It’s Open Day at Loughborough’s Engineering Doctorate Centre, CICE!

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Applicants, research engineers, sponsoring companies and academics will all be going to Loughborough in May to attend the CICE’s Annual Open Day – everyone is welcome to attend.

Professor Steve Ison, Director of the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Construction Engineering says he and his team are keen to meet any prospective research engineers or sponsoring companies at their annual event. He explains: “We have a series of presentations and open Q&A sessions to help people understand more about our centre and what we do – what’s more, we will have current Research Engineers, their supervisors and sponsors on hand to share their experiences first hand. Our Centre’s themes cover most aspects of the built environment, including Innovative Construction Technologies, Construction Business Processes, Advanced Information and Communications Technologies, Sustainable design and construction and Transport and Infrastructure, so there is sure to be an opportunity for a broad range of applicants and companies.”

The CICE dates back to 1999 when it first won EPSRC funding and since then two further five-year grants have been awarded to the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University, which is where the CICE is based. With ten Research Engineers recruited every year, competition is fierce, but the rewards are high – