WMG at the University of Warwick and Cadbury have used powerful X-ray scanning equipment to uncover the secrets of how the structure of biscuits, which is essential for the perfect ‘crunch’, forms.

The discoveries have been released to mark National Biscuit Day this Wednesday, 29th May. Biscuits are the UK’s favourite sweet treat, with the average person in the UK eating around six a week.

WMG researchers scanned biscuits in a bespoke oven as they baked, imaging the inside of the biscuit to reveal how the porous structure, essential for the perfect ‘crunch’, forms during the baking process.

Associate Professor at WMG’s Centre for Imaging, Metrology and Additive Technologies, Jay Warnett, said that this was just the beginning for the technology:

“Joining forces with Cadbury, we're cracking the code to the perfect biscuit. Through our X-rays, we're helping uncover the ideal baking time, thickness, and recipe for the ultimate eating experience”.

“But our research doesn't stop there; we're diving deeper into the world of biscuits and baked food and hope to continue working with Cadbury for a long time to come”.

Researchers at WMG, who were approached by Cadbury, constructed an oven from scratch inside an X-ray CT scanner – a similar machine to what you might find in a hospital.

Using the latest algorithms, the imaging process was sped up to scan the biscuit every 20 seconds throughout the baking process. When put together, the WMG and Cadbury teams could observe the biscuit baking over time.

Principal Scientist at Cadbury, Thomas Curwen, is excited for the future of biscuit development:

“The latest algorithms have allowed us to watch and quantify the baking process inside the biscuit in greater detail than ever before. This capability will help us determine the function of different ingredients in more detail and how the structure that forms controls the eating experience. I am excited by what we can learn and how this will help us deliver the great tasting biscuits of the future.”

The research process, which was led by Dr Warnett and Research Fellow Dr Evelien Zwanenburg, has proved the concept possible, and is therefore likely to be the first step before a larger project later this year.

This future work aims to extend the work across other biscuit varieties and baked goods.

According to the QS International Trade Rankings 2024, WMG at the University of Warwick’s MSc International Trade, Strategy and Operations (ITSO) programme has been rated 16th in the world and 3rd in the UK in terms of trade education.

The ITSO programme has also been identified by QS as one of the top two specialist trade courses in the world.

The highly prestigious QS rankings evaluate courses on six key indicators: Trade Programme; Graduate Outcomes; Industry Engagement; Innovative Teaching; Reputation; and Research.

Professor Dan Nunan, Associate Dean (Postgraduate Education), at WMG said: “I’m delighted to see WMG has, once again, been ranked amongst the leading providers in the world for international trade education. This recognition is a true testament to our incredible community of staff and students here at WMG, and the many industry partners who contribute to the design of our courses.”

Dr Di Li, Course Director for the ITSO at WMG, said “The MSc ITSO programme is an interdisciplinary course that integrates the three principal pillars of international trade, strategy, and operations management within global trade and business management. Students learn cutting-edge knowledge and tools, whilst develop the ability to employ them for tackling contemporary challenges faced by industries in response to the rapidly changing environment.”

Find out more about WMG’s International Trade, Strategy and Operations Master’s Programme here: MSc International Trade, Strategy and Operations | University of Warwick

See the full QS Rankings here: https://www.topuniversities.com/international-trade-rankings-mba-masters?page=0

A new CT scanning facility has been unveiled at WMG at the University of Warwick’s Centre for Imaging, Metrology and Additive Technologies (CiMAT).

The facility was officially opened by Dean of WMG, Professor Robin Clark; and Lady Bhattacharyya, the wife of the late Professor Lord Bhattacharyya who founded WMG in 1980.

CT is becoming increasingly important within industry, assisting new manufacturing processes and supporting work on complex products and materials.

Within CiMAT, researchers and engineers use advanced technology, tools and techniques, to deliver impact in a range of sectors including archaeology, healthcare and forensics.

Since first opening in 2021, over 300 projects from 46 different companies have passed through the facility.

An additional £1m has now been invested by WMG, the EPSRC and the National X-ray Computed Tomography (NXCT) research facility to expand research capabilities and to create a dedicated teaching and learning space for PhD students.

