Ikechi Mere (2020, Engineering)
Corby Bursary
Engineering provides the opportunity to work on real-world projects that have a tangible impact. Whether I’m designing sustainable structures or developing innovative solutions to address pressing issues, engineering allows me to contribute meaningfully to the improvement of society.
Technology for the ‘poorest billion’ interested me as I wanted to use my skills and knowledge to make a difference and hopefully help those less fortunate than I am. I worked in a group with two other engineers and the company IDEABATIC on their SMILE box. IDEABATIC is dedicated to a singular objective: providing every individual with a chance at life.
Vaccines often encounter the threat of temperature fluctuations in the pivotal ‘last mile’ of their journey – and current carriers, even under optimal conditions, function as inefficient cool boxes. The patented Smart Last-Mile Cooling System, known as SMILE and developed by IDEABATIC, emerges as a freeze-free and fail-safe carrier. This innovative system ensures the effective transport and administration of life-saving vaccines. Our task was to improve the design of a vaccine cool box to increase the lifetime of the vaccines. The main problem we observed was that the rate of cooling in the cylindrical internal container was not uniform; some vaccines cooled faster than others, which is suboptimal. We were unsure whether this uneven cooling was the result of the vertical distribution of heat due to heat rising or whether heat lost through the door mechanism posed more of an issue. We worked well together, ran several experiments and presented our findings to the head of the company. We concluded that heat loss through the door mechanism was the main contributor to the cooling differences so a new, more thermally insulated door would have to be designed.
For my second project I investigated offshore wind energy in Buenos Aires because I have been interested in renewable energy for a long time and Argentina has a wonderful long coastline with high-speed winds, which has largely been unused for wind energy. I gave an oral presentation and submitted a ten-page written report – both in Spanish – on viable offshore wind farms in the Argentine Sea. I came up with potential locations for a wind farm, power capabilities, cost and timeline.
Outside my academic pursuits I hold the position of Access Officer and was Treasurer of the Parson’s Society (the St John’s Engineering Society). I am also President of the College athletics team and earned my Blue in athletics in May last year. I went on to represent the Cambridge Athletics Blues Team for the third time in the annual varsity match, which we lost narrowly. The highlights of my season, however, were the famous fixtures held only every four years in which Oxford and Cambridge combined against Penn and Cornell and then Harvard and Yale. This was an unforgettable experience, and I had the opportunity to rub shoulders with some amazing athletes and compete at the highest level. I look forward to competing in my final athletics Varsity Match later this year.
I have also continued to play university-level rugby alongside being Secretary of the College team, and I represented the Blues Team throughout the 2023/24 season. I was selected to represent the Men’s Blues Team in the rugby Varsity Match, earning my rugby Blue, and we won 56-11. This is the largest margin the fixture has been won by and it was incredibly special to be a part of the team with this historic win.
