WMG News - Latest news from WMG

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.

The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills visited WMG, University of Warwick on Thursday 10th March to formally open the new £50m Energy Innovation Centre, the largest of its kind in Europe.

WMG is the largest manufacturing group in the world with 700 staff and an annual programme of £180m. The Energy Innovation Centre is one of seven R&D centres on the Warwick campus and is a key part of the WMG centre High Value Manufacturing Catapult activity.

The Energy Innovation Centre is a centre for world-class innovation for the development of new battery chemistries. It is at the forefront of research, providing guidance and technical know-how in three key areas of Energy Storage; Energy Management; and Complex Electrical Systems.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya was pleased to welcome Gareth Davies, Director General, Business and Science, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to WMG.

Mr Davies was interested to learn more about WMG’s research, particularly how it collaborates with industry to create innovative products.

After meeting with Professor Lord Bhattacharyya, Mr Davies was given a tour of the Group’s R&D facilities which include the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC), led by Principal Engineer Mark Amor-Segan. The EIC includes a battery characterisation laboratory, aggressive testing chambers and an electric/hybrid drives test facility, and Mark was able to highlight some of the hybrid and electric vehicle battery research currently undertaken.

The tour then moved on to the International Manufacturing Centre’s Engineering Hall to Professor Jennings, where they discussed WMG’s research into smart and connected vehicles. Mr Davies heard about how the team produced a laser scan of 30 miles of Coventry roads to test driverless pods through a research project with RDM.