EXACTLY WHERE THE PHYSICS IS HAPPENING

The keen observation of the night sky has long been a recognised part of Swedish scientific life, now we’re closer than ever to understanding it.

From the earliest days, the night sky — particularly the colourful aurora borealis — seen prominently over northern Scandinavia, has sparked curiosity.

Over time, this curiosity sharpened into scientific fact-based research. The naked eye was soon assisted by ground-based observations from magnetometers, all-sky cameras, and radars. In time, first sounding rockets and then satellites were launched to further investigate in situ the physical mechanisms behind the aurora, such as acceleration of auroral particles, needed to create the intense auroral displays, and the mechanisms driving the aurora.

Scientists at KTH have long played an internationally key role in the studies of the aurora and the auroral particle acceleration. Both Göran Marklund, professor of Space Plasma Physics at KTH and Per-Arne Lindqvist, research scientist in the same field, have studied the aurora and the mechanisms behind it since the late1970s.

“We often call our research ‘auroral research’. But the aurora is not the result of processes confined only to the Earth’s ionosphere where it is observed, but the result of a long chain of interaction processes between the Sun and the Earth’s magnetosphere. As the continuously emitted, highly variable solar wind hits the Earth’s magnetosphere, a process named reconnection will transfer energy and momentum between particles and magnetic fields. To further understand this process, in situ measurements by satellites crossing the magnetosphere’s outer boundary are needed.” Says Lindqvist as the two scientists explain their role in the continued study of an ever more vital area of space physics.

Electromagnetic hydrodynamic waves (or magneto-hydrodynamic waves) play an important role in the above mentioned processes behind the aurora. They were first described in 1942 by former KTH professor, Hannes Alfvén (1908 – 1995). As an electrical engineer and plasma physicist he had long promoted his theories on electromagnetic hydrodynamic waves and although at first not universally accepted, his theories were soon fully recognised and now these waves are commonly referred to as ‘Alfvén waves’. It is his pioneering work, recognised with a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1970, that has continued in earnest at KTH.

The success of the launch of Sweden’s first satellite VIKING in 1986, and its achievements as the first satellite to explore plasma processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere led not only to successive satellites FREJA and ASTRID-2 and their further investigations, but also to a recognition from the international community that Sweden had a serious research capability and a frontier position in the field.

“We showed the world that we were capable of designing and building advanced rocket and satellite experiments which worked.” Says Marklund. Confidence had grown internationally in the ability of Swedish space science, and engineers, to not only execute exacting experiments but also to build highly precise electric field instruments.

So when scientists at KTH learnt that NASA was getting a team together for a space physics project which would involve four satellites to launch in 2015, the KTH team worked hard on their contribution to a project close to their heart. The Magneto-spheric Multi-Scale (MMS) mission was targeted to deepen our understanding of the process of reconnection operating between the solar wind and many of the planets, including Earth. Magnetic reconnection, transferring energy and momentum between particles and magnetic fields, is a well-known process also in fusion plasmas, solar flares and probably also in astrophysical plasma jets.

A key parameter in this process is the electric field. The world-leading position of the KTH group in measuring electric fields was the reason for being invited to provide the spin-plane double probe electric field experiments on the four MMS spacecraft. So it was that on 13 March 2015, after 10 years of hard work on a 1-billion dollar NASA mission, an Atlas V 421 rocket entered space carrying their instruments. All three components of the electric field in the earth’s magnetosphere are now being measured with the highest resolution possible and frontier science is already being explored. As a result of this large scientific effort, “close to 400 papers have been published in international journals with many authors to each paper.” Says Lindqvist.

So what’s next for Space Physics at KTH? We discussed several new projects including one which Marklund and Lindqvist acknowledge will probably not be complete until after they have retired.

“We are moving away from the earth’s magnetosphere to explore other regions.” Explains Lindqvist. “One project, which we are involved in, and which is already on its way to be launched, is BepiColombo. It will go to Mercury, carrying an electric field instrument we have built. There will be two spacecraft, one will observe the planet and the other is a magnetospheric orbiter which will measure the electric fields, in situ around the planet Mercury, for the first time ever.”

Almost by way of further explanation, and especially to clarify the importance of the study of in situ space physics, Marklund explains. “Astronomers are forced to rely only on the light in different wavelengths emitted from stars, however, our in situ measurements are from exactly where the physics is happening, where there are electric fields, particles and currents, that is a real contrast between us and the astronomers.”

EDUCATION: ENGINEERING THE PERFECT BALANCE

Engineers have been trained at KTH Royal Institute of Technology for over 100 years. Teaching practice has always evolved and adapted both with the college and society at large. Today, striking a balance between theory and practical experience is at the centre of the most recent education reforms.

