Yesterday Shaun Killen made the not-so-long trek to Edinburgh to participate in a double-bill seminar set focusing on nature-inspired engineering. The event was organised by Ignazio Viola (School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh) and Shaun spoke alongside Kiran Ramesh (School of Engineering, University of Glasgow). Kiran, Ignazio, and Shaun have recently received funding from a Carnegie Collaborative Grant to examine how fish swimming biomechanics may help inform the design and arrangement of wave power turbines.
The seminar event was a lot of fun with some great discussion with people in attendance from both engineering and biological sciences. Unfortunately for Shaun, however, he was dismayed when Kiran informed him that large dragons could never fly with flapping wings because the the power of the leading edge vortices required to provide the lift would need to be so powerful that they would basically tear the wings from the body. Dreams shattered.
