Jamie Steele

Munro Vehicles specialise in offroad 4x4 vehicles - with the advantage of a high torque electric drivetrain. Working as a Design Engineer, I'm involved in the day to day problem solving and detailed design of solutions that an automotive start up encounters. From component design and supplier selection to in depth calculations and hands on prototyping, I'm involved in most technical aspects of the vehicle, striving for quality and professionalism in our Engineering Design within our small but nimble and adaptable team.

Self-employed Mechanical Design Engineer, also taking on simple lathe work. I have had a mix of long term and very short contracts to date. --Lead Engineer-- Since Dec 2020 I had been working for MotiveXQ Ltd (search LinkedIn for videos!) as Lead Engineer. The product is a modular zero carbon human hybrid vehicle, a 4 wheel Pedal Electric Vehicle designed for various emerging target markets. Responsible for the entire Engineering design from concept, through systems integration and individual parts, my contributions carried significant impact and value including all IP generation for the business and having the most intimate knowledge of the product and legislation of the emerging sector. The role required significant flexibility and resilience. Working with limited resource meant engineering judgement and empirical experience had to be called upon often, with reporting directly to the CTO and CEO. • Mechanical Engineering specification and design of components and assemblies, including Chassis, Suspension and Drivetrain. • 3D CAD (Solidworks), calculations and analysis (some minor linear static FEA and tolerance stack ups), manufacturing drawings, supplier liaison, prototype testing, BOM and preparing files for RFQs etc. • Legislative and market research (including standards research) • Hands on prototype manufacture (I made and modified parts on my own lathe helping achieve significantly shorter lead times and help keep costs to the business low) • Balancing engineering decisions with business requirements • Other aspects of the business – meeting other stakeholders, promoting collaboration within the sector, input to strategy etc. Software – Solidworks 3D CAD and linear static FEA, UltiMaker Cura, Microsoft Office

I had joined Peddlesmart seeking a new challenge with more exposure to the whole business and opportunity to make a wider impact. The company’s work was to design and manufacture a range of low and zero carbon human hybrid vehicles. I was excited about the initial business values including employing those with barriers to work and using local suppliers and partners first. Being a start up company, I was exposed to and initially involved in a wide variety of business areas: • Responsible for the complete change in product direction and new design of the whole first prototype 4-wheel vehicle. Largely individually, I designed the first prototype Chassis, Suspension, Drivetrain and Steering systems. • Mostly Mechanical Design Engineering work (e.g. design of components and assemblies, calculations, 3D CAD modelling, manufacturing drawings, analysis, reverse engineering, competitor and product research, legislative and regulatory research etc.) • Providing input (technical and non-technical) to grants - I directly helped achieve the company's largest grant - a match-funded grant of £500k • Created initial Design processes including part numbering strategy • Created an initial internal Product Development process and document templates • Assisted in prototype manufacturing • Attended demo, open and other events (before my prototype was designed) • Supplier and partner liaison, purchasing parts, checking goods incoming • Attended workshops with Scottish Enterprise Software – SolidWorks 3D CAD, Microsoft Office and MS Project

