Episode #24

• Ben is a Mechanical engineer with a PhD. 
• He was worked in the Motorspace and aerospace industries, and on helicopters and sporting equipment just to name a few. 
• Ben grew up on a farm.  Performed a lot of ‘maintenance’ on his dad’s farm equipment, and found his passion for engineering. 
• Arrived in Sydney in 2016 and is now, happily, a permanent residency. 
• His first project was at JCB in special projects, designing diggers.  One of the rotation roles was working to develop a robot welding system in the mid/late 1990’s…. very early days of robot engineering. 
• Working at Ilmor was his first engineering position after completing his PhD and he was the design and development engineer, tasked at developing racing engines.  The role was like a dream come true.

• Ben is working on Laser doppler vibrometry: making light work of vibration measurement
• View the paper Ben co-authored
• Explanatory paper that Ben created
• This technology will allow remote infrastructure condition monitoring…… “a lot of opportunities, particularly in Australia where we have a lot of remote infrastructure” 
• Using the doppler effect to “make measurements of systems that are hard to reach or in remote locations”, e.g an offshore wind farm.  To survey power poles in all locations of Australia to determine the nature of it’s structural integrity, before it comes down and potentially causing fires. 
• A practical application of this is to measure the movement of insect wings, and then use the information to develop some very exciting technologies.  Can also use this to measure the condition monitoring of high-performance engines. 
• Agricultural use would include the assessment for the ripeness of fruit.  Currently using vision-based technology, but could add vibration measurement to this process to determine the ultimate ripeness. 
• Allows for non-destructive testing.

• Being an academic is an incredible opportunity to solve national and international problems.  “…global challenges we now have that young people starting out as engineers have a great opportunity to help to try to solve some of these problems.  It’s a really exciting time.” 
• There is so much data everywhere.  Data storage is becoming a massive consideration 
• “We don’t tend to be the keepers of knowledge anymore, the internet is the keeper of knowledge.” 
• Data engineering has become so in-depth and extensive, it has mushroomed as a discipline in 20 years. 
• It is important to understand the why when things fail.  “you get much more out of that than you do if things worked first time, every time.”

An engineering item for discussion. Iconic landmarks in Sydney Harbour – Sydney Opera House & Harbour Bridge…. they have the same bridge in Newcastle-upon-tyne, but not as impressive.  “What a terrific piece of engineering”… “That really impresses me”. That these were created pre-CAD days. 

Harbour Bridge in Newcastle-upon-tyne

An engineer to admire.  Robert Stephenson, the father of steam really inspired him.

Website: www.engineeringheroes.com.au 

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Our drinking game.  You can’t have a beer with an engineer without having a drinking game!!  Anytime Dom says “ummm” or Mel says “so”… drink up!