Amelia Fenwick

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University of Nottingham > Engineering > Departments > Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering > PDM Exhibitions > 2024 > BEng students > Amelia Fenwick

IceClear is designed to tackle the problem of astro turf pitches freezing and becoming brittle at low temperatures.

I have always been creative, since I was very young. I am sporty and was often seen as a tomboy growing up. This, while growing up in all girl's education, lead me to push the boundaries. Instead of doing Art like everyone else I wanted to do something different and more hands on. I decided to take Design and Technology for GCSE with eight other girls in my year and I loved it. When it came time to choose my A-Levels, I had started looking into courses at university.

My mum always used to say, ‘You won’t be able to spend three years doing something you don’t enjoy’. The lessons I looked forward to the most were my D&T ones. I spent ages trying to find something similar and fell upon Product Design and Manufacture. I was so set upon it, I applied for it twice!

It was the perfect combination of my Maths ability, materials knowledge and creative projects that sold me.

The university experience for me, had its up and downs, two major reconstructive knee surgeries during term time. This made it feel like I was always trying to catch myself back up. I am so proud of myself for sticking it through and reaching the end of my degree.

In the future, I want to travel, and use my creative skills I have learnt to pursue a career in creative project management. I would like to aid travel/ hotel companies with advertisement, visuals and concepts for marketing plans, across the world.

This course has taught me so many things, technically and on a skill level. However, the most important piece I will take away from University: Is how short life can be, and how we should do what makes us happy.

Amelia Fenwick, BEng Product Design and Manufacture

IceClear

IceClear is designed to tackle the problem of temperatures in the UK hitting around freezing or below 3⁰C, causing astro turf pitch fibers to freeze and become brittle. This increases the risk of player injury and pitch damage. Therefore, requiring the pitches to be closed until they thaw and become safe to play on. As a result, fixtures and bookings are cancelled and rescheduled, resulting in a backlog in leagues, a loss in revenue, and a decrease in active members for clubs across the country.

My product has been designed with innovative features, of Heat Strips and Cylindrical Brushes, that warm the ice and agitate it away. That will ultimately aid in speeding up the time it takes for the process of field hockey pitches to thaw. It helps to increase the playability of the pitch without damaging the turf’s material polymer fibres.

The reason for this project is to provide a different solution to the extremely expensive costs of laying under pitch heating, which is the only current solution commercially available on the markets. It aims to provide a solution that removes any dangers that come with not protecting players properly. That’s why I have designed the IceClear, so that it is cost-effective, has a robust design, and is universally accessible.