The balance ensures that the university delivers professionals with relevant practical experience, in addition to being schooled in the fundamental scientific rigour that must underpin that practice. However, a balance between science and practice has not always been to the aim of the university.

Post-world war one KTH was a very different institution to today’s university. If you were to visit you would have found a male-dominated training college, much more of a ‘workshop’ with an apprenticeship style. Similar to today’s facility it was a proud institution in which students could expect the best training in the latest methods when studying in fields such as materials science. But it was certainly, without question, more traditionally focused. Training was rooted in the apprenticeship system for tradesmen. Water engineers could for instance make use of the special V-shaped building (known as the trouser legs) where the basement of one ‛leg’ had large water channels that could be used for various experiments. It was very much a ‘hands-on’ school.

However, after time it had become clear that the school was going to need to move towards more theory. And so in 1867 “scientific training” was entered into the university’s statutes. Theory began to occupy more space in the curriculum.

A leap forward and we find ourselves in the 1990s, and now the tables have very much turned. By this time there were very few internships being offered by industry and the practical requirement for a degree was removed altogether. At KTH many professors themselves had little or no practical experience and theoretical work and research became all dominant.

“In engineering education in the 1990s there was nothing about conceiving, there was nothing about implementing or operating, it was all design or calculations.” Says Joakim Lilliesköld, Associate Professor in Industrial Systems Engineering, and the man responsible for education at the School of Electrical Engineering. Critics were also looking to engineering colleges around the world and feeling that the focus on the profession was being left behind. In the US, Boeing the multinational corporation and engineering giant, had made the observation that they were unhappy with the graduates that they were getting. As Lilliesköld describes it “they, as well as many other companies, were not really happy with the engineers that came out of the system, they wanted to see a change in their education so that they would get more practice into it and they took a systems approach to how to re-train them.” It was out of this that the ‘CDIO’ method was born in the early 2000s. The method focuses on

four key areas that the students need to work with in order to become rounded engineers; Conception, Design, Implementation, and Operation.

“CDIO was a project funded by Wallenberg where they provided money to three Swedish university’s; Chalmers, Linkoping and KTH, and M.I.T in the US – the goal was to educate engineers that can engineer,” says Lilliesköld.

CDIO said that engineering programmes needed to have all four fundamental puzzle pieces. Additionally, it was realised that for the ‘hands-on’ aspect, project courses would also need to be added to the curriculum. Lilliesköld explains how the model was added to and adjusted, “another dimension was realised – that you had to have a progression of skills. So a long set of engineering skills was developed, you needed to be able to work in a team, to do a project plan, to be able to communicate. All of the skills of the engineer were examined.” A key feature of CDIO was the way in which it was ‘baked in’, the skills were not taught separately — there was not a project management course or a technical writing course — they were integrated into the actual technical courses. CDIO has continued to develop and the curriculum at KTH’s School of Electrical Engineering has adapted and evolved.

At KTH this most recent evolution of education started in 1999 when the first year project course began. According to Lilliesköld it created a lot of discussions as to whether or not you could present an application before all relevant theories were known. Another issue was the product focus of CDIO, in early 2000 it was difficult for many at the department to talk about products for Electrical Engineering. Then something changed. Project courses were developed in many of the master programs. In 2007, the bachelor thesis was added to the curricula as a result of the Bologna reform. 10 years later, the next step was taken to introduce a more challenging project course in the 2nd year at the bachelor level. Then, in 2013 the curriculum was rebuilt. The result was a program to create world-class electrical engineers. A course with both a strong theoretical base and one project each year to tie the theoretical courses together. Additionally, there is a course called Global Impact of Electrical Engineering that looks at future challenges and introduces students to a mentor from the faculty. As Lilliesköld says, “Altogether, students now leave with a good mix of skills, ready for the demands of 21st-century industry.

GRIPEN SMART FROM THE START

07 December 2016

Smart has become synonymous with Gripen, we take a look to see just how this has happened.

Just what is ‘smart thinking’? Although for many ‘Smart’ has just become a fashionable term for marketing tech, for us it’s long been a part of our design DNA.

The first Gripen fighter took to the skies in the early eighties. Smart had not yet become synonymous with the latest must-have mobile phone. Could you use it to describe the thinking at Saab at the time? Absolutely. One could argue that the Gripen system could not have been achieved without it. 

