This month we welcome the newest member of our team, and first-year undergraduate at University of Cambridge Amy Naden. Amy joins us for an internship for the summer with an already long list of achievements that puts us to shame.

In her first year at university, Amy has been learning mechanical vibrations and thermofluid mechanics, materials and structural mechanics, physical principles of electronics, analysis of circuits and devices, linear circuits, electromagnetics, digital circuits, and information processing, as well as mathematical methods in computing.

In 2020 Amy worked as part of a school team who entered the European Space Agency CanSat competition and with a team of six they built a satellite integrated within the dimensions of a soft drink can, to be dropped from a drone at 120 metres. They qualified as one of only ten teams for the national final based on their mission objectives. Amy’s role was first as the software engineer, programming an Arduino using C++ to integrate a GPS, barometer, ozone sensor and radio module; and secondly leading the design of the 3D printed CanSat that required creativity to house and protect the complex electronics.

In 2019 Amy was inspired by modern manufacturing automation and created a three-axis robot arm using cardboard and electronic components, programmed in C++ on an Arduino. She built a futuristic autonomous-vehicle using LEGO, EV3 programmed in Python that followed a road map, adjusted its speed, and responded to obstacles to prevent it from crashing. It’s with personal projects like this that Amy has developed coding and problem-solving skills and shows the importance of testing, especially in different environments.

In her spare time, Amy is a member of the University of Cambridge Woman in Engineering Society and Hercules Cambridge, a cox for Jesus College Boat Club and a member of the Jesus College tennis team.

The cThings team are very excited about working alongside Amy for the summer and hope to challenge her rather than be intimidated by her vast knowledge. We wish Amy the best of luck.