Professor Mark Williams, who heads up the CiMAT at WMG, explains: “ The scanning technologies, such as high-resolution laser scanning and microfocus CT, enable 3D characterisation of internal and external structures. With a total of five different CT systems, the group is capable of supporting a wide range of applications, from small scale to large scale, high resolution to high powered penetration for dense materials.”

High profile work includes forensic partnerships with 30 police forces across the UK whereby the use of cutting-edge 3D imaging tech has been used to view injuries in incredibly high detail providing crucial evidence in over 300 murder cases.

Professor Williams add: “The use of CT in a variety of engineering areas is growing rapidly, and we are leading the way in fast scanning technologies. Through iterative reconstruction methods we can bring scan times down from hours/minutes down to minutes/seconds.”

Find out more about CiMAT here: Metrology and 3D Imaging (warwick.ac.uk)

Expert comment from Professor Siddartha Khastgir, Head of Safe Autonomy at WMG, University of Warwick.

‘‘I am thrilled that the Automated Vehicle (AV) Bill has received Royal Assent today. The Bill (now Act) has laid a sound regulatory foundation for the AV industry in the UK. This is a first but important step to introducing AVs safely to the UK’s roads.

"I support the government’s ambition that AVs should be as safe as a careful and competent human driver; we therefore, urge the government to undertake swift work on the secondary legislation with a more robust focus and detailed definition of the performance requirements, keeping safety as our highest priority going forward. This will also provide certainty and clarity for technology developers and the AV industry. WMG will continue to work with the UK’s policymakers and provide research evidence to underpin AV policies, including the secondary legislation.

“At WMG, we have also been advocating for ‘informed safety’, which means that users understand the limitations and capabilities of the technology and can use AVs within this safety limit. I am glad that the Act has a strong focus on tackling misleading marketing of AVs. Information about self-driving vehicles should be communicated precisely and transparently to the public so everyone feels safe and confident when engaging with AVs. The public is core to this technology: if they don’t trust it, they will never use it.

“To bring the public on this self-driving journey and bridge the knowledge gap, the Partners for Automated Vehicle Education United Kingdom (PAVE UK) was co-founded earlier this year by WMG, the Department for Transport, the Department for Business and Trade, the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and Transport for West Midlands to deliver accurate and inclusive public awareness and education programmes on self-driving technology.

“WMG will continue to work closely with the government and the eco-system to help set strong performance requirements, ensuring the safe deployment of self-driving vehicles on the UK’s roads, and enabling the country to be the hub of this transformational transport technology.’’

Expert comment from Professor Alan Chalmers

For Dementia Action Week, WMG at the University of Warwick, together with Superlunary Labs, are doubling their efforts to develop a low-cost, non-intrusive method for the early screening of Alzheimer’s disease using a simple flavour test which can be undertaken as part of a regular health check-up by a nurse, at a pharmacy or community centre.

The test can help diagnose the beginnings of Alzheimer's years before symptoms of memory loss through a loss of taste or smell.

Scientists at WMG are looking to get data from at least 1000 people before aiming to roll the screening out nationwide, potentially as early as next year. If you want to take part in the trial, and can get to the University of Warwick campus, contact Alan.Chalmers@warwick.ac.uk to be part of the future of medicine.

Professor Alan Chalmers commented: “Working with MPs and their constituency offices we will be collecting more data across the country to significantly enlarge our dataset of people’s flavour perception ability. This dataset, together with AI and MRI scans, will enable us to validate our screening method. Once validated we will be able to roll out the method widely, hopefully as early as next year.

"New drugs that slow disease progression down offer real hope to people living with Alzheimer’s Disease, but crucially the disease needs early diagnosis for these drugs to be most effective. One might have the disease many years before failing a memory test, the current means for diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease.”

It was a pleasure to welcome senior delegates from the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to WMG, at the University of Warwick, on Wednesday (24th April).

Dr. Khairul Munadi, Education and Culture Attaché; Mrs. Anggarini Sesotyoningtyas, Head of Economic Department; and Mr. Raksa Permana Ibrahim, Economic Department; were invited to visit by Dr Kogila Balakrishnan, WMG’s Director of Client and Business Development (Southeast Asia).

