WMG research student Siddartha Khastgir CEng MIMechE will be representing us at the prestigious IMechE Global Engineering Debate London 2016, on Wednesday 20 April at IMechE HQ, 1 Birdcage Walk.

The event has been organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Greater London Young Member Panel.

This interactive event will feature four high profile young engineering speakers who will debate and try to answer the question: “Back to the future: What is the future of local transport?” The debate will cover automotive, public transport (rail and buses) and autonomous vehicles.

Siddartha will be debating for Autonomous Vehicles being the future of local transport while focussing on user-benefit, cost, environmental and economic impact.

In order to gauge whether the debate has an influence on audience opinions prior to starting, they will be asked to vote on which form of transport should be invested in to meet future demand. The vote will be repeated after the debate, and results compared to determine whether or not the opinions of the audience have changed.

For more information visit the IMechE Global Engineering Debate site.

Sophisticated CT scanning technology normally used by researchers from WMG at the University of Warwick to assist high tech manufacturing, has helped uncover the existence of a rare silver coin called an ‘Indio’ discovered by archaeologists investigating a shipwreck off the coast of Oman.

Over 2,800 artefacts were found in the wreck, including a bronze bell with an inscription dating back to 1498, gold coins from the era and an important bronze disc embossed with the "esfera armilar" — a personal emblem of Dom Manuel I, the then-king of Portugal.

During the five year period (2011-2016) of the UK’s first National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), the Trustworthy Software Initiative (TSI) was established and funded to coalesce ad hoc activity across five facets of Trustworthy Software (Safety – Reliability – Availability – Resilience – Security [SRARS]) into a single management focus, and address aspects of Multinational Trustworthy Software Roadmap of the highest priority to the UK.

Major milestones have included the publication of BS PAS754:2014, and development of Reference Curricula and supporting materials for education and training.

EPSRC awards £1.2m funding to WMG, University of Warwick together with partner universities Cambridge, Surrey and UWE to create the HAT Living Labs.

The Engineering and Physical Science Research Council has awarded a grant of £1.2m to the University of Warwick, along with the universities of Cambridge, Surrey and West England to establish the “HAT Living Labs”.

The HAT is a platform technology that was created through an earlier Digital Economy Research grant to give individuals the technological power to claim, own, control and share their data the way they want to, to make better and more informed decisions. The management of the HAT ecosystem has recently been handed over to the HAT foundation for a global roll out (see press release here).

For the third year running WMG has sponsored the SET for Britain awards, and this year was delighted to present PhD student Thomas Rogers with the silver Engineering Award.

Thomas, a student at University College London, and originally from Banbury, beat off stiff competition from over 50 other hopefuls, to receive the award for his innovative engineering project on cargo inspection which also earned him a £2,000 prize.

WMG at the University of Warwick has launched the ‘Class of 2016’, an exciting new initiative to showcase its world class education programmes, and the opportunities they offer people at any stage of their career.

WMG’s Chairman, Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, is passionate about education and ensuring that industry has the right skills base on which to sustain its future.

He explains: ‘I started out as an apprentice, and it is that grounding that has shaped my whole career. I worked my way up through the ranks, so I know first-hand what it takes to work hard to achieve career goals. I feel strongly that everyone, at any stage of their career, should have the opportunity to develop their skills, which is why workplace learning and technical education is at the very core of WMG.”

The first 6th form cohort of students from the WMG Academy for Young Engineers, have presented their ‘TeenTech’ project work, as part of their Principal Engineering qualification, today Tuesday 22 March, in a special TEDx style event at WMG, University of Warwick.

‘TeenTech’ is an award scheme which highlights the wide range of career possibilities in Science, Engineering and Technology. Founded in 2008 by Maggie Philbin and Chris Dodson to help the next generation understand their true potential and the real opportunities available in the contemporary STEM workplace. The Patron of the scheme is the Duke of York.

The Academy students were set the challenge of creating an innovative product, concept idea or research. Each team worked together to create an innovation log which outlined their design and development through to final solution.

Xbox Kinects could be used in the future to assess the health of patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Normally found in the hands of gamers rather than medics the Microsoft sensors could be used to assess the respiratory function of patients.

Researchers at the Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG, University of Warwick and the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, University of Birmingham and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) have developed a method of using the devices. The system consists of four Kinect sensors which are capable of quickly creating a 3D image of a patient’s torso. This enables physicians to measure and assess how a chest wall moves. In tests it has proven to be as accurate as a patient breathing into a spirometer - the current method used - but providing additional information about the movement of the chest, which could help in identifying numerous respiratory problems.

The project lead, Dr Chris Golby at the Institute of Digital Healthcare, said: “We have developed a low-cost prototype which provides a more comprehensive measurement of a patient’s breathing than existing methods.”

Their work is detailed in their paper Chest Wall motion Analysis in Healthy Volunteers and Adults with Cystic Fibrosis using a Novel Kinect-based which is published in Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing.

WMG is pleased to announce the appointment of Archie MacPherson, as the new CEO of the WMG centre High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult.

Archie joins WMG, bringing over 25 years' experience in manufacturing, having previously worked for IBM, ICL, Lucas Industries and Mettis Group serving the Automotive, Aerospace, Defence, Energy & Rail sectors. He has held leadership roles in organisations covering family, public and private equity owned structures. Archie was also a founding member of the Advanced Forming Research Centre, University of Strathclyde, and latterly CEO (of AFRC) from 2012 to 2016.

Archie, who previously studied at Harvard Business School, comments: “I’m passionate about helping companies to improve their

competitiveness, and I’m looking forward to using my expertise to help convert the art and science of innovation into tangible results.”

WMG, University of Warwick, was recognised as the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK spoke for Electrical Energy storage in 2015, and it has been announced that WMG is to be a key partner in £5.4 million project to develop the next generation of battery packs for high performance, low carbon vehicles.

The UK Automotive Battery Supply Chain project aims to exploit the world leading UK innovations in the area of battery technology. Currently most of the technology within the battery systems used by the UK automotive industry is sourced from overseas suppliers, so this project aims to capitalise on the UKs strong battery technology research base and bring production back to the UK to serve demand from a changing automotive industry as they drive to deliver innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions and improve performance.