IED STUDENT AWARDS
Rini Vanchhawng
BA (Hons) Industrial Design
RProdDes accredited programme, University of Bournemouth
The ‘Kida pendant’ project was
spurred on through the logic
that beyond the design of
every object is a story to tell.
The DNA that ran throughout
this project was embracing
change, using the concept of
‘Flying the Nest’.
“The purpose was
to reduce feelings of
loneliness and to reassure the user that
Amsal Mohamed
home is never far away, no matter where they are,” says Rini
Vanchhawng. The pendant may be worn in two ways, through
movement. “In closed form, the wings cradle and protect the
memory inside; upon opening, a memory is revealed, as the
necklace proudly displays its spread wings, refl ecting how the
wearer themselves grow confi dent.
“What really began this project for me was how can we
bring a piece of ‘home’ anywhere we go – an object to help
people thrive, not just survive.”
The pendant was designed to be made using an indirect
3D printing technique and then hand fi nished. “As technology
is vastly expanding, there was the question of how to create
a universal design that would still be customisable to the
user,” he states. “By allowing a choice for the precious metal
and coloured enamel, as well as the freedom to store a
personal precious memory inside, the idea was that, through
these choices, a strong emotional connection could be
formed with the user – resulting in a pendant where there are
no two alike (unless purposely made as a pair). As this was
designed using CAD, fi ne details could be revised to ensure
there was enough material to support the thinner edges. In
just a few hours, several iterations could be made, which
may take someone several weeks to craft.”
MEng Mechanical,
Materials and
Manufacturing
Engineering
CEng accredited programme,
University of Nottingham
Malaysia
A recent graduate from the University of Nottingham Malaysia,
Amsal Mohamed is now pursuing an MSc in Applied and
Computational Mathematics. Of his fi nal project, the ‘airoperated
thermoacoustic cooler’, he says: “Thermoacoustics
utilise standing waves to generate periodic compression and
expansion cycles, providing the thermodynamic mechanism to
facilitate heat transfer. Essentially, it’s using sound to cool,”
he states. “The objective was to develop a methodology,
model and implement a design using air as the operating
media, as all current implementations use expensive highly
pressurised inert gas mixtures. As with all thermoacoustics,
the fi nal design itself is dead simple. A speaker at one end,
a thermal interface between two heat exchangers, all
enclosed in a continuous resonator tube.
“This inherent lack of moving components and relative
manufacturing costs are great advantages to thermoacoustic
cooling. Incorporating design restrictions to using available
materials and the choice of medium resulted in resonator
lengths of 4.26m, which would not fi t in the lab. Beyond
computational impact evaluation of each design dimension,
this proved the biggest hurdle, as acoustic losses around
bends are signifi cant. Incorporating a 180° radiused bend
while compensating for the losses proved the ultimate
compromise to produce a functional system for approximately
US$125.”
The design is now being validated and, although the
achievable cooling power is minimal (10°C drop with 5W
cooling power), a design variant that
uses pressurised helium in parallel
combinations has potential, he adds,
as a commercially-viable product for
comfort cooling in certain markets.
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