Today we started the day with presentations in the Engineering building at the University of the Basque Country. We learned about the history of the School of Engineering, and how the school itself is older than the University of the Basque Country. When the University was formed, they combined three Engineering Universities into one, and combined their programs. We also learned about the different degrees they over, with 16 undergraduate degrees including a Biomedical Engineering program that started 2 years ago! A 2 year masters degree only costs 3,000 euros! Which I am so jealous about 🙁
We also had a chance to learn about a few clubs that are focused on engineering. The first club that we visited was Formula Student, their version of FSAE. Each year they build a formula style car from scratch and then travel to Silverstone, England to test is against other schools car, including a race. Last year, they won first place in the electric car category, and third overall. While we were visiting, we were given the chance to watch them conduct a water on the car, exposing the car to rainfall for 2 minutes to make sure the car will function even if exposed the rain. They had attempted this test yesterday and failed, and they had fixed the problem (hopefully not only with the duct tape we saw them attaching to the car) and were testing the car again. The car passed this time, which meant that tomorrow they would be taking the car to a track and practice driving the car since the competition is coming up soon.
The next club we visited was Guitar STREAM. STREAM stands for Science, Technology, Recycling, Engineering, Art, and Math. In this club, you use recycled wood and materials to make an electric guitar. We learned a little bit about the process of making an electric guitar, including how to make a pickup. To make a pickup, you have to get 6 magnets (one for each string) and then wrap a thin wire around then 6,000-8,000 times. Because the club is focusing on recycling, they make every machine they use themselves, including the CNC machine used to cut the shape of the guitar. Two machines used in the fabrication of the pickups had been made by students. One is to speed up the process of wrapping the wire around the magnets, and the other uses transformers from an old microwave to control the orientation of the magnetic field of the pickups. Another interesting thing that the club has, is a test guitar. They use this guitar to test how the height and placement of pickups affect the sound of the guitar. It was really interesting to see how, even though this club is focused on electrical engineering, the club was able to bring in different disciplines like art and music to aid in the learning and application of engineering.
The final club was visited was the BiSky Club. They are a club that builds rockets with a goal of reaching the Kármán line (about 100 km or 62 miles above sea level), which is the boundary between the atmosphere and space. Because of this, they build powerful rockets that can only be launched from a military base. Their most recent rocket, called Eros, reach a height of 7 km, but they think it could have gone higher, with restrictions put in place on their rockets because of weather conditions, meaning they had to switch to a weaker motor. They are the first group in Spain, both student and professional, to use a hybrid engineer, to use both solid and liquid fuel. At their most recent competition, using the Eros rocket, they placed first in Spain and eighth in Europe, and they are expecting their current project, Valkyrie, to be more powerful than Eros. They switched form using carbon fiber to glass fiber, as well as using a new recovery system. They also developed a new modular aviation system called Orion that they will be testing with this launch. Another improvement that they are bring to next year, is that they are upgrading thier launching rail from a 5 meter rail to a 15 meter rail, allowing them to get more launching power and a higher apex as a result.
The greatest thing about these clubs are that they are student run with a professor as an advisor, and yet the school doesn’t really influence the clubs themselves. The university allows them to use rooms in their buildings, but all of their funding comes from sponsors that they have to find themselves, including the local government for a lot of clubs. Being apart of these clubs allows students not only to practice their engineering, but to also learn and grow as business and financial leaders. It allows for cross disciplinary communication, which is what working in a job is like. The clubs find the competitions and resources that they need by themselves, such as a new club like the sail boat building club is planning on building a boat and racing it in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
We also visited the Casa Vieja (or Old City) of Bilbao. The “city” itself is only 7 streets, and that is after an extension had been made! The newer part of Bilbao is from around the 1700’s, while the Old City was founded around the early 1300’s. In the Casa Vieja, there is a popular square called the Plaza Nueva, which has pintxo (the Basque version of Tapas, small appetizers) restaurants all around.
