Departmental news

Announcing our MSc Academic Prize Winners!

The United Kingdom has some of the highest levels of inequality between regions in the industrialised world. Inequalities in pay, productivity, skills and health outcomes have endured for decades despite governments of both left and right committing to “levelling up” or promising to “kickstart economic growth.”

What are the roots of such strong regional differences and can they be reduced or removed?

A new analysis by Professor Sascha Becker, Professor Christian Dustmann and Dr Hyejin Ku, published this month by the Rockwool Foundation, offers insights from Germany.

Using digitized historic data, contemporary labour market statistics, firm productivity measures, and historical as well as modern patent data, Professor Becker and his co-authors explore regional inequality in Germany and trace the influence of one of the most transformative technologies of the Industrial Revolution – the introduction of the steam engine.

Professor Becker explains: “German regions that had more steam engines per worker in 1875 have higher wages, a more skilled labor force, and greater firm productivity today. They also show greater occupational diversity and sustained innovation over time.”

The researchers found:-

• Wages and productivity: Regions that were in the top 10% of steam engine intensity (13.13 steam engines per 1,000 workers) have 4.59% higher average wages in modern day Germany (1975-2019). The study finds that nearly 50% of the steam engine-related wage premium is explained by having more productive firms in these regions.
• Education: These regions have also a larger share of tertiary-educated and technically skilled workers 150 years later.
• Innovation and technological diversity: Regions with more steam engines per worker in 1875 registered significantly more patents, historically (1877-1918) and in recent decades (1980–2014), and show greater technological diversity in their innovations.
• Occupational diversity: Regions with more steam engines per worker in 1875 exhibit greater occupational diversity today, both within the overall economy and within the manufacturing sector.

Professor Becker comments: “Our research finds a ‘virtuous cycle’ whereby the introduction of new technology – in this case, the steam engine - into a local economy creates demand for skilled workers with specialist knowledge of engineering and maintenance. This encourages investment in education and innovation and kickstarts a self-reinforcing growth cycle which lasts for generations.

“AI, automation and other digital technologies have the potential to be similar disruptors in today’s regional economies. Our research suggests that regions where early adopters of these new ways of working become established could enjoy very long-term benefits.”

• The Virtuous Cycle Between Skills and Technology Sascha O. Becker, Christian Dustmann, Hyejin Ku 2026 ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin Discussion Paper Series 013/26 https://www.rfberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/26013.pdf

Dr Fredrik Schaufelberger and Dr Alex Baker have been awarded exciting EPSRC Open Fellowships to progress their research over the next five years.

New design guide is a significant milestone in realising the benefits of bamboo to widen its adoption.

Comprehensive guidance about the design of permanent bamboo structures has been published by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE).

Dr Serena Natile receives the IAS Interdisciplinary Research Development Award for the project ‘Pluralising Law and Social Reproduction: Concepts, Methods, Practices’. The IRDA scheme offers up to £5000 to support the development of new interdisciplinary research ideas and collaborations at Warwick.

The Mechanical Workshop team has been awarded the Outstanding Achievement Team Award, recognising their exceptional contribution to the University’s research and teaching community.

We are pleased to announce that Dr Imran Khan has recently joined the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Fellow. Although new to the department, Imran has engaged with Warwick before—first through a secondment during a previous postdoctoral position, and more recently as a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology.

Imran’s research focuses on embodied and enactive cognition within social systems, with particular interest in how and why emotions, social interactions, and relationships contribute to adaptive self‑organisation in biological systems. He primarily uses computational models to investigate these questions, aiming to draw insights from natural systems that may help inform the development of more adaptive artificial systems.

Imran believes computer scientists bring a distinctive mode of thinking to complex problems and encourages students to apply computational approaches when exploring questions across diverse disciplines. He is also passionate about science communication and is committed to making complex ideas accessible to wider audiences through podcast hosting, educational workshops, summer schools, and other outreach activities.

The department looks forward to the contributions Imran will bring in the months ahead. Colleagues and students are warmly invited to reach out to discuss research, teaching, outreach, or anything in between.

We welcome him to the department.