The youngest member of Xtrac’s Formula One design engineering team, Adam James, has been highly commended as a Young Designer of the Year finalist at the British Engineering Excellence Awards.
It’s not Adam’s first commendation; in 2009 he was part of the team from the University of Hertfordshire securing the Formula Student Award for its electric car entered in the alternative fuel category.
There were a record number of entries this year for the BEEA awards, which were held yesterday at the Shakespeare Globe in London, and where the judges commented on Adam’s “notable design engineering accomplishments, including the development of a range of innovative technologies.”
Adam graduated in 2009 with a MEng in motorsport automotive engineering from the University of Hertfordshire. He started as an undergraduate trainee at Xtrac in 2006 and was sponsored by the transmission technology specialist throughout his studies for his masters’ degree. His undergraduate training was as a production engineer.
“We’re delighted Adam has received this special commendation in this hotly contested category,” commented Xtrac technical director Adrian Moore. “Despite his relative youth Adam is already highly experienced in key aspects of the design process, and gained a high level of manufacturing knowledge whilst undertaking his industrial placement at Xtrac.”
In 2009, Adam was a member of the University of Hertfordshire team securing the Formula Student Award that year with an electric car entered in the alternative fuel category. Adam designed the driveline, components of the detailed chassis structure and the battery storage. He was also the driver for the endurance and sprint events. Whilst at university he was also a race engineer with the Fortec Team during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons competing in the Formula Renault Junior UK championships.
“In addition to his production knowhow helping the design process, Adam has gained considerable practical experience supporting race teams at the track,” says Xtrac chief engineer Martin Halley who attended the awards ceremony. “This all round experience has helped him create a new transmission lubrication oil pump for a Formula One gearbox. The design brief required the pump to be small and light, meet stringent performance and durability requirements with significant cost constraints, be easy to maintain and also act as an integral structural part of the transmission. This was a tough challenge for a young design engineer, but successfully delivered and the pump has since been used by three Formula One Teams.”
“Adam is an excellent ambassador for the company with great interpersonal skills,” says Xtrac’s managing director Peter Digby. “He is already taking on additional leadership responsibilities and currently mentoring another Xtrac engineering graduate. We currently support eight apprentice students, two graduates and eight undergraduates in our award winning training programmes.”
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(Article taken from newspress - www.newspress.com)