As a leading international role model for successful collaboration between academia and industry, the guests were particularly interested to hear more about WMG’s work in entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as the department’s extensive SME support programme.

The guests enjoyed a tour of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC) and the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC), before meeting with Gary Dimmock and Bethany Haynes from WMG’s SME Group.

The visitors also had the opportunity to meet with MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship Course Director, Dr Ali Ahmad; and Deputy Course Director, Dita Amry; as well as Indonesian students currently studying on the programme.

Dr Kogila Balakrishnan, WMG’s Director of Client and Business Development (Southeast Asia) said: “It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to share the work we are doing here at WMG on both the education and research side. I look forward to further discussions and future collaborations.”

Anggarini Sesotyoningtyas added: “We’re interested in learning more about WMG’s experience in building an effective industry-university R&D collaboration as a means to solve global challenges, such as climate change and energy transition.”

While Dr. Khairul said: “We gained valuable insights from the visit. WMG serves as an outstanding example of bridging academic research with industry-driven demands. This aligns closely with Indonesia's recent focus areas.”

Find out more about WMG SME Group here: SME Support - WMG - University of Warwick

Find out more about WMG’s Master’s Courses here: Master's Degrees | WMG, University of Warwick

WMG at the University of Warwick has seen five of its courses ranked number one in the UK by the Eduniversal Best Masters 2024.

Eduniversal ranks the quality of Master’s both in the UK and worldwide. This year a total of five WMG programmes have been recognised in their respective categories, with MSc Cyber Security Management being ranked number one in the world.

Accompanying MSc Cyber Security Management in the rankings were the MSc e-Business Management; MSc Supply Chain and Logistics Management; MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship and MSc Engineering Business Management programmes.

The rankings were as follows:

· MSc Cyber Security Management –number one in the world for Cybersecurity, Systems Security and Data Protection programmes

· MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship – number one in the UK and number 22 globally for Entrepreneurship – up three places on the 2022 rankings

· MSc Supply Chain and Logistics Management - number one in the UK and 28th globally for Supply Chain and Logistics - up one place from 2022

· MSc Engineering Business Management - number one in the UK and number three in Western Europe for Industrial and Operations Management.

· MSc e-Business Management - number one in the UK and fifth in Western Europe for E-business and Digital Marketing.

Professor Dan Nunan, Associate Dean (Postgraduate Education) at WMG at the University of Warwick, explained: “I am thrilled to see WMGs specialist courses in applied engineering, management and technology once again recognised as a leading choice for students seeking to develop their careers. These rankings are testament to the hard work and dedication of all our teaching team at WMG.”

Harjinder Lallie, Discipline Group Lead for Cyber Security at WMG, and Director of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education at the University of Warwick, said: “I am absolutely delighted that our MSc Cyber Security Management degree continues to receive recognition both nationally and globally. The course has an international reputation for excellent teaching, hands on practical experiences and superb post-study employment opportunities. To be ranked number one in the world is an outstanding achievement.”

Eduniversal Group is a global leader in higher education information, providing students worldwide with the tools to find the best education opportunities. Eduniversal publishes annual rankings of the best Master's programmes in 50 fields of study, covering 154 different countries within nine geographic zones. The ranked programmes come from more than 1,800 universities and schools.

WMG offers 14 applied Master’s courses across technology, engineering and management all designed to meet the needs of global industry. Find out more here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/study/masters-degrees

In 2023, WMG at the University of Warwick, received a share of £19 million from the Faraday InstitutionLink opens in a new window - the UK’s flagship institute for electrochemical energy storage research. 

The funding was allocated to four key battery research projects aimed at delivering an impact for the UK. These existing projects across three different research areas - next generation cathode materials, electrode manufacturing and sodium-ion batteries - have been reshaped to focus on the areas with the greatest potential for success. 

WMG took a key role in two of the four, reshaped projects entitled FutureCat and Nextrode. FutureCat is now entering its second phase with Louis Piper, WMG’s Professor of Battery Innovation, appointed as the new Principal Investigator (PI). 

