Changing the future of rider safety

Salil Kulkarni | Graduate Engineer at OMC International, Master of Mechanical Engineering

Salil's masters studies have been shaped by his involvement in high-functioning and diverse engineering teams. He's part of a student team that is aiming to break the Australian human-powered vehicle speed record and working on a team research project with industry to develop the next generation riding helmet. Salil shares what he's learnt about engineering, teamwork and making a plan.

I first came to Melbourne on an international exchange program from Malaysia, and really liked the vibrant campus lifestyle and immersive culture. My experience with the people and just Melbourne in general was amazing. I just knew I had to come back for my Masters degree.

My studies at Monash Engineering have been all about working in high-functioning, and diverse engineering teams. I’ve been actively involved with Monash Human Power Team, an engineering student team aiming to break the Australian human-powered vehicle speed record. As a team, we oversee everything – from design and development to verification, manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance.

You start to understand team dynamics and how to apply engineering knowledge in a real-life scenario where you can really see your work come to life.

As part of my Master’s course, I also worked on a team final year project (FYP) where we researched and designed what we hope will become the new standard of riding helmets. With help from our industry sponsor, we developed a helmet with Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) reinforcement which would increase the safety of the rider, whilst reducing the helmet weight.

We wanted to design and manufacture a helmet that lessens the load on the cyclist’s neck muscles while still adhering to AS/NZS safety standards. A solution that is both super-lightweight and safe, could potentially help reduce strain and fatigue during marathon rides. We were given a lot of freedom with the research — starting from an abstract concept to prototype testing — which is a great learning experience from an industry standpoint. Being a part of a research project with industry influence was amazing.

Engineering is all about team management and dealing with conflicts within the team, something that I think is very important in the workplace! Of course, I’ve dealt with a lot of setbacks in engineering as well, but it's true what they say - you make a plan, you stick to the plan, everything goes wrong, you throw the plan out of the window, you make a new plan.

To my fellow international engineering students at Monash, my advice to you is to put yourself in situations where you get to interact with the local people and also, push yourself to be outside your comfort zone!

Find out more about the Master of Engineering and Monash Human Power