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The Lord Bhattacharyya Engineering Education Programme has been inspiring young people to learn about engineering and the rewarding careers it offers since 2020. Five years on, schools and colleges from the West Midlands have come together to celebrate its impact.

Led by the Royal Academy of Engineering in close partnership with WMG, University of Warwick, the Lord Bhattacharyya Engineering Education Programme provides a comprehensive package of engineering-focused science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) support. This includes grants to schools and colleges; teacher networking and CPD opportunities; funded industrial secondments; and individual FE and HE student scholarships.

WMG, University of Warwick is part of an industry-academia consortium, with Mint InnovationLink opens in a new window, Jaguar Land RoverLink opens in a new window (JLR) and LiBatt Recycling (Recyclus Group)Link opens in a new window, to accelerate Lithium-ion battery recycling research.

Funded by the UK Department for Business and Trade through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UKLink opens in a new window (APC), the project will see the expansion of Mint Innovation’s technology platform to recover lithium, nickel and cobalt from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, helping the UK automotive industry with onshore and circular supply of lithium, cobalt and nickel critical for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Each partner, within the consortium, has a role to play in ensuring a sustainable lifecycle for lithium-ion batteries, from end-of-life battery supply and processing through to integrating recycled materials into new batteries, closing the loop and increasing supply chain resilience.

The WMG Outreach team at University of Warwick was delighted to welcome a brand-new cohort of students for its Work Experience Week this summer (Monday 7 July to Friday 11 July). Launched in 2019, the annual event – which is organised by WMG Outreach and the University’s Widening Participation team – aims to foster inclusivity in engineering by giving students from under-represented backgrounds the chance to meet new people, learn new skills, and explore what a career in STEM could look like.

Academics at WMG, University of Warwick, have partnered with Tata Steel UK on a major new research initiative: Accelerating the Development of Automotive and Packaging steel Technology for Electric Arc Furnace production (ADAPT-EAF). The £7m project, which is backed by Tata Steel UK, WMG, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, and the EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships programme, will develop a new generation of advanced steel products to transform the future of automotive and packing applications, from car bodies to food cans.

Representatives from the world of trade gathered for the inaugural launch of a new organisation which aims to support women in trade and address the export gap.

The Women in Trade Hub UK (WiTH UK), created by WMG, University of Warwick with the support of the Chartered Institute of Export & International TradeLink opens in a new window, aims to create a community, bringing together existing resources while being responsive to the needs of female entrepreneurs.

Barriers to break 

Noting that women face “systemic barriers” in business and trade, Dr Rebecca Wilde, Head of Business Innovation, Supply Chain and Trade at WMG, University of Warwick, said that WiTH UK will serve as a community that can “empower women, and empower men who support women, in trade management and operational roles.”

Highlighting the many “great organisations out there globally that support women in trade,” Dr Wilde said there’s a lot of work to be done to boost the proportion of women-led trading SMEs and women in senior positions at larger trading organisations.

WMG, University of Warwick is part of a unique £2m academic-industry partnership to develop novel methods to understand, measure, and ultimately insure against risk associated with the commercial application of artificial intelligence.

The UKRI Prosperity Partnership ‘AI2: Assurance and Insurance for Artificial Intelligence’Link opens in a new window, led by the University of Edinburgh, alongside insurance group AXA, WMG and the University of Oxford, will build an implementable AI assurance framework that enables auditing of algorithmic systems across metrics such as model accuracy, bias and privacy.

The partnership will seek to tackle key industry challenges in areas from drug manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI) to cybersecurity.

Researchers at WMG will be developing techniques to assure the AI underpinning national transport, manufacturing and energy infrastructure, and exploring how such assurances can impact AI insurance premiums.

WMG’s Professor David Greenwood has been appointed as the independent co-chair of the Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC), to the Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroLink opens in a new window (DESNZ), alongside Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Paul Monks.Link opens in a new window 

The role of the council, compromising 16 members selected through an open and competitive process, is to provide independent and academically sound scientific and technical advice to DESNZ and its Secretary of State through the Chief Scientific Advisor.

It will also offer independent viewpoints and cutting-edge research on topics from climate science, energy networks and engineering, to the latest technologies and artificial intelligence.

Professor David Greenwood, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) Centre at WMG, University of Warwick, was delighted to welcome Tom Adeyoola – Executive Chair of Innovate UK – on Tuesday 1 July, as part of his tour of the UK’s Catapult Network.

Congratulations to Dr Saif Ul IslamLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, a Research Fellow in Cyber Systems Engineering at WMG, University of Warwick, who has been named a ‘2024 Top Scholar’ by ScholarGPS.

The honour recognises Dr Islam’s outstanding contributions to engineering and computer science – especially in the fields of fog computingLink opens in a new window and wireless sensor networksLink opens in a new window, which he is ranked 26th and 143rd in the world respectively.