The battery cathode research project, focuses on understanding novel redox processes as a route to stabilise both high capacity, high performance, nickel rich and emerging cathodes and scalable designer morphologies. The next phase of the project will build on its success in developing reliable, scalable routes to deliver a longer lifetime, high-energy/power cathodes, essential for electric vehicles. 

Professor Louis Piper explains: "Professor Cussen's leadership on FutureCat has resulted in significant advancements in Ni-rich cathodes.  We are looking forward to continuing the pace of Ni-rich cathode innovation and development in phase II of the project.  I am pleased that she will still work closely with the team." 

James Gaade, Research Programme Director, commented: “We extend enormous thanks to Professor Serena Cussen for her engaging and collaborative leadership of the FutureCat project since its inception in 2019. In Professor Louis Piper the project has an accomplished research leader to take over the reins. WMG, University of Warwick has always been a key university partner for the Faraday Institution and is currently a member of five of our cross-disciplinary, multi-university battery research projects. We’re delighted to see the University becoming project lead for the first time.” 
 
Professor Serena Cussen, former Principal Investigator of FutureCat, commented: “It has been the greatest privilege to lead the UK Faraday Institution's consortium on next-generation cathodes, FutureCat, as principal investigator since its inception in 2019.  

“At the heart of our success has been a shared research vision and a culture of collaboration, which has seen our consortium deliver deep scientific insights on next-generation cathode discovery, development and scale-up as well as exciting partnerships with industry colleagues.

“While I am sad to leave the role of PI of FutureCat, I am delighted to see my friend and colleague Professor Louis Piper take over the leadership of this fantastic project. I have no doubt this is a project which will continue to go from strength-to-strength, and I look forward to collaborating with the FutureCat family of researchers. 

Read more about FutureCat here:  https://futurecat.ac.uk/

WMG at the University of Warwick has boosted the West Midlands economy by £450 million – with every £1 invested into WMG’s small and medium enterprise (SME) programmes, around £22 has returned to the local economy.

Celebrating 20 years of tailored business support, WMG has delivered manufacturing expertise to 15,000 SMEs in the Midlands. It has supported the creation of more than 13,000 jobs, 350 new businesses and 355 internships over the last two decades.

WMG has delivered critical projects to SMEs to help them succeed in digitalisation, business change and product design. A key ongoing project is helping SMEs mange the energy crisis with a specialised toolkit and tailormade roadmaps to help organisations reach Net Zero.

As a High Value Manufacturing Catapult (a government initiative driving manufacturing innovation), WMG is playing a pivotal role in the revival and development of the West Midlands and the wider UK manufacturing base.

Dr Mark Swift, Director of SME Engagement at WMG, University of Warwick, said: "Our work over the last 20 years has shown that targeted, high value support can help SME manufacturers accelerate growth, improve productivity, and create jobs.

"It is vital that we continue to be a guiding force to help businesses implement new technologies, develop their teams, and continue to innovative and prosper. We have an important legacy to protect and continue and I am delighted to lead a team of industry experts working tirelessly to do just this."

Adrian Williams, Managing Director, Pashley Cycles, said: "Working with WMG over the years has given Pashley the opportunity to take advantage of skills, expertise and facilities which we would never otherwise have access to. This is really helping us create robust and reliable, yet lightweight products which we’re confident will give us a competitive advantage in the market.”

Peter Davies, Co-Chair of the Manufacturing Assembly Network and CEO of James Lister & Sons, said: "WMG has been an outstanding source of advice, guidance, support and access to funding opportunities for all members of the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN).

"The specialist assistance has helped us unlock innovations, bring new services to market, achieve efficiency gains and, in more recent years, accelerate our move towards sustainable manufacturing and taking advantage of the green economy.

"WMG 'gets' manufacturing and what we need and is happy to work with us to achieve an outcome that works for all parties."

Founded by the late Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya forty years ago, WMG began offering tailored support to SMEs in the Midlands in 2004.

Read more about WMG and the manufacturing supply chain here. 

Media contact
University of Warwick press office contact:
Annie Slinn 07876876934
Communications Officer | Press & Media Relations | University of Warwick Email: annie.slinn@warwick.ac.uk