Model T on display which is the world’s first production car, it’s pure eye candy for any engineer!

There are many hidden surprises throughout the museum as well. There is even a full IMAX 3D theater hidden in the building, as well as the Force field ride which is essentially a motion simulator ride offering an “ultimate multi-sensory experience with sight, sounds, touch and even smell”.

There are also smaller capsule motion simulator rides on the 3rd floor for about £2.50 per ride for those on a budget. Nearby is this large area called the launch pad which is essentially a large play area for children- there are loads of gizmos, gadgets and simple machines setup like the a science center to teach children some physical principals of science through play and discovery.

The place is popular with children and adults alike, with displays situated for all ages and geek/nerd levels- Meaning it caters to anyway who gawks at the awesomeness of a spaceships, antique cars, motion simulator or a thermionic valve computer- a place for everybody. Other sections includes the ship (marine) section, energy, computing & mathematics, agriculture, telecommunications, health, Medicine and veterinary. There was a special exhibit on during my visit, called the 1001 inventions, brought in association with the Jameel foundation. Bringing people into 1000 years of science & technology with the Muslim heritage in our world.

The Force Field

Early mechanical automation

To infinity and beyond!

The marine section was rather impressive, with all the detailed and intricate scaled models of large cruise ships, naval vessels as well as engines on display. However, the place which I really liked will have to be the flight section despite it being mostly just a collection of old propeller, jet engines and aircraft all hung form the ceilings in a hangar-like environment.

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The Museum’s aircraft display hangar. (Fullsize)

One particularly thing I really love about Museums in London is the absence of admission charges. There are still many more museums to visit in London, the VA museum, the imperial war museum and so on. So far the only others I’ve been will be the National History & British Museum. And come to think about it, I had not actually totally explored these museums either, which only mean possible revisits too.

More photos of the Science Museum visit.

Whee, I did 5km on the treadmill today. Had been sometime since I’ve ran. It’s good to see me back to incorporating runs in my schedule since my injury last year. But I’ve been maintaining my fitness over the last months since I am in UK- With lots of inevitable daily cycling as well as weekly swims at the local indoor pools. Swimming here in Cambridge can be rather expensive too, costing £3.50 per entry, I get £1 off with a student card discount, but it’s still a far cry from the $0.90 whole day admission charge back in Singapore, and oh yes, on peak periods, you can stay in the pool for a maximum of 2 hours here in Cambridge- Bummer!

Good that I am still exercising with the exams coming in a little more than a month’s time. After all, a healthy body is a healthy mind!

Grantchester is a village on the River Cam or Granta in Cambridgeshire, England. It is a tranquil little village not to far off from the heartland of Cambridge city. The place is known for it’s nice iconic scenery and great English breakfast offerings. The area is also said to have the world’s highest concentration of Nobel Prize winners, presumably most of these being current or retired academics from the nearby University of Cambridge. It is listed in the Domesday Book (1086) as Grantesete and Grauntsethe.

The entrance to Granchester is surprisingly not a far walk from my college, all you need to do is to take a shortcut through few blocks of houses from Barton road past the college main gate and you will be greeted by the distinctive park gantry gates in no time. My dorm block mate and myself cycled to the area in a quickie, meeting a senior from queens who have her dormitory located inside the housing estates. It’s a very isolated and remote old block which used to be a school until it was brought over by the college to house senior students out of the campus grounds and into the nearby residential.

From there, there was a shortcut through some park and mashes before hitting the river’s main trail. There we met few more others from the trekking group of the morning and off we started on the walk into the heart of Grantchester itself. The path trail is a popular route for joggers and trail bikers alike. We passed few iconic eateries and pubs, namely the Green Man and the main town. The highlight of the trip will of course have to be our breakfast spot at The Orchard tea house.

The Orchard tea house is a small English garden seemingly located in this corner of England where time stands still as the outside world rushes by. It started as a plantation orchard, conceived in 1868. The Orchard then became a Tea Garden purely by chance- a group of Cambridge students who often visited the orchard for tea in the house one day asked the then carekeeper Mrs Stevenson of Orchard House if she could serve them tea beneath the blossoming fruit trees instead. It was then, on that spring morning in 1897, that the iconic Cambridge tradition started and been around ever since, particularly for Cambridge students ourselves! The tea house survived 2 world wars and still stands today over 100 years old.

