A Day in the Life: Masters Student Matthew's Stateside Adventure
Published: 21 November 2022
MEng Student Matthew Murphy shows us a "typical day" in the life of an engineering student in Baltimore, Maryland!
Masters Aeronautical Engineering student Matthew Murphy is currently completing part of his Postgraduate degree over in the United States of America, studying with fellow Masters and PhD students at the University of Maryland's School of Engineering, as he works to complete his final year project, simulating the movement of rotors by utilising a water tank setup.
The project Matthew is completing focuses on fluid mechanics within rotorcraft systems. The project title is “Effect of blade profile on the reverse flow region of rotors in High Advance Ratio and Low Reynolds Number Flow using Computational and Experimental Procedures”. By experimenting on a sub scale rotor in water, forces and flow fields can be visualised in many different flight cases. Matthew is working as part of the STAL group at the University of Maryland which primarily focuses on rotorcraft flow physics. He is planning on writing a journal paper on his work within the group which will focus on both the experimental and computational results.
Documenting some of his exciting exchange experience in a video diary, Matthew has kindly offered us a glimpse into what it's like to study in a brand new environment abroad - with some things (like the weather!) proving more familiar than others. You can watch his video here:
Fifth Year Individual Projects comprise "an extended, individual project that allows students to demonstrate their abilities as future engineers, based on the knowledge, skills and understanding that they have developed during the preceding years of their MEng programme." These may be carried out in industry, at an overseas university, in the University of Glasgow, or a combination of these.
Matthew reports that he has had "great support" and kindness from his advisors at both University of Glasgow, and the University of Maryland, and that he already knows he will look back on his exchange experience fondly when he returns to Scotland to complete his degree.
First published: 21 November 2022