Kingston University London

Overview

Paul is a senior lecturer within the university's Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, where he can indulge his passion for motorsport engineering and in particular his love of motorbikes. He teaches vehicle engineering and design and is the field leader for the university's MSc Motorsport Vehicles Dynamics course in conjunction with Lotus cars.

His love affair with machines saw him begin his working life as an apprentice mechanic - he has come a long way since then. In October 2010, as technical director and team manager of the Kingston University racing team, he watched his zero-emission electric motorobike come second in the last race of the electric motorbike season. His "lean green racing machine" has also taken part in the Isle of Man TT course, and Paul says the technologies he has integrated into motorbikes can easily be applied to larger vehicles, both two and four-wheeled.

He has a very good knowledge of all the systems integration relating to electric vehicles, including motors, power electronics, batteries and their associated management systems. Before coming to Kingston he worked for Nissan and BMW. He has been instrumental in getting motorsport courses and extra-curricular activities running at the university.  

Paul has also carried out advanced research with Lotus and Delphi on damper (shock absorber) testing and analysis. Historically testing how well shock absorbers work with regards to the level of vehicle comfort and handling has been a time-consuming and expensive business as a ride engineer has to evaluate every change. Paul's work has looked at developing the testing and analysis system so that more configurations which don't work can be eliminated in the laboratory. Hence by the time the ride engineer takes a vehicle out to be road-tested,  the vehicle's handling and comfort should be at a more advanced stage of successful development.