Returning to an in-person event, the conference took place at TWI Ltd headquaters, Cambridge, home of NSIRC in the UK.
35 industrial PhD students and candidates, across many subjects and technologies including advanced additive manufacturing, machine learning, digital manufacturing, friction stir welding, arc welding, non-metallic innovation, composites, coatings, corrosion, fatigue, failure prevention, net-zero and many more.
The 2022 conference provided a practical and positive forum for exhibiting and disseminating, the postgraduate and doctoral research of the engineers, scientists and mathematicians that make-up the NSIRC student cohorts.
NSIRC Founding Partners - TWI Ltd, bp, Lloyd's Register Foundation | Lead Academic Partner - Brunel University London
Explore the conference
Meet the Keynote Speaker from 2022...
Jan is Director of Technologies at Lloyd’s Register Foundation. In this role he has led activities that have taken a safety perspective of current and future engineering and supply chain activities and created programmes focused on enhancing safety. He Chairs the Structural Integrity Research Foundation, is on the boards of Lloyd’s Register Decarbonisation Hub, HSE’s Discovering Safety programme, Assuring Autonomy International Programme and International Consortium of Nanotechnology (ICoN). He is also on Innovate UK’s Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Strategic Advisory Board. He represents the Foundation in the Safetytech Accelerator Ltd. Prior to joining the Foundation, Jan had 20 years’ experience in the engineering industry following his degree in Materials Science and Engineering and PhD at Imperial College, London.
John is Deputy Director for Aerospace at Innovate UK, working with industry and government to maintain and grow the UK’s competitive position in civil aerospace design and manufacture. The department supports investments in next generation flight that aim to revolutionise the way people, goods and services move. Prior to joining Innovate UK, John spent over 15 years in the private sector working in research and technology transfer. His technical expertise is in materials science and instrumentation, specialising in structural heath monitoring and the prevention of corrosion and degradation of materials in demanding environments. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
PhD Research Posters Showcase 2022
The posters that you can view here have been produced by NSIRC students currently on either the 1st year of their PhD or on the Brunel MSc programme. Our students have each created these posters to demonstrate what they have achieved on their course so far and what their research plans are for the future in each of their desired fields.
Please take a moment to view the posters and we encourage you to email the author if you would like to discuss their research further.
MSc degrees based within Industry
NSIRC and our lead academic partner Brunel University London have had a longstanding partnership which has forged collaboration of various kinds over many years, with a focus on the delivery of industry based academia in structural integrity topics.
The Doctoral and Masters courses are delivered through NSIRC, whose founding sponsors are BP and Lloyd’s Register Foundation. A leading industry-academic pairing, the strategy has created a number of benefits for both parties such as for industry in the enhancing knowhow in crucial areas such as the reliability and safety of assets, and ways in which to reduce carbon footprint, and for wider society through the training of next generation of researchers who have the ability to identify and development optimal technology solutions.
A look back at our 2021 conference...
Conference attendees heard from three inspirational speakers: Professor Andrew Curran, Chief Scientific Adviser, Director of Research and Head of GSE Profession at the HSE Science and Research Centre who presented on ‘Health and Safety in a post COVID-19 world – understanding risk, using research and building resilience’; Dr Jeremy Silver, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Catapult who gave a talk entitled ‘Send in the drones’; and Professor Mark Gillan, Chief Technology Officer, Innovate UK who spoke on ‘Investing and connecting to accelerate UK innovation’. Delegates were able to choose from over 35 student presentations to attend during the day, each of which also finished with a live Q&A with the audience. Student research topics centred on additive manufacturing, joining technologies, inspection and monitoring, composites and polymers, materials, structural integrity, and standards and maintenance methodologies. Attendees were also able to view a showcase of posters by first year students, as well as over 20 technical posters published by post-year 1 students, on the event platform.
Thank you to our Sponsors for 2022
ARU is a global university transforming lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research. Ranked in the world’s top 350 institutions – and top 40 in the UK - in the 2021 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
The Brunel Composites Centre (BCC) creates shared research and technology capabilities, specialising in novel composites processing and joining technologies applied to industrial environments. BCC develops innovative methods for composites processing and joining across Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 1-6, underpinning TWI’s work across TRLs 4-6. In addition, partnership with TWI gives the Centre the opportunity to work with TWI Industrial Members.
Brunel Innovation Centre (BIC) is a world class research and technology cnetre that sits between the knowledge base and industry offering high quality research in an innovative environment focused on non-destructive testing, condition and structural health monitoring, power ultrasonics and allied technologies covering a range of materials, sensors, electronics and software systems supporting partners in industry to transfer academic research into industrial application.
NSIRC lead academic partner Brunel University London has three constituent Academic Colleges: the College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences; the College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences; and the College of Health and Life Sciences. It is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association, and Universities UK. The university is ranked as one of the top 400 universities in the world by QS World University Rankings 2022 and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. The university won the Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2011.
Castalia specialises in complex DICONDE data handling and visualisation as well as robotic control interfaces for NDT. They have the expertise to develop tailored robotic inspection solutions, taking your efficiency to unexpected heights and driving your maintenance costs as low as they can go.
"We help companies secure non-dilutive funding and engineering resources to multiply their in-house R&D capacity, extend their runway and accelerate their growth. We take the hassle out of the grant funding application process; we work at your side, undertaking the preparation and submission of grant proposals end-to-end. And, if necessary, we bring together the right strategic partnerships tapping in our network of over a hundred organisations across Europe."
- castaliainnovation.com
ISOPREP TM is a technical collaboration project, funded by the EU H2020, with the objective of developing technologies that convert waste plastic into virgin-like plastic. The Project is developing a closed-loop recycling plant able to reclaim and process polypropylene from complex multi-material products, such as carpet waste, into virgin-like PP of high purity and the Pilot Plant is currently being built at Floteks facilities.
NquiringMinds Trusted Data Exchange (TDX) provides an ultra-secure platform to ingest, process, share and analyse data at scale Strong intelligent defences provide protection against cyber attack TDX works in cloud and at the edge, easily integrating manufacturing equipment and processes.
The Smart Manufacturing Alliance is a dedicated sector network for manufacturers across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, that work with their members to help them become more productive and profitable. Together with their partners, the Smart Manufacturing Alliance is opening up new opportunities for manufacturers to unlock innovation and R&D projects, power new collaborations, and strengthen competitive advantage.
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