WMG News - Latest news from WMG

Today the Minister for the Constitution, Chris Skidmore, presented WMG, at the University of Warwick, with a Royal Warrant signed by Her Majesty the Queen, officially conferring her Majesty’s recognition with the title of the Regius Professor of Manufacturing (Engineering).

The title of Regius Professorship is a rare and prestigious award given by Her Majesty the Queen to recognise exceptionally high quality research at an institution. The University of Warwick was one of 12 universities honoured to mark Her Majesty’s 90th Birthday. Previous to this, only 14 had been granted since the reign of Queen Victoria. It is believed that the first Regius Professorship was conferred to Aberdeen University in 1497 by King James IV.

 The WMG SME Team is offering FREE Lean Six Sigma Assessments to assist SME manufacturing businesses seeking to improve their processes, for better efficiency and productivity gains.

Onur Eren, Technology Transfer Engineer and qualified Lean Six Sigma practitioner, at WMG, is leading the project which will help businesses evaluate their current operations and receive ideas on how they can transform current processes for the better.

The first stages of the project usually involve collecting data and gaining a better understanding of specific business issues, prior to applying a range of technologies and methodologies to develop and implement the necessary solutions.

Projects are being allocated on a first come-first served basis, email wmgsme@warwick.ac.uk to register your interest in receiving a free Six Sigma assessment.

WMG was delighted to welcome Brian Calley, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Michigan, today.

The Lieutenant Governor, who is leading a delegation of state and business leaders on a trade mission to the UK and Ireland, was keen to learn more about how WMG works side-by-side with industry to deliver innovative new products and processes. After meeting with Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, the delegation were given a tour of WMG’s world-class research and development facilities, including the International Manufacturing Centre and the Energy Innovation Centre.

WMG Chairman Professor Lord Bhattacharyya is proud to announce two new Professors at WMG.

Professor Dr Ralf Speth, CEO Jaguar Land Rover, has been appointed as an Honorary Professor, having previously been an Industrial Professor. Professor Dr Speth is already a graduate of the University of Warwick with an Engineering Doctorate from the University for his engineering research and study at WMG.

Dr Gero Kempf, Chief Engineer – Head of Body Strategy, Architecture, Advanced Product Creation at Jaguar Land Rover, has been appointed as an Industrial Professor. He is a graduate from Technical University Munich (TUM) and holds both an Engineering Doctorate in Computer Science, from the faculty of electrical engineering, and a Dipl. Phys. in Technical Physics including electrical and mechanical engineering.

Jaguar Land Rover is committed to improving the skills of its employees with currently around 2,800 Jaguar Land Rover staff studying postgraduate and higher apprentice degrees at WMG, University of Warwick.

It is estimated that moving manufacturing back to the UK could create up to 20,000 jobs and boost UK GDP by 0.8% in the next decade. And more important, keeping manufacturing in the UK can actually save you money from total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective.

Where is the best location for your manufacturing activities? Should you supply globally, regionally or locally? Is moving back or increasing production in the UK a smart decision?

We are inviting those involved in making decisions on the location of manufacturing activity to participate in our special survey, which aims to discover the best fit between strategy and locations, in order to achieve the best performance.

On 22^nd September 2016, His Excellency Jovan Donev, the Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia and Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, Chairman of WMG at the University of Warwick signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Macedonia and WMG at the University of Warwick, provides an initial framework through which research, education and impact activities will be designed to promote collaboration in the fields of education and research between WMG and organisations in Macedonia. Discussions were instigated by Michael English of the British Business Group Macedonia.

Dr Auinger’s report on ‘Effects of surface roughness on optical heating of metals’ has been awarded the esteemed Best Paper Prize 2014-2015, by the European Optical Society (EOS).

Dr Auinger, who co-wrote the report and has been described as the main ‘driving force’ behind it, said: “The EOS is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, which makes this award extra special. It was a great surprise, and I feel totally honoured to receive such acclaim.”

The search for stable materials during fast temperature changes or thermal cycling conditions is one of the biggest challenges in modern alloy design. Dr Auinger conducted his research over a six month period with colleagues from Germany at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf and SENTECH Instruments in Berlin.

The new WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Solihull opened its doors to its first pupils on Wednesday 7^th of September. However, it had to open those doors a little bit wider when Jaguar Land Rover provided the Academy with their very own Jaguar F-Pace car.

The F-Pace was recently declared the fastest ever selling Jaguar in the company’s history and it is sure to provide powerful inspiration and enviable opportunities for students studying at the engineering focused Academy.

Have you ever stopped to consider how competitive your supply chain really is? Our expert, Jan Godsell, Professor of Supply Chain Operations and Strategy, has been working with industry to develop leading practice in customer responsive or demand driven supply chains for more than 15 years.

Professor Godsell and her team at WMG are currently undertaking a study to understand the current level of adoption of supply chain segmentation within Europe.

Professor Godsell explains: “Segmentation or differentiation of the supply chain has been identified as critical, and most companies are sitting on key supply chain data that could give them that crucial competitive edge if they made use of it.”

The Cyber Security Centre at WMG, University of Warwick, has teamed with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to develop a module for its Cyber Security master’s course portfolio which addresses key strategic cyber security issues relating to business, particularly from the perspective of an organisation's Chief Information Security Officer.

With as many as 1.5 million unfilled cyber security jobs worldwide expected by 2020, the low availability of professionals with specialised cyber skills is one of the biggest issues facing organisations looking to defend their core business systems against cyber-attacks.

The WMG Cyber Security Centre team and IBM are addressing this skills gap by building a as it has been developed in collaboration with an enterprise security provider of international standing. The fully assessed module began in May 2016 and is part of the University of Warwick’s MSc in Cyber Security and Management, designed for those wishing to develop a career as a cyber security professional, or to take a leading technical or managerial role in an organisation critically dependent upon data and information communication technology. The course is available to study part-time, in order to attract business professionals who want to have the option to study alongside their work.