Fri, 03 December, 2021
On the 16 of November 2021, around 150 scientific, engineering and technological community members came together for this year’s TWI Innovation Network Summit. This annual gathering is always an excellent opportunity for SMEs, research institutions and organisations to present current innovations, discuss future collaboration, and foster growth in engineering and technology.
TWI Hellas participated in the prestigious event and proudly contributed to the fruitful atmosphere. Dr Panos Chatzakos, Regional Manager for TWI Hellas, took to the stage after Dr Cem Selcuk, who opened the Summit then gave a valuable introduction to the TWI Innovation Network (TWIIN)’s programmes, services and subscription options that can apply to European businesses, educational or research entities regardless of their size.
At the beginning of his talk, Panos highlighted the deep tech background of the TWI Hellas team and its vital importance in the research and development phases; also pointing out that technology is a tool that should be used wisely in order to catalyse personal, professional and societal development.
Panos then focused on a number of publicly funded projects, demonstrating some of the current innovations being achieved by the TWI Hellas team, working in collaboration with a number of esteemed partners with profound expertise in their fields. These included: SLEEKSHIP that focuses on biofouling inspection, detection and cleaning of ship hulls; SOCKETSENSE that innovates by developing an advanced socket system for lower-limb prosthetics; and AUTOPSY that pioneers in the construction of aerial robotic vehicles for critical energy infrastructure inspection and human activity monitoring. Additionally, Panos drew special attention to the SOFTGRIP project trials, explaining how robots can imitate the mushroom harvesting skills of humans through demonstration training, and gave an update on KYKLOS 4.0 developments to build an end-to-end mass customisation web platform that aims to centralise circular manufacturing in the European market.
The remainder of the TWIIN Summit 2021 agenda was also full of interesting presentations on various topics that concern the scientific and engineering community. Emma Freckingham, Head of Company Certification TWI Certification Ltd (TWI CL), discussed the importance of compliance with international standards, and how this can optimise business operational activities, the manufacturing of products, and the development of new technologies and innovations. Huseyin Gonulkirmaz, R&D manager at Kaplam, a manufacturing company for the automotive industry producing more than 40 million parts each year, explained Kaplam’s R&D areas and mentioned the publicly funded proposals that the company has worked on, the latest being the Made-Circular project in September 2021. Finally, Uwe Lieske, Group Manager, Condition Monitoring Hardware and Software at Fraunhofer IKTS, one of the newest TWI Innovation Network Subscriber organisations, addressed the different innovation phases required to develop R&D projects from prototype manufacturing to materials development. He then referred to specific research projects in diverse areas including ceramics, high-frequency ultrasonic transducers and materials for surface technology.
This year’s Summit provided fertile ground for a series of interesting presentations as well as an online networking lounge where speakers and delegates could converse on various topics of discussion raised throughout the day. TWIIN Subscribers and Gold corporate sponsors of the Summit got the chance to participate in individual Innovation Clinics with TWI’s Technology Innovation Management team to receive consultation on their R&D projects. This highly technological event also showcased how TWIIN’s industrial and academic network, spanning the UK, Europe and other regions, enables collaboration to flourish through its targeted services, programmes and Subscription scheme, and every partner to gain insights on business acceleration, and greater access to potential R&D and business initiatives.
In embodying TWI Hellas’ philosophy on how technology should be approached and developed in order to positively impact both industry and society together, Dr Panos Chatzakos said “On a personal level, I believe that great technology should be transparent to the user, and in turn, on a business level, technological solutions should be scalable in order to support and drive growth.”