Employed post KTP. The company’s main line of work is low volume design and manufacture of various vehicle bodies (such as gritters and multi-purpose bodies). Main responsibilities included: • Design of new components and products from concept through to manufacture (fabrications, sheet metal and machined parts) • Analysis of components/designs with FEA, Motion/Kinematics and Hand Calculations • Producing detailed engineering drawings, BOMs and other required production documentation • Management of the 3D CAD system (updates, maintenance renewal etc.) • Supplier liaison for resolving issues, determining specs and ordering materials where required • Reverse Engineering parts with no record of design • Customer visits to communicate new product ideas • Continually improving the engineering design function of the company • Keeping abreast of the latest industry trends/developments by visiting trade shows etc. Key achievements at JAC (locally known as ‘Cubbys’) were designing a Snowplough [J-Plough], a Bin Wagon to Beavertail conversion, their first 3.5t tipper body and the first iteration of Cuthbertson’s ESB (Easy Swab Body) system. Many aspects of my designs continue to be used by the company along with the part numbering system I introduced for the 3D CAD. Software – SolidWorks 3D CAD, SolidWorks Simulation (FEA and Motion/Kinematics), Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Employed by the university, working in James A. Cuthbertson Ltd. as the Knowledge Transfer Partnership project associate. As part of the 2 year Innovate UK project, the original main project objective was to ‘embed advanced engineering design capability using FE analysis and Design for X techniques’. • Project achieved a ‘B’ grade (from Innovate UK assessors) • Various aspects looked at but project truncated to focussing on implementing 3D CAD and structure into the company (company decision) • Basic structure, standards and procedures for 3D CAD, drawings and Design introduced to the company • Various small projects undertaken throughout – all geared toward knowledge transfer • Managed project budget, my own training budget and a team of 4 academic supervisors & 1 company supervisor • Presented project summaries at 6 Local Management Committee meetings and 1 seminar • Generated 2 undergraduate student projects Software – SolidWorks 3D CAD and Simulation, ANSYS Mechanical, MathCad Training – SolidWorks Essentials & Simulation (TMS), Management & Leadership residential modules equivalent to CMI Level 5 (Ashorne Hill), Metallurgy, Corrosion & Failure Analysis (SAE), Modelling of Joints & Connections (NAFEMS), Change Management (IMechE), Fundamentals of Vehicle Data Collection (Horiba Mira seminar).

Employed straight from university. The company’s main line of work is high volume production of indoor and outdoor air-conditioning units. Main responsibilities included: • 4month secondment to mother factory in Japan to learn (and translate via interpreter) product design rules and standards • 3D CAD modelling, drawing and arranging first manufacture of prototype product • Providing design perspective in quality investigations incl. testing, solutions & reports • Assisting with new product introduction (basic physical testing, engineering concessions etc) • Physically modifying parts for concept evaluation • Participating in ‘value engineering’ cost reduction activities • Drawing change requests to Japan, BOM checks, raising POs and other admin tasks Software – Creo Elements/Direct Modelling, Mitsubishi internal BOM system, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint & Outlook Training - ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 14001:2004 Integrated IMS Auditor course (QCS International), Technical lecture series (Mitsubishi Electric Research Centre Europe), Value Engineering course (Mitsubishi Electric Headquarters), Voluntary Japanese lessons (after work).

Through a friend, I was asked to assist Burnett Motorsport for 1 race of the 2012 Scottish Legends Championship away from home. I was in charge of fuel management for that race. The team, impressed by my attitude and enthusiasm, asked me to join them for another race away from home, in which again I was on fuel management duty. At this race I also assisted other team members with general mechanicing duties. The team asked me to join them for the rest of the season however a commitment to IndiGO and a clash of dates meant that I could only assist for a further 1 race. I was put in charge of a car (No.1 Mechanic/Race Engineer) for this race and conducted mechanicing duties as well as making decisions about tyre pressures etc. My driver for the day breezed the competition and managed to win all 3 races. Burnett Motorsport continued to try and persuade me to join them however the reason I did not has been stated. Fortunately the team went on to win the 2012 Scottish Legends Championship. The team had asked me to join them for the 2013 Championship however I had commitents with privateers in the Scottish Rally Championship and Junior 1000 Ecosse Challenge.

I was employed at IndiGO in a voluntary role for the 2012 Scottish Formula Ford season. Duties were general mechanicing and ensuring the car was safe, competitive and complied with regulations. I also assisted in the setup of the car, fixing any damaged parts between races, fuel management and cleaning duties. On occasion I would also chat to team sponsors. Working here taught me to work efficiently in a time-sensitive environment and highlighted the importance of basic tasks along with communication, observation and organisation. The team managed to win the 2012 Scottish Formula Ford 1600 Championship which was a great reward for the time put in.

Degree had a mechanical focus with modules such as CAD, Mechanical & Thermal Design, Materials & Manufacture, Design, Prototyping and Testing and Vehicle Dynamics & Simulation. I achieved straight As in my final year, and won the court medal (most academically distinguished student) for all 4 years of my course. Final Year Projects: Individual – ‘Design of a basic data acquisition installation to extract tyre data from on-vehicle testing’ · Created concepts, analysed with FEA, physically made system, calibrated and tested sensors Group – ‘Formula Ford Torsional Stiffness Testing’ · Designed jig and test method, carried out testing and compared values to FEA model, generated reasonable values.