Strath UAV
Meet the Team!
Daniel Cutting
As Daniel is the only member of the team with previous plane building experience, having taken part in the BMFA’s Heavy Lift Challenge, he has carried out the role of team manager.
Through involvement in a range of student-run university projects, Daniel has developed an understanding of how to organise a project such that students can be involved in areas of interest to them while furthering their education in compliment with their degree. This has been an important part of the project due to its involvement with the University’s VIP programme.
Daniel has gained valuable experience in industry over a range of internships with Rolls-Royce PLC. These internships have given Daniel an appreciation of the quality of engineering required within the Aerospace industry, an appreciation which he has brought to the team in order to ensure the project is of the highest quality possible.
Douglas Cook
As an Aero-Mechanical engineering student, Douglas has a great interest for the aerospace industry, and has a key role within the team as the lead designer of the wing.
Douglas has gained experience within industry working at Singapore Technologies Aerospace (STA) whilst on international exchange at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore. Whilst working at STA Douglas worked within the Payloads department on the passenger to freighter conversion of the Airbus A330.
Having also worked with Texas Aero Engine Services Limited, a Rolls Royce and American Airlines joint venture, in Fort Worth, Texas Douglas has gained valuable industrial insight which he can bring to the design and manufacture of the UAV.
Euan Wheeler
Euan has a great passion for engineering having completed work placements in the UK and abroad in the aerospace and oil and gas industries.
In the 2012 Euan completed a work placement with Denel Aerostructures in South Africa. The scope of this work placement was to carry out a productivity analysis on the assembly line of the wing to fuselage fairings for the Airbus A400M. Euan followed this experience with a year studying in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University. During his time in Singapore he also completed a five month placement with Pratt & Whitney Services. This placement consisted of working as part of a small team developing a new repair for the low pressure turbine vane retaining ring seal in the GP7000 engine.
Euan’s work experience stretches into the oil and gas sector too with the summer of 2014 spent working for Metrol Technology. This internship consisted of working in the Drawing Office, designing and analysing components that would be assembled to form downhole tools.
Outwith engineering Euan has a keen interest in football and is currently the university football club captain.
Euan’s experience with working in the aero-structures sector allowed him to contribute to the design of the tail boom and other structural aspects. He was also appointed head of finance and procurement due to his extensive commercial awareness.
James Thouless
James brings knowledge and a skill set developed through placements in multiple engineering sectors, having worked for steam engineering, aerospace and oil and gas companies.
During his third year James took the opportunity to study abroad with a year spent on exchange in Singapore. As part of the exchange James completed a five month industrial attachment with Singapore Technologies Aerospace working as part of the mechanical systems team. This gave him first-hand experience of the design aspects and associated regulations within the Aerospace industry.
For his fourth year project James chose to study non-Newtonian fluid flow. This enabled him to develop an excellent knowledge of CFD software. Last summer, James completed a placement with GE Oil and Gas, where he worked extensively with finite element software. These combined experiences mean James has a good understanding of both stress and fluid analysis.
With this knowledge James will take on one of the lead technical roles enabling him to focus on the design of the tail plane and also contribute to other areas of the aircraft. This position will set James up well as he looks to pursue a career with an engineering consultancy.
Simonas Stilius
During his 5 years as an MEng Aero-Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Strathclyde, Simonas has developed a great passion for the aerospace industry, engineering design and team-based projects. As the VIP lead as well as the technical lead for the fuselage and payload release system, he has been dedicated to developing practical and cost effective solutions to the challenges facing electrical systems, payload and airframe integration.
He has had excellent international experience during his time in university, having completed a summer internship within the oil & gas industry in the USA and Trinidad & Tobago as well as a one year international exchange in Singapore.
Caio Nepomuceno Santos
Caio is a Brazilian exchange student of mechanical engineering in Strathclyde University. During this new experience, Caio had the opportunity to join the 5th year group project, collaborating on the payload release system, as VIP lead and in the group website.
During his 1st and 2nd years, Caio, now on 3rd year, researched on coated electrode welding and its influence on weld bead compared to MIG and TIG welding processes in the university that study, UFERSA (Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido). At high school, he could study mechatronics and was the representative of his state in the national robotics competition.