About Me
Hello my dear friends, my name is Ahmed Al Makky, I was born in Sheffield in 1979. That was while my father was studying at Sheffield university. It was a time where computers where huge and used to fit a whole room. Punch cards where used. And you needed to wait in the queue or go to another university to run your calculations. Watching cartoons during my early years especially Japanese's ones such as Space Ship Yamatoo and Grendizer etc. All implanted into my imagination future engineering applications which gradually we started to see as we grew up come to life. Later on what boasted my technical imagination was watching Thunder Birds and the three Star Wars movies of the eighties. I always felt that adventure movies such as Indiana Jones would get boring at some point.
My parents and school teachers helped me to develop my artistic drawing skills. Drawing planes consumed many hours from my childhood, this was mainly because I was an only child till the age of 14. Lego toys where also something I was introduced to at an early age of 5. Playing with Lego for long hours had contributed to my personality and love too engineering especially the Lego Technic set, my first was bought in the year of 1988. At the secondary school stage we had some technical Lego sets that we used to play with these increased my interest in working with engineering applications.
I love being with people from all cultures and societies doing research, learning and contributing to to the progress of humanity, I like to make jokes in the context of work and to have a fun atmosphere. It has always been difficult for me to fit in with narcissist, selfish inward looking individuals who just think about themselves.
During my childhood I grew up in a university environment through out the 80s and early 90s this is attributed to that my mother was studying he undergraduate, MSc and PhD degree. This period molded my personality to feel at home with university life. During my secondary and high schools days that affected me because I looked for mature characters as friends that I couldn't find. For me feeling comfortable was always while I spoke with people older than me in age especially people of high educational caliber.
During my childhood I grew up in a university environment through out the 80s and early 90s this is attributed to that my mother was studying he undergraduate, MSc and PhD degree. This period molded my personality to feel at home with university life. During my secondary and high schools days that affected me because I looked for mature characters as friends that I couldn't find. For me feeling comfortable was always while I spoke with people older than me in age especially people of high educational caliber.
In the year 1986 at an age of 7 I used to hang out and play around in the Department of Mechanical Engineering which my dad worked in for a certain period of time. The department had a library which I got the opportunity to visit regularly. This used to be by me picking from the shelf the latest Armada magazine. It was a magazine that used to cover all the latest global defense news. Then choosing a suitable place for sitting in the library and obeying its rules. Frequently on many occasions I used to listen to extensive and in depth discussions by different engineers and scientists. Consequently at some point I started joining in with their conversations as people became more familiar with my face.
A picture of me taken in 1987 wearing my school uniform.
It is common knowledge that it is not easy to fit in for a young child with such elders with at least a 20 years age difference. In-addition to that they got a good impression about my mature disciplined behavior. Repeatably these conversations included lots of technical details. Covering planes and their types, designs, limitations and characteristics. I never realized how these environments can impact a young childs way of thinking. For the reason that I was always treated by elders with respect this consequently boosted my confidence and planted in my personality the love of flight and engineering. Hence it carved out of me a young modest engineer that has an optimistic look to the future. During the summer of 1986 one of the summer school activities was taking us to the military museum in Damascus. That was the first time I see a Mig-15 and Mig-17 up close. As a young child that is short in comparison to the wings height off ground. I remember looking up at the aircraft's fuel tanks and wondering what their purpose was. Then overhearing the older boys within the tour group mentioning that these where fuel tanks.
On one of the trips while traveling to the UK it was my first time I travel on an Air France Airbus A320. During that trip I sat beside the window watching the wings mildly vibrate. And watched with fascination how the wing control surfaces performed at different stages of the flight trip. As I recall my mother was not fond of flying. On that occasion one of the Airbus wing designers sat beside us and he was assuring my mother throughout the trip how safe these wings where.
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At one stage of my childhood as a class 5 student the year 1987 I got generous encouragement to skill of drawing and arts by Saint Ann's school (Leeds) headmaster Mr Leach. He passed on to me his private collection of magazines and books relating to aviation. Weekly I used to visit his office and would take him my own pencil drawings of aircraft, he used give my guidance on how to improve my drawing skills. While at Saint Dominic's school (Leeds) we used to have a visiting bus with library books. The Bus used to come every two weeks duration. Frequently I used to borrow out the books relating to aviation, and would always look for any new books being added to the flight shelf section. Between students their always used to be competition with school mates in who would get the best book before the other. During the Leeds university open day summer of 1987 I remember seeing the first jet engine up close at the school of engineering. Going around the different university departments and seeing the different experimental labs was beneficiary and an eye opener for me. I still remember the water hydraulics flume lab testing facilities with the pumps working continuously for the purpose of predicting how sediment transport behavior occurs. At another instance during the open day I recall attending a live electromagnetic test conducted on the objective to show us the transfer of electrical charges encountered at high voltage electrical transport apparatus.
My mother used to buy me a magazine called Airplane it was a weekly mag that was issued for several years. This mag was a contributor to my enrichment of aircraft types and its involvement in many different aspects of life. What used to fascinate me is the cutaway diagrams in the great aircraft of the world section. Also every now and then I would buy other mags such as Flight International, Fly Past,Take Off, Air-force Monthly, Firepower .....etc.
