Group photo of the lecture by Professor Dr David Mee.

Token of appreciation to Professor Mee.

Welcome speech by Assistant Professor Dr Lim Wei Hong.

UCSI’s Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment recently welcomed Professor Dr David Mee from the University of Queensland, Australia for a lecture on the topic ‘Air-breathing propulsion: From car engines and scramjets.’

The target audience for this lecture was staff and students from various degree programmes such as Chemical, Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical and Mechatronics. The event started with a welcoming speech by Mechanical Engineering department head, Assistant Professor Dr Lim Wei Hong. More than 100 students and 10 staff from various engineering departments attended the lecture.

Most propulsion systems for aircrafts are based on burning fuel in air. It is the oxygen in the air that is used to react with and release the chemical energy stored in the fuel. In contrast, the launch of a spacecraft is achieved using rockets that carry both the fuel and the oxidiser.

It is necessary to carry the oxidizer in a rocket if it is operating outside of the earth’s atmosphere where there is no air and so there is no oxygen available to combust with the fuel. This makes rockets heavy.

However, during at least part of the time during a launch of a rocket into space, it flies through the earth’s atmosphere. What are the prospects for a high-speed engine for launch of rockets that “breathe” air to use the oxygen in the air to burn the fuel? Scramjet engines offer the prospect of this type of launch.

During the lecture, Professor Mee covered the complete air-breathing engines from internal combustion engines, through to jet engines and scramjets. A short question and answer session followed after the lecture. Many interesting questions were raised by the Mechanical Engineering students since the topic was relevant to their field of study.

The event ended with a closing speech by Dr Lim and a token of appreciation was awarded to Professor Mee by the dean Associate Professor Ir Dr Jimmy Mok Vee Hoong and the deputy dean Assistant Professor Dr Ang Chun Kit.