Departmental news

Two Professors at WMG at the University of Warwick have been elected as Fellows of the prestigious Royal Academy of EngineeringLink opens in a new window.

Professor Claire DavisLink opens in a new window, Head of Advanced Steel Research Centre; and Professor Mark WilliamsLink opens in a new window, Head of the Metrology and Visualisation Research Group, at WMG, have been elected as part of a group of 71 leading figures in the field of engineering and technology.

The group consists of 60 Fellows, six International Fellows and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own sector.

Each Fellow has been involved in pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high level advice to government, or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.

The new Fellows will be formally admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on 27 November, when each Fellow will sign the roll book.

In joining the Fellowship, they will lend their unique capabilities to achieving the Academy’s overarching strategic goal to harness the power of engineering to create a sustainable society and an inclusive economy for all.

Professor Davis said: “I am very honoured to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. It is an exciting and dynamic time for the global steel industry and I look forward to working with the Royal Academy in promoting clean technologies for the future.”

Professor Mark Williams said: “I’m honoured to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and am extremely grateful to colleagues across the country who have seen fit to elect me.

“It’s a long way from my time as an apprentice to the Royal Academy. I’d like to thank my colleagues at Warwick who have supported me over my career here and look forward to working with the other Fellows.”

Dr John Lazar CBE FREng, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: “Our new Fellows represent some of the most talented people in the world of engineering and are taken from the ranks of those who are aiming to address some of our most critical problems.

“We are proud to say that many of our newly elected Fellows have come from underrepresented groups in engineering and related sectors and we hope this helps to tackle some of the issues around a lack of diversity within the profession.

“There is ample evidence that a wider pool of ideas and experiences helps to improve decision-making and develop novel solutions to global challenges.”

See the complete list of Fellows elected here: Royal Academy of Engineering Fellows 2024 (raeng.org.uk)Link opens in a new window 

When: Wednesday 13 November 2024, 7pm

Where: MS0.02, Zeeman Building, University of Warwick (venue TBC mid-September), with a reception in The Street after the event

This November, we'll be joined by Sarah Hart who will make you look at maths with a completely new perspective.

• Affordable home ownership is at its lowest for 30 years with house prices now eight times higher than the average salary.
• The UK’s planning system has been seen as the culprit of this crisis, reducing housing supply and causing a huge shortage of homes for the growing population.
• Academics from Warwick Economics analysed 18 million planning applications and have pinpointed new evidence on the UK’s planning system.

Their research shows that planning refusals aren’t the problem, and the attention they get is somewhat misguided. Over the past decade, refusal rates for new housing units were almost half the rate than the previous 10 years.

It is the bigger projects which have become more significant. Large projects of over 50 housing units now represent two thirds of newly permitted developments, with very large projects of over 500 units representing 38% of new developments. Twenty-five years ago, these very large developments only made up 8% of new housing.

These bigger developments are much less likely to be refused planning permission than smaller developments. The evidence shows that a single unit project is twice as likely to be refused planning as one with over 500 houses. However, these bigger projects face far more hurdles, delays, red tape and paperwork than smaller ones. Many of these hurdles set in only once permission is granted.

It takes an average of 4.5 years for the planning process to be completed for very large developments, and in some cases can take over 11 years. This suggests that the Labour government’s focus on building new towns to meet the 1.5 million home pledge may mean these new homes do not materialise very quickly.

The research identifies five possible reasons for delays from case study evidence.

1. Financial contributions to the local area: A developer responsible for a 7000-unit estate in Bedfordshire was required to contribute almost £80m for local infrastructure (schools, roads, community facilities and transit services) and unexpected costs.
2. Infrastructure delays: The new development of Northstowe in Cambridgeshire was left in limbo for around 4 years due to a delay in the Highways England-led expansion of the A14, which the new town was entirely dependent on.
3. Regulatory barriers: The Eastern Green development in Coventry was required to comply with seven environmental regulations including sustainable drainage systems and flood risk management.
4. Council led delays: In Ebbsfleet Valley, a new town near London, the planning process for 43,000 houses started in 1996. Delays to decision making and resubmissions has meant that work did not start until 11 years later in 2007. To date only 4000 of the 43,000 houses have been built.
5. Community opposition: The Eastern Green development received over 300 pages of local objections and 173 letters in opposition were filed. The first outline application was made in 2018 and the land remains undeveloped as of 2024.

Nikhil Datta, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick and co-lead on the project said:

“Our research has shown that there are many often unrelated barriers which impact on the housing supply, and it is not simply planning refusal rates which are the problem. The UK government needs to consider this when setting and implementing policies. Not only is new housing hampered by the planning process itself, but regulatory barriers, infrastructure setbacks and community opposition all play a part. We will be investigating these factors further to quantify their relative importance.”

Amrita Kulka, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick and co-lead on the project said:

“If the UK is to meet housing delivery targets within shorter timelines, addressing planning delays is essential. Our research highlights a shift since the early 2000s towards a greater reliance on large-scale developments for housing supply. Such developments take substantially longer to go through the planning system than projects of smaller sizes. To speed up housing delivery, the government should consider a mix of small and medium-sized developments, alongside urban extensions and new neighbourhoods.”

Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive, Home Builders Federation said:

“As this important research demonstrates, there are a number of significant barriers to successfully bringing forward large sites, within a realistic time frame. Policy makers need to create a framework within which sites of all sizes can come forward more efficiently if we are to meet communities’ housing needs and allow builders of all sizes to increase output.

“Whilst the new Government’s speedy interventions on planning are welcome, there is no silver bullet and further interventions on the supply and demand side will be required. Amidst a dearth of affordable mortgage lending more support for buyers is required to provide the necessary confidence in demand that allows industry to invest. Building the homes we need will deliver both the social change and economic growth the new Government needs but will take commitment across a range of policy areas.”

• Read the briefing: Five facts on the UK planning system
• The UK planning system - Technical Appendix

This work was supported by Research England under the Policy Support Fund funding stream.

About the authors:

• Amrita Kulka is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick
• Nikhil Datta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick and a fellow at the Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
• Edoardo Badii is a PhD student in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick.
• Johannes Brinkmann is a PhD student in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick.

WMG at the University of Warwick and WayveLink opens in a new window, a leader in Embodied AI for autonomous driving, have launched the DriveSafeAI microsite - a dedicated platform to share insights, research, and tools focused on AI safety assurance in assisted and automated driving technology.

The new microsite, Drive-Safe.aiLink opens in a new window, is part of the broader DriveSafeAI initiative and serves as a hub for industry professionals, researchers, and policymakers. Through this platform, Wayve and WMG will share information about novel safety validation methods to give regulators confidence in AI used in assisted and automated vehicles (AV). DriveSafeAI focuses on four pillars of technical AI safety assurance, covering scenario generation, architecture, model evaluation, and sim validation.

The DriveSafeAI projectLink opens in a new window is part of the Centre for Connected and Automated Vehicles’ (CCAV)

Commercialising CAM Supply Chain Competition (CCAMSC). This programme, aimed at advancing connected and automated mobility (CAM), is funded by CCAV - a joint initiative between the Department for Business and TradeLink opens in a new window, and the Department for TransportLink opens in a new window. It is delivered in partnership with Innovate UKLink opens in a new window and ZenzicLink opens in a new window.

Dr Sarah Gates, Director of Public Policy, Wayve explained: “Regulators need to have confidence in how AI is used in assisted and automated driving, which is why we need clear safety validation methods. DriveSafeAI is a model for developing evidenced-based safety frameworks that can build regulator and stakeholder confidence, driving innovation while ensuring the highest safety standards. This balanced approach enables safe technology development that will lead to safer roads and a more robust global AV market.”

Professor Siddartha KhastgirLink opens in a new window, Head of Safe Autonomy, WMG, the University of Warwick said: “The use of AI in safety-critical applications like automated driving poses a huge challenge for the automotive industry. Solving this requires broad collaboration between industry, academia, and policymakers. Through DriveSafeAI, partnering with a leading embodied AI organisation like Wayve, WMG can create a robust and novel safety approach to AI while enabling scalability and innovation. We are generating the scientific evidence to underpin industry-wide standards and international regulations for the safety of AI, building confidence in the AV ecosystem.”

Wayve and WMG remain committed to advancing automated driving through rigorous safety protocols and transparent research. Over the next year, the partners will regularly update the microsite with new findings as they progress their research.

For more information and to follow updates on this project, visit Link opens in a new windowhttps://drive-safe.ai/Link opens in a new window.

Warwick Law School’s Professor Shaheen Ali has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) from the University of Oslo which she received during a graduation ceremony held at the University on 2 September this year.

We look forward to welcoming our new students to the Department of Economics in September 2024.

We are delighted that you have chosen to study here and we look forward to welcoming you this academic year. Your first few weeks have been designed with a series of activities and events enabling you to settle in and adapt to student life at Warwick.

Dr Claudia Rei, Deputy Head of Department in Teaching and Learning, has a welcome message for all incoming students:

"Welcome to the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick. Please take some time to read the information about your Economics Programme below. There is a lot of information here so do not hesitate to contact your programme team if you have queries (economics.ugoffice@warwick.ac.uk or economics.pgoffice@warwick.ac.uk). I look forward to meeting you at various welcome events over the next few weeks!"

PhD student Syl Shaw and supervisor Rudo Roemer apply the real-space renormalisation group method to the Chalker–Coddington model of the quantum Hall transition. This approach provides a convenient numerical estimation of the localisation critical exponent, ν. Previous such studies found ν=2.39 which falls considerably short of the current best estimates by transfer matrix (2.593) and exact-diagonalisation studies (2.58). By increasing the amount of data 500 fold they can now measure closer to the critical point and find an improved estimate 2.51. This deviates only 3% from the previous two values and is already better than the 7% accuracy of the classical small-cell renormalisation approach from which their method is adapted.

Professor Justin Molloy has a new paper in the journal "Scientific Reports" in collaboration with Gregory I. Mashanov of the Francis Crick institute, London.
The paper describes a multiscale computer model that simulates the dynamics of individual molecules within the complex architecture of a living cell.

Read the paper here

The University of Warwick has been named a finalist for a prestigious award. Dr Ali Struthers’ School Tasking scheme has been shortlisted for ‘Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year’ at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.