WMG News - Latest news from WMG

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya was pleased to welcome a delegation from Tata Sons to WMG recently.

The delegation led by Mr Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons were given a tour of the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). The Centre, which is a long-term commitment between Jaguar Land Rover, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, WMG and the University of Warwick, is a unique resource and the first of its kind in Europe, providing an environment to foster collaboration, cohesion and sharing knowledge, combining automotive expertise nationally and internationally.

The visitors were also shown our state-of-the-art 3xD Simulator for Intelligent Vehicles where experts explained more about Midlands Future Mobility, a £25m project led by WMG which will see roads in Coventry and Birmingham become the UK testbed for developing the next generation connected and autonomous vehicles.

Finally, Mr Chandrasekaran and his colleagues were given a tour of our Energy Innovation Centre, which is going through significant expansion, and will see WMG to continue to provide a unique facility for industry and academia to develop innovative energy storage technology.

Mr Chandrasekaran and his colleagues was very interested to see for themselves some of the WMG projects and commented on the quality of research and innovative approach to R&D.

Dr Antony Allen, from our Energy and Electrical Group, delivered STEM workshops for 9-11 year olds, at two Staffordshire Primary Schools in June.

Firstly, Dr Allen visited Class 3 at The Howard School, Elford, followed by Class 4 at St Mary’s School, Colton.

Each workshop began with the children constructing paper rockets launched by air pressure by blowing through a drinking straw. They quickly realised that losing air pressure and not having a well-designed rocket are key factors hindering the ability to fly. After being introduced to the concept of forces and Newton’s three laws of motion they were able to explain this in a more technical way.

Next, the children considered the differences between rocket and aeroplane wings, before making a paper dart and experimenting with wing profiles’, they also added better propulsion by catapulting the planes using rubber bands!

In the afternoon, using their new skills, they designed and constructed a 3D paper rocket launched by air from stomping on a plastic drinks bottle. Impressively, several rockets reached heights greater than the school roof! Pupils experimented by changing the launch angle to maximise either their altitude or distance. In some cases designs were modified to balance directional disturbances and make the rockets spin during flight.

The pupils reflected on their engineering experience throughout the day and were further inspired when Dr Allen talked about Helen Sharman and how her background in science and languages were key in enabling her to become the first ever British astronaut.

The pupils loved the fun hands-on workshops, and Dr Allen has already been invited back to both schools to deliver more STEM activities.

On 11 July, our Dr Antony Allen and students from Richard Crosse Primary School in Staffordshire went to Rockingham Speedway to compete in the Greenpower Formula Goblin event. We first met the children from class five back in January when they won a competition ran by the Advanced Propulsion Centre to become one of eight schools presented with a Greenpower Goblin kit car. Each winning school was then partnered with an APC Spoke, in this case WMG as the Energy Spoke, who provide financial support and mentoring throughout the electric vehicle build along with driver training ahead of race day.

On race day the team competed in six Slaloms, six Sprints and one Grandprix event. They picked up a fantastic four awards: IET Formula Goblin Participation Award; Rockingham Goblins 2018 Slalom: 3^rd place; Rockingham Goblins 2018 Best Presented Team; and Rockingham Goblins 2018 Spirit of Greenpower Award.

The Spirit of Greenpower was awarded in recognition of the way the school have embraced the Greenpower project this year, involving the whole school in the car bodywork design, entering individual and group portfolios of their work, their weekly video-diaries on YouTube, their twitter account, and articles in the village magazine and local district newspaper.

Maria Farrington, a parent of one of the students said ‘I just wish to express my thanks to Dr Allen and the School, for supporting the Rockingham Raceway Project. It was a pleasure to accompany the children today and feel that they also should be congratulated on their behaviour away from school. It was a thoroughly enjoyable outing and an experience the children will remember for a long while’.

Check out the video on their YouTube channel.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya received an honorary degree for his contribution to science and engineering, from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) on Friday (29 June 2018). The degree was conferred by the University of Science and Technology Beijing, and the conferment was approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council of China.

China has been very interested in how Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has created effective innovative approaches to science and technology, over the past 40 years, and the huge successes that WMG has had nationally and internationally.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman and Founder of WMG, said: “I am delighted to be awarded an honorary degree for my contribution to science and engineering, and honoured to receive this from such a prestigious university.”

Dr Kogila Balakrishnan, WMG’s Director of Client and Business Development, has written a new book entitled Technology Offsets in International Defence Procurement.

This is the first book to focus on both the theory and practice of offsets, combining developmental economic theories, technology theories, business and management theories and international business practice.

The book addresses issues of technology, industrial development, international business and economic development but also provides readers with wider learning opportunities.

Featuring a foreword from Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman of WMG, the book has been designed for those studying international procurement, international trade, international business, defence policy and industrial policy. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers in both government and industry.

Dr Balakrishnan is responsible for international business development, research in defence management and offsets as well as teaching at WMG. Her specific role is to develop and enhance education and research collaboration focused in Malaysia and South East Asia.

Pre-order your copy here. The book is on general release from 13^th September 2018.

A new report published today Monday 25^th June 2018 shows that UK companies are well-placed to supply valuable materials needed for batteries to be built in UK – a potential £2.7 billion per year business opportunity. The report commissioned by WMG at the University of Warwick, was launched to the Chemical Industry Association at the Chemistry Growth Partnership meeting in London, chaired by Steve Foots, Chief Executive of Croda, and attended by Richard Harrington MP.

