Mon, 20 July, 2020
Warren Bath - TWI Ltd Group Manager, Innovation and Skills, NSIRC and Brunel University London Alumni
MSc in Structural Integrity
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Warren Bath is a Group Manager of Innovation and Skills and head of business analysis at TWI, whose time at TWI Cambridge began with the NSIRC (National Structural Integrity Research Centre).
Paths to the NSIRC
The journey Warren took to taking an MSc with the NSIRC began at his undergraduate degree in Motorsport Engineering at Brunel University. Here he undertook an internship in Monaco with SBM Offshore, a Member company of TWI, where he planned to go into energy rather than motorsport, working in design and experiencing study of stress analysis for the first time. His third year at Brunel was sponsored by SBM, and his supervisor recommended he study the MSc at the NSIRC.
As a fully funded course, this degree stood out compared to other options. Warren took a four-month internship in the Numerical Modelling and Optimisation Section where he became familiar with TWI’s staff, systems, and projects, before embarking on the Master’s programme in Structural Integrity.
Warren during his MSc programme in Structural Integrity with NSIRC and Brunel University London. Photo: TWI Ltd
Studying as an MSc student
Warren has said that the MSc was made more appealing due to its relation to industry. The degree was almost like a qualification in TWI itself, as it allowed him to focus on the technologies TWI worked in, provided him with industry knowledge and the ability to relate to other technologists, and made him feel more like an engineer. This industry relevance was an incredibly important part of his research and role as a student.
Additionally, the financial support he received far exceeded expectations and made it a significantly more appealing opportunity than what other institutions could offer. The industry relevance of the dissertation and the high quality of teaching from TWI staff who are practical experts in their field rather than simply academics was particularly significant to his time as a student.
Student life on an industrial degree
As well as simply academic work, Warren has praised the social elements of the NSIRC. The course was attended by students from different backgrounds, levels of education, vocations, and most of all a range of countries, as a majority of his student cohort was international. The option of working with a diverse student body from a range of nationalities was not simply interesting from a scientific perspective, but also enjoyable and exciting, allowing him to befriend people from all over the world which he feels improved his personal development.
Additionally, as part of his time as a student, Warren became the course representative and enjoyed being able to work alongside TWI staff members who he would later work with as a company employee.
Career after the NSIRC
Warren has praised the NSIRC as immensely beneficial for his career. He started in the structured integrity group, and found the connections made and skills learned to have been extremely useful in the beginning of his career at TWI. He was accepted for a position in acquiring government funding, becoming the first person to hold the position of Innovation Project Leader title. He has now been at TWI for around five years, and considers the NSIRC to have given him a significant head start, with what he learnt having given him advance experience before he even started on the job.
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What is Structural Integrity?
Warren completed his MSc on structural integrity, an engineering field intended to ensure structures are safe and capable of operating. It allows a structure to perform its duty reliably by preventing deformation, breaking, and catastrophic failure due to excessively heavy load or its own weight. Structural integrity is an important principle of asset management. The design of a structure is an essential part of this, but other services such as fitness-for-service inspection, NDT, and reliability-centred maintenance, all play a role in ensuring that a structure is safe and reliable. Warren’s background as a student was in structural integrity and asset reliability, and as a result he studied his MSc in this field with the NSIRC.
TWI Global website guide to Structural Integrity
Engineers specialising in Structural Integrity are in high demand across global industries including energy, rail, marine, aerospace, automotive and more. Photo: Pixabay
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More pages from NSIRC that may be of interest: