March 2003
People

Final Year Focus for Engineering Student

Mechanical and Automotive Engineering student Simon Watson (pictured right) is working for Ford to research one of their new cars as a final-year project.

Sponsored by Ford Special Vehicle Engineering (SVE), Simon will examine customer driving styles in the Ford Focus ST170 - the recently released "hot hatch" version of the Focus.

Simon has been provided with a fully instrumented test car for his project, which includes a full GPS location system able to locate the vehicle during a prescribed test route.

He has invited 18 drivers of all ages to take part and each one will provide a unique dataset to be correlated with their observed driving style.

The project arose from his industrial placement, where Simon spent a year in Germany working closely with the SVE ST170 launch team.

Dean of the School of Engineering, Design and Technology Professor Andrew Day said: "This is a great opportunity for Simon to carry out an exciting final-year project working with state-of-the-art equipment to provide useful data for the sponsoring company.

"It is a privilege to be involved in Ford's new car development, and demonstrates the advantages of a year's placement in industry as part of a student's Engineering, Design or Technology degree."

18 March 2003

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