The research underpinning the report brought together experts and data from the automotive battery industry and chemicals industry, working in the context of the UK’s Industrial Strategy, points to a large UK battery manufacturing industry opportunity. The report was funded by EPSRC, commissioned and managed by WMG at the University of Warwick acting in their role as the Advanced Propulsion Centre Electrical Energy Storage Spoke, and delivered in partnership with E4tech. WMG’s Professor David Greenwood, one of the report’s authors said:

“This report details a massive opportunity to grow a UK battery chemicals industry and related supply chain. The UK’s Industrial Strategy identified battery development and manufacture as one of the four initial Grand Challenges to coalesce industrial activity upon high growth opportunities. Battery pack manufacturing for electric vehicles (EVs) will logically take place close to the point of vehicle assembly since packs are hard to transport. This in turn implies that the battery cells which make up the packs will best be manufactured in (or close to) the UK. This could also mitigate the loss of vehicle engine production.”

“However for cell production to occur in the UK, the supply chains of chemicals would need to be reconfigured, since most cell production and chemicals supply is currently in Asia. Whilst such components could be imported, to capture the most value cell production and the related chemical and process equipment supply would need to come from UK suppliers.”

Researchers at our Institute of Digital HealthcareLink opens in a new window have published a systematic review on e-healthLink opens in a new window based active ageing interventions.

As life expectancy is at an all-time high, this type of research has become an international priority offering enormous potential to support individuals, communities, clinicians and policy makers.

Our Professor of e-Health Innovation and Head of Research, Theo Arvanitis, Dr Timothy Robbins and Dr Sarah Lim Choi Keung, worked alongside experts at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire to establish the extent to which current research literature considers e-health-based and telemedicine-based active ageing interventions.

Yesterday we, along with our colleagues from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) welcomed a group of 9 to 11 year olds from Richard Crosse Primary School in Staffordshire.

The students enjoyed a tour of the APC showcase and our engineering hall where they were introduced to the Warwick Racing student team and shown our state-of-the-art 3xD Simulator. They also took part in a number of activities throughout the day, including a steering wheel CAD design session and paper rocket making and launching.

We first met the children, from class five, back in January when they won a competition run by the APC to become one of eight schools presented with a Greenpower Goblin kit car. Each winning school was then partnered with an APC Spoke, in this case WMG as the APC Energy Spoke, who provide financial support and mentoring throughout the electric vehicle build along with driver training ahead of the race.

Construction of their go-kart kit car is now almost complete. The next stage of the project is for the children to race against other teams at Rockingham Speedway in July. We’ll keep you updated on how their race day goes.

Formula Goblin has been set up with help from the Greenpower Education Trust to address the skills gap that is growing in the UK automotive industry by engaging students in engineering at a young age. It is designed to engage students with maths, science and design technology in a fun way, promoting equality regardless of economic background and gender.

The initiative is supported by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, the APC and the APC Spoke Community, made up of six of the UK’s leading universities each focussing on R&D of key technology areas in the automotive industry.

Notes to editors:

The APC is a £1 billion, 10-year programme to position the UK as a global centre of excellence for low carbon powertrain development and production.

The APC Spokes form a national network to support industry with specialist academic, technological and commercial expertise. The Spokes are designed to provide access to the best expertise and facilities the UK has to offer in key strategic technologies for the automotive industry.

Each of the Spokes is hosted by an organisation with recognised expertise in those key technologies, but the fundamental role of the Spoke is to coordinate a community of common interest. WMG at the University of Warwick is the Electrical Energy Storage Spoke.

The full list of school/Spoke partnerships are:

Advanced Propulsion Centre – Stoke Primary School

• DETC (Loughborough London University) – Curwen Primary School
• Loughborough University – Fairfield Primary Academy
• Newcastle University – Bournmoor Primary School
• Newcastle University – Kings Priory School
• Newcastle University – Northburn Primary School
• Nottingham University – Abbey Road Primary School
• WMG – The Richard Crosse C of E Primary School

Lampposts could be the answer to electric vehicle charging, thanks to help from researchers at WMG, University of Warwick in bringing a new brand of charging points to market – some of which are powering electric vehicles on the University campus.

Startup company char.gy created a new electric vehicle charging point product – which can be easily installed onto existing lampposts, resulting in no requirement to add another power supply or dig up the road or pathway – but it required a bespoke electronic circuit board in order for it to meet to EU standards for public charge points.

The SME support team at WMG helped char.gy rapidly design, build and test a prototype of the new electronics board in order to achieve the certification deadlines.

Because of this, char.gy was able to complete the product to time, and send it for testing – eventually making the charge points ready for public use.

The University of Warwick not only supported the development of char.gy, but has also purchased “char.gys” to charge electric vehicles across the campus – including the University Estates Team’s new fleet of battery-powered Nissan vans.

Researchers at our Institute of Digital Healthcare (IDH) have been working, with the health and fitness app Sweatcoin, to develop a new verification process that will now allow indoor steps to be tracked for the first time.

Sweatcoin monitors steps throughout the day, via an app downloaded to a smartphone. Users are rewarded with one Sweatcoin (SWC) per every 1,000 steps. The digital currency can then be redeemed for items including magazines, clothing, music downloads and even televisions.

Previously the app was only capable of tracking outdoor steps - a big disadvantage for those with active jobs indoors or even those using the gym.

The 12-month project, funded by Innovate UK, collected large amounts of data from the sensors built into smartphones in parallel with step-count data recorded using high accuracy activity monitors. Researchers on the project then used this data to create a new step-verification model to work in any environment, not just outdoors.