WMG’s forensic research partnership with West Midlands Police was honoured at the TCT Awards, this week, scooping top spot in the Inspex Application Award category.

The Awards recognise the innovators, technologies and collaborators behind the leading examples of Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing, Design and Engineering across the globe.

Professor Mark Williams, Leader of the Centre for imaging, Metrology, and Additive Technology (CiMAT) at WMG explained: “We have helped to provide expert witness testimony in over 100 homicide cases by 13 different police forces across the UK. Cases include strangulation, stabbing, blunt force trauma and bone fractures.

“In April we opened a new WMG Forensic Centre for Digital Scanning and 3D printing – a research hub supporting Homicide Investigation funded by West Midlands Police to scan injuries and produce 3D print outs for use in expert testimonies.

“The scans are 1000 times more detailed than hospital scans, and can detect microscopic injuries which could otherwise be missed by conventional medical CT scanners. 3D renderings are then produced of the injuries, and their age can be identified too. The renderings are used in court to during trials to provide visual context and support the pathologist’s testimony.”

WMG’s heritage forensics was also recognised at the Awards, with Professor Williams and his team being Highly Commended for their work with Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

In this project the use of 3D scanning has rewritten natural history for a number of rare objects within Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s collection including unearthing surprising evidence that the Oxford Dodo was shot in the neck and back of the head with a shotgun. The findings cast doubt on the popular theory that the Oxford Dodo is the remains of a bird kept alive in a townhouse in 17th-century London.

Find out more about CiMAT here.