The place is frequented by quite a number of famous people too. It’s a clam chill out place excellent for morning coffee or a light luncheon, with an atmosphere of a bygone age, in adherence to the footsteps of generations by sharing in the great English tradition of afternoon tea. A large garden, with tables and chairs (many deckchairs) around tables among the trees. Although it gets crowded, there are some relatively peaceful corners among the apple trees in a deck chair.

You can read out more of The Orchard Tea Garden and Coffee House located at, 45-47 Mill Way, Grantchester on their website.

The Orchard Coffee House

Lunch at the outdoors, picnic style!

Tea anyone?

It’s does get exceptionally busy during lunchtime, especially when the weather is good even in winter! Our morning breakfast visit had a reasonably light crowd, with the exception of our big group of 10 over. The food there is not cheap, but it’s still well worth a visit given the quality, prices are of reasonable value.

The menu is not extensive and focuses more on quality rather than quantity. Tea with a huge scone with jam and clotted cream sets you back about £5, freshly baked daily and very tasty. The bread for the baguettes is also very fresh. Tea or coffee for two was served in a small pot, but the staff will be happy to provide another pot of water on request. Tap water and ice is freely available with plastic glasses. You will be given an electronic call device when you order hot food- it flashes when your order is ready for collection back at the counter.

Great sights at Granchester

Looks like my WinXP wallpaper

A little fun on the greens!

The tea garden is not all what Granchester have to offer too, our walk back on a different route by the River Cam saw many breathtaking views with vast open greens, plains and countryside- sights we never even thought existed in our own backyard! Of course what the least we can do but go trigger happy on our shutters for some great shots of our trip.

The trip to Grantchester was sure a blast, it’s a place of my personal recommendation and one I will see myself patronizing again, let be introducing visiting guests too. It’s part of the Cambridge experience.

Was at the world pillow fight day last Saturday (3rd April) in London. The event is a free-for-all event with very simple rules of engagement- Get as many friends to come down the event and anybody with a pillow is a target. Man! it was chaotic but extremely fun at the same time. The event is part of a global phenomenal where fights going “bap bap bap bap” are conducted in all the major cities all over the world such as Paris and New York (You can view a photo collection of worldwide pillow fights from TIME here). The London one is held right in front of St Paul’s Cathedral smacked right in the middle of London Sightseeing and tourist district.

Held right at St Pauls

Fight! Bap Bap Bap Bap!

Say cheese!

The event started out cleanly with most of everyone’s pillows sustaining most of the blows. It’s not until where it’s about 30minutes into the fight where everybody’s pillows started falling apart, showering the whole place in a sea of white feathers and other synthetic materials. And was the event the highlight of everyone passing by, tourists, passer-bys and people on buses all stared at us in disbelief on what’s happening in front of them. It was crazy, yes crazy, retarded you can put it, but most importantly, fun.

Free for all!

A pool of feathers

Whacked at the pillow fight

The fight was all orderly and well. It’s not long where the whole place become engulfed with white feathers, transforming the whole area into a scene indifferent to a white Christmas, or an asthmatic nightmare. Some even tried making snow ummm, feather angels in the pile. The paramedics were called in at one point in the fight, presumably with somebody having a concussion or something, but all’s well and the medics hung around the event for a while watching and smiling in disbelief of the carnage unfolding before them.

I was prepared and brought a helmet to the event, as well as some body armour. But I did not wear it until I saw the need for some serious moves. Then later do I know that it turned out to be a doubled edge sword- Wearing protection simply just screams: “HIT ME”- everyone will seems to be coming over to bap you with their pillow whenever you have additional shielding on. It’s like: “he’s protected and safe, everybody bap him!”. That’s where I found out that getting hit on the head with a soft pillow actually feels better than getting hit on the head with a helmet on, it was painful!

I remembered being all white almost like a chicken, I think to the extent of even returning home with feathers still stuck on me. That day at the event was part of a long day in London with several other events I’ve attended as well. Will be touching on my visit to the science museum on a separate blog post. For now, take care!