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Siddartha concluded his visit with a technical lecture as an invited speaker at the Monash University Malaysia Campus (Monash University Malaysia is affiliated to Monash University Australia).
The Malaysia campus is an exemplar of transnational education because it is a campus whose staff and students are part of a global academy with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research.
Siddartha delivered his lecture, titled 'Going Driverless: Is it a good idea?', on 27 February 2017 at the Plenary Theatre. It was attended by a large and attentive audience comprising Faculty Members, Industry experts, Fellows and Members of the Institution and young college students pursuing Mechanical Engineering.
The question and answer session at the end of the lecture was lively, particularly so among the younger generation aspiring to be future engineers, bearing testimony to a well-received lecture.
Synopsis of the Lecture
Siddartha is a PhD researcher at WMG, University of Warwick, UK and hence he began his lecture by giving the audience an insight into the WMG (formerly Warwick Manufacturing Group) which is an academic department within the science faculty of the University of Warwick.
It was established in 1980 by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya as Warwick Manufacturing Group to facilitate technology transfer and knowledge creation for Industry. Also, WMG has an active research collaboration with Monash University.
The lecture was started by asking the audience whether they thought going driverless was a good idea. The audience had mixed opinions.
Siddartha went on to provide a few statistics of drivers in the UK, some of which were that ‘the average driver in England spends 235 hours behind the wheel each year’ and that ‘90% of all accidents are caused by driver error’.
He explained how these trends could be changed through going driverless and once again asked the audience if they thought the idea was a good one. This time around, more people were convinced by the concept.
Giving a more realistic view, he then introduced some of the research challenges involved in the introduction of automated vehicles. He went on to explain that there are different stages towards full automation – from aiding a driver to completely replacing a driver. An industry roadmap for autonomy shows that the first signs of full automation will be seen after 2030.
Siddartha provided the audience with an insight into the types of automated vehicles which are a) current vehicle features; b) fully self-driving pods; and c) the Google car.
He spoke about the current status of automation in countries such as Europe, Sweden, the USA and Singapore. It is interesting to note that Volvo has decided to set out on a 100 car trial - the most ambitious autonomous tech trial announced thus far. The company is going to put 100 customers in cars with autonomous capabilities and turn them loose on public roads under a program it calls 'Drive Me'.
He then focused on his research around the challenges of testing automated vehicles and some of the existing methods for testing.
He concluded the lecture by telling the audience about the WMG 3xD Simulator for Intelligent Vehicles, whose vision is to test or evaluate any new technology (infrastructure, communications and on-vehicle) in representative real world conditions with a 'driver' in the loop.
To summarise the lecture, it was stated that automation requires new infrastructure, real world trials, new methods to test in complex real world scenarios, and above everything else, the world needs to remember the people for whom vehicles are being made. Vehicles need to be secure, safe and robust yet desirable and affordable.
The Institution's thriving Young Members' Network is made up of over 65,000 Affiliates, Associates or other members who have achieved professional registration within the last 10 years.
To find out more about the Young members Network, please visit our Young Members pages. If you have a question for Siddartha, please email international@imeche.org.