The first Gripen was born of a specific need for a new type of fighter system. Not only did it have to out-perform other fighters on numerous levels but it also had to answer budget constrictions set by the Swedish ministry of defense. Gripen was not only to be a highly technologically ‘smart’- fully computerized for example, at a time when neither the computers nor the systems existed.  But additionally, Gripen was born of a smart design mentality rooted in evolutionary thinking. Put simply by Lars Sjöberg, head of Research and Design at Saab’s business area Aeronautics, “the smart process is to make the complex simple”.

Systems thinking and breaking the cost curve

The thinking was not only to create a fighter aircraft. It was to create a system that would evolve. A system that could, as a result of using split avionics, be updated without the updates affecting essential flight systems. Designers and strategists alike knew that a total redesign of the fighter aircraft each decade, as was the traditional method, was going to be extremely costly. Within the industry the development costs for new fighters were increasing at an unsustainable rate. Something had to be done to break the cost curve. Aside from costs the Gripen team were uniquely aware, that the old ways would not allow them enough time to adapt to future threat horizons fast enough. The Gripen system would have three-year cycle updates. Lifecycle costs were to be driven down, maintenance costs were made minimal. Efficiency became the watchword. As a result a perfectly balanced fighter system was created. Good in every operational level, yet affordable to acquire and affordable to fly.

Going lean

At Saab we define efficiency as a lean, model-based development process. Used when developing Gripen, 3D modeling techniques greatly helped to reduce risk. The method also helps each engineer to visualize and access the overall project. As Sjöberg explains, “it should be possible for a newly recruited engineer to enter my department to be productive as fast as possible”. The same computer models can be used throughout the entire lifecycle of each plane and for and the three-year cycle updates. There are no more blue prints or the 50,000 technical drawings that would usually be associated with such a project.

Ultimately it is Saab’s smart systems and smart thinking that have delivered such positive benefits – from the bottom line to overall efficiency and development.

THE RIGHT TECH, AND SMART THINKING — SCANIA’S APPROACH

21 NOVEMBER 2017

We need the right technology, not new technology and, essentially a systemic mindset to realise a sustainable transport system. That was the message delivered by Scania at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP23).

“Possibilities rather than problems” were the focus of this year’s conference says Jonas Strömberg, Scania’s Director of Sustainable Solutions. Despite this, Strömberg felt there was, at times, too much emphasis on what he called “silver-bullet technology”.

“My first line is always that the technology is not the problem, we have the technology. The problem is that procurers, cities and decision makers are not asking for cost-efficient technology, they are only asking for the next technology,” he says.

Systemic approach to sustainable transport

Speaking during a seminar on public transport Strömberg emphasised the necessity to use several solutions with the technology already present. He also underlined the need to approach sustainable transport systematically.

“We shouldn’t only be looking at the city but also to whole regional transport patterns. Different solutions are needed for different areas, and procuring whole systems of vehicles, infrastructure and clean fuels makes it possible for us in the industry to offer really cost-efficient solutions.”

Considering the whole transport system

Strömberg explained that a change in mindset when it comes to procurement is fundamental.

“To understand the situation you need to understand the operators, the customers, and the cities. This is why one of our key messages was when you undertake procurement you must consider the whole transport system in a systematic way.”

He also spoke of the need for CO2 taxation.

“We believe you really have to have a global CO2 tax otherwise nothing will change.”

Replacing fossil fuel

A CO2 emissions tax has transformed Sweden. In 1970 the nation was the most oil-dependent nation per capita of all the European countries. Now, apart from the transport sector, oil has been phased out everywhere. However, the transport sector is changing fast. Sweden has the highest replacement of fossil fuel systems in the transport sector of any country. A good example of this is Stockholm county’s 2,300 strong bus fleet. Only one bus, on a small island in the archipelago, is still run on a fossil fuel – diesel – and it is soon to be replaced.

For 15 years, public transport procurement in Sweden has been demanding CO2 efficiency, not necessarily new technology. It is the most cost-efficient solution and has reduced CO2 by over 90 percent. All this has been achieved with “off-the-shelf” technology, nothing new.

Scania’s biogas buses in the UK are another good example of a cost-effective sustainable solution. They reduce 90 percent of emissions by 80 percent the cost of diesel.

Making transport more efficient

While on a panel with Business Sweden, Urban Wästljung, Senior Adviser, Public and Sustainability Affairs at Scania was encouraged to see united political opinion on a sustainable future.

“The strength of Swedish and Nordic climate policies is the big consensus of opinion between the opposition parties and the governing parties that we need to do more to get a sustainable society and to de-carbonise. Therefore, whatever happens in the next election, this development will continue and this is important for industry.”

Wästljung underlined the importance to the panel of making the transport of goods more efficient, telling them that “one of Scania’s goals is to reduce CO2emissions by 50% from our land transport by 2025.”