My first encounter with an air-force pilot was with a Syrian air-force pilot at Damascus airport summer of 1989 when I was about 10 years old. While waiting for a relative at the airport I got really board and was running around in the main airport hall, then suddenly I saw a man in a uniform I felt that he was a fighter pilot I went and asked him are you a fighter pilot he answered yes I asked what type he told me he was a Mig-23 pilot so I was so excited and started telling what I had read and what speeds the Mig-23 would fly at and at that time it was a period of cold war so he was surprised about what information I knew and at the same time he wasn't giving me right info about the aircraft speed and then I started asking him that has he seen the Mig-25 in person because I was fascinated with that type of plane and what speeds it was capable of reaching, I wish I had talked him more then my mother came and the conversation ended.
While on a return trip to Syria flying on a 747 SP in the summer of 1989 there was seat over booking on a Syrian Airlines flight so we ended up me and my mother sitting in the first class section. It was then I was given the opportunity to sit in the flight cabin and witness the landing sitting beside the flight engineer.
The first time I see a low flying Tornado was while I was on a school trip to Eden camp in Malton, North Yorkshire in the summer of 1991. I still remember during that trip there was an RAF spitfire on display at the camp entrance after we got off the bus me and friends ran to see it. I got very close to it and noticed that its made of plastic non finished parts and I told Mr Leach this is not a real Spitfire he answered back in a low voice yes that's true its made of fiberglass.
When I was a young child 7-8 years old I always wanted to be a fighter pilot in the Syrian Air-Force. I always tried to pursue this dream. I was heart broken when I started to wear glasses at about 18 years old. I knew I will never be able to join the air-force academy. So I joined the school of Mechanical Engineering at Damascus University. I used to daily some times go through the army museum on my way back home and look at aircraft exhibited aircraft and remind my self of my dream then during university time I focused on the subjects that are related to aerospace and thank god when I studied my masters I also focused on subjects relating to aerospace and I got my chance in my doctorate to focus on aerospace side. Midway through my doctorate program the Syrian Revolution erupted, hence I realized gods blessing to me in not joining the Syrian Air-Force. This for the reason that Syrian fighter pilots where given orders to attack civilian cities and villages, this resulted in the killing of many innocent women and children, if you refuse the given orders you are shot on the spot or refereed to a court marshal.
During 1990 I used to wait to watch the 8:30 pm news and after it to see the air force academy advertisement. The six of October flight celebration display during 1992 was the best. I still remember seeing the Mig-23, Mig-25 and Su-17 in flight for the first time flying over Damascus. It was the best time of the year for me whereby I used to wake up early morning waiting to get a glimpse of these planes not really knowing from which direction would they come feeling, used to be excited all day.
Learning serious Arabic started summer of 1992, after staying in the UK the majority of my childhood. My parents moved back to Syria this is where my new challenge in life came in learning Arabic from scratch. I still remember the first day at school their. I remember attending the first chemistry lesson and trying to write notes and every one of my fellow students looking at me and my hand was shacking due to feeling very bad to my situation. At first I used to draw what I wrote in Arabic then with the progression of time. Arabic grammar always gave me a hard time. The Syrian school educational system is very different from the British system. I can say that my artistic skills I gained where very much encouraged in the UK system. While on the other hand the Syrian educational system trained me to be tolerant, persistent and self independent to learn. But the problem was that the students time is constrained completely to study the books word by word this destroys the students creativity and produces a student that becomes more of a recipient of info.
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The 1998 summer buzz story of a Su-17 after settling down during the summer camp I had taken with me my Sony walkman and was listening to some classical music in the tent and then I hear a big sound which frightened me. I got out of my tent and looked to the sky and saw the after burner of a Su-17 which has just over flown the camp. I ran to and climbed to the roof of an none complete one level building near my tent and saw the whole camp students had been disturbed and shocked. It turned out that pilots used to buzz the camp frequently.
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My continuation of reading in the field of aerospace continued after my BSc. During the summer of 2006 I went to London Foils book shop that has the latest collection of scientific books and bought my first set of aerospace related books.
I came back to the UK early 2006 and started applying for masters courses. Initially I wanted to do PhD straight away but it was clear to me that I have to do a masters first. I came to know the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics in 2006 when I started applying for different masters degree courses. After a while my dad persuaded me to take the course at Cardiff university relating to Renewable energy sources, this was for my masters degree.
One of my research interests was the study of turbulent vortex rings, combustion flow modelling and gas flow simulation through porous media. I ran numerical simulations for a large spectrum of engineering applications. I have a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Sustainable Energy and Environment and a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamic's.
One of my research interests was the study of turbulent vortex rings, combustion flow modelling and gas flow simulation through porous media. I ran numerical simulations for a large spectrum of engineering applications. I have a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Sustainable Energy and Environment and a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamic's.
Unless otherwise noted, all content on this site is @Copyright by Ahmed Al Makky 2012-2023 - http://cfd2012.com