ENGINEERING STUDENT-LED PROJECTS

Sheffield Formula Racing

Formula Student is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Student teams from around the world design, build, test, and race small-scale Formula-style racing cars. Sheffield Formula Racing (SFR) represents the University of Sheffield, and in 2021, SFR won the Formula Student UK competition.

Sheffield Eco Motorsport

We are the University of Sheffield’s team competing in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge and the iLumen European Solar Challenge. 

Our team competes in the challenger class: designing and manufacturing the most efficient solar vehicle. 

Sheffield Eco Boats

Railway Challenge

Railway Challenge at Sheffield (RCAS) takes part in the Railway Challenge, run by the IMechE’s Railway Division. The team designs and builds a miniature 10 ¼” gauge locomotive, using their creativity and technical engineering skills to apply the latest railway technology. The team came second overall in Railway Challenge 2021.

Sheffield Student Downhill Design (SD²)

We are SD Squared, an interdisciplinary project building a downhill mountain bike from scratch! We are manufacturing our prototype frame and learning all that we can about manufacturing the final version in future. We have also run testing days and developed software skills to produce our geometry measurements and designs and visited our sponsor Hope Technology for a factory tour to learn about manufacturing and see what the industry really looks like.

We are an open group to work with, always welcome new ideas and all ride bikes too. There will be opportunities to develop specialist skills such as carbon fibre layup, designing for manufacture and critical testing planning. We also need students for our software, telemetry and testing teams as well as media.

Avis Drone Labs

Project Trident

Sunride

Sunride is a record-breaking student-led rocketry team at the University of Sheffield. 

Sunride was the first UK team to compete in the world’s largest Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, the Spaceport America Cup,  and in 2019, broke the National Open Altitude record . In 2021 they won the UKSEDS National Rocketry Championship. In 2024, Sunride broke the current European altitude record for student liquid fuelled rockets with their Desert Winds rocket at an apogee of 26,879ft/8.19km.

They are currently considered one of the leading UK rocketry teams and aim to be the first to reach space. 

SunbYte

SunbYte (Sheffield University Nova Balloon Telescope) is the only UK project to win the prestigious Rocket and Balloon Experiments for University Students (REXUS/BEXUS) competition, a European Space Agency programme.

They aim to take images of H-alpha deep-red visible light from the Sun by constructing a solar telescope and launching it into space.

MarsWorks

MarsWorks has competed in the European Rover Challenge, one of the biggest international space and robotics events in the world, and the Anatolian Rover Challenge. The aim is to develop and test an autonomous Mars rover. 

SunSat

SunSat is a student-led satellite development team. Our main mission is to research, test, develop, and optimise modular CubeSats capable of servicing a variety of possible payloads, with the intention of implementing various aspects of conditional monitoring and management to allow for controlled scientific experimentation. These conditions will include temperature, pressure, air quality etc. By using this platform, experiment development time may be reduced, allowing for faster, more efficient, and more affordable study of space and its effects.

EWB: Wind Turbine

The project will be following a detailed material selection, design, and assembly design book by Hugh Piggott for creating small, cheap, and student-led wind turbines. The wind turbine will be installed at Whirlow farm where it will be used in one of their low power requirements building sites.

EWB: Precious Plastic

The project aims to make a series of machines (including a shredder, an extrusion machine, an injection machine, and a compression machine) from which recycled plastic can be converted into various small objects. Recycled plastic could then be collected from the university buildings which will be used to form different objects, which in turn can be given to charity.

David Perez, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

Craw Ctrl

Craw Ctrl aims to tackle the issue of the invasive signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), which threatens native white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) populations in the UK. The objective is to create a low-cost, eco-friendly crayfish trap with remote monitoring and crowding detection to manage invasive crayfish populations sustainably. The focus is on using affordable materials and components while maintaining essential features like real-time monitoring and capacity alerts.

SheffHEPP

SheffHEPP (Sheffield Hydroelectric Power project) aims to deliver a temporary hydroelectric power installation for the village of Nether Langwith in order to power the Christmas lights on the green. The project is in collaboration with the Nether Langwith Parish Council.

The project is mainly split into three major parts: mechanical, civil, and electrical. However, engineering students from all disciplines are welcome to join.  Computer-aided design, power electronics and manufacturing skills are especially valued. 

Observatory Restoration

Chesterfield Barnett Observatory was built in 1960, and is run by volunteers from the Chesterfield Astronomical Society. It houses an 18” diameter Newtonian reflector telescope. It is visited regularly by schools and clubs and is open to the public.

The 5m+ diameter dome is manually rotated by pushing it round with a handle, and the dome shutter is opened and closed by pulling on a looped rope.

The dome was previously modified and is now distorted so that both rotating it and opening the shutter require a great deal of force and create a lot of noise, which disturbs the new nearby housing estate when used at night.

The aim of the project is to rectify the above problems in a way that respects the heritage of the dome. 

This is a new donor-funded project and students will collaborate with AMRC apprentices.

Solotron

Project Solotron is currently researching the  feasibility of converting an aircraft engine to run on hydrogen fuel. The eventual goal is to design a hydrogen-powered piston engine for light aircraft and a safe testing system for the engine.

Sheffield Bionics

Established in 2017, Sheffield Bionics offers students the opportunity to develop their engineering skills through the design and construction of bionic devices. 

Inspired by the tangible improvements made by groups like Open Bionics & Cybathlon, their mission is to contribute to the bionics community and inspire more people. 

They currently have multiple projects that are developing and building a range of bionic devices for members of their local community:

• A transhumeral myoelectric prosthetic arm

• A transfemoral prosthetic leg

• A brain-computer interface

• NAKIO (building prosthetics for animals)

They are also working to enter the next Cybathlon competition. Cybathlon is an international competition in Zurich that pits universities, prosthetics companies and hobbyists against a series of challenges designed to test the capabilities of their devices. 

Sheffield iGEM

Sheffield iGEM is a multidisciplinary team that competes in the world's largest synthetic biology competition.

Push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday issues facing the world. Work together with your team to build and test a system of your own design using interchangeable biological parts.

EWB: Vaccine Storage

The project aims to design and build a vaccine storage container that meets the standards set out by WHO which will allow vaccines to be transported through the supply chain.

A wide range of skill sets are required, including but not limited to: engineering design, modelling and marketing. We welcome members from every department and faculty.

Project Echo

Project Pixel

Our interdisciplinary team creates 2D and 3D games, including endless scrollers, arcade, and casual games, under the umbrella of our entity -  Knife Hit, Rider and ZigZag are great examples of what we envision! Our primary objective is to develop various games that will engage and entertain our users while promoting charitable causes. We aim to monetise our games while strongly focusing on giving back to society. All revenues generated from our games will be allocated to 100% charitable causes (such as British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research), making our games not just fun to play but also a force for good.

ASHRAE Design Competition

The ASHRAE Design Competition focuses on the design of energy-efficient HVAC systems. Multidisciplinary teams from architecture, civil and structural engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering design a scheme for an energy efficient, sustainable project using the Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design process.