University of Pretoria graduate Keanan van Dyk is living the dream in England as he gains invaluable experience working with the talented F1 Aerodynamics team at Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Milton Keynes, England (20 September 2024) – Few feelings can compare to finally landing the job or opportunity that you had so eagerly been hoping to secure after years of studying and working hard. The overwhelming joy and sense of accomplishment that follows is truly indescribable!
Basking in the joy of his latest achievement is Keanan van Dyk, a University of Pretoria Mechanical Engineering graduate who is living his best life in England as he gains invaluable experience from the very best of Oracle Red Bull Racing F1’s Aerodynamics Development Team.
Keanan secured a highly sought-after internship at the company and shared that landing the opportunity was unbelievable.
“Finding out that I got the placement was one of the happiest moments in my adult life,
“Fearing that my ears were deceiving me, I asked the human resources employee to repeat what they said several times, before finally accepting that I was indeed hearing correctly. After that, I wasted no time and called every single close friend and family member,” Keanan explained.
According to the University of Pretoria, the young man had been working on obtaining a position in a field related to aeroplane aerodynamics since early on during his undergraduate studies before realising that the world of F1 pushes aerodynamics to the limits.
At his new job, Keanan is part of the Aerodynamic Development Team, where he helps design aerodynamic surfaces of F1 vehicles and simulates the generated flow field using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
The team also analyses the flow field, looking at pressure distribution, losses, and vortices, and trying to see what aerodynamic effects our surfaces had.
During this one-year internship at Red Bull Technology’s headquarters in Milton Keynes, England, Keanan will be stationed in the Aerodynamics department but will also spend time working with other departments, including Race Engineering and Strategy.
Keanan obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree from UP in 2022 and believes his UP studies created a strong basis of practical and theoretical knowledge.
“My degree offered constant opportunities to apply the theoretical knowledge gathered in the lectures to industry-relevant problems,” he said.
Looking back at his earlier study days he admits that, like many peers, Keanan faced several challenges academically, including feeling like he’d been thrown in the deep end with some modules and like he was expected to teach himself how to swim.
Keanan’s passion for engineering stems from a love of finding solutions from when he was a child who found a thrill in solving problems and challenging activities like puzzles, Lego and maths.
“Engineering is essentially just that on steroids,” shared the budding aerodynamics pro.
Sources: University of Pretoria
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