AKAidan Kennedy
Mechanical Engineer

Aidan Kennedy.

I love working on complex problems alongside a motivated team, from first-principles analysis through CAD, testing and the machine shop.

See my work → Resume
UBC Formula Electric car driving through an autocross course
UBC Formula ElectricAutocross testing
Selected work

Projects

Ansys Maxwell model of the front motor cross-section, showing the stator slots and spoke rotor magnets
01In progress

Motor Design

Custom spoke-type permanent magnet motors for a 4WD FSAE car, with 16kW continuous front hub motors and 33kW continuous rear inboard motors. Sized from vehicle-level torque and speed requirements and validated in Ansys Maxwell, where the first front motor design delivered 11.4Nm at 25A RMS against a 10.9Nm continuous target.

  • Motor design
  • Electromagnetics
  • Thermal
Follow the project →
Hand sketch of the Pivot crawler concept, with four magnet wheels, a central pivot and imaging heads mounted at the front
02In progress

Magnetic Inspection Crawler

Capstone project designing a tethered magnetic crawler that carries DarkVision's Gen 3 ultrasound imaging heads across steel pipes and plates in any orientation. We're currently in concept generation.

  • MECH 45X capstone
  • Robotics
  • Concept design
Follow the project →
CAD render of the battery pack fan module
03Formula Electric

Battery Pack Cooling System

A positive-pressure cooling system for the accumulator. It is sealed to IP54 and cools all six battery segments evenly, using fabricated metal and SLA-printed parts.

  • SolidWorks
  • CFD flow sim
  • SLA printing
  • IP54
Read case study →
CAD render of the rear of the car showing motors, inverters and radiator
04Formula Electric

Drivetrain Liquid Cooling Loop

A liquid cooling loop that removes an average of 806 W from an 80 kW peak drivetrain and keeps the motors and inverters between 30 and 60 °C through Endurance.

  • Thermal modelling
  • Wind tunnel testing
  • Pump sizing
  • Validation
Read case study →
Engineering drawing of the launcher and vehicle assembly
05MECH 223 · UBC

Launcher & Lander Vehicle

A second-year team design project: an assembly that launches a vehicle across a large playing surface, which then fires a ball toward a gravity well, simulating a lander deploying a probe.

  • Mechanism design
  • Team project
  • Drawings
Read the report (PDF) →
Industry

Experience

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A note on co-op work

Everything under Projects comes from student teams, coursework and personal work. None of it is from my co-op or internship placements, which are covered by non-disclosure agreements. Instead, each role below links to a technical reflection on the problems, tools and lessons from that role, with no proprietary detail.

Portrait of Aidan Kennedy
About

First principles, built by a team.

I'm a mechanical engineer from the University of British Columbia. I like hard design problems and finding creative, robust answers to them. Most of my time goes into designing and building electric race cars with UBC Formula Electric, or into the machine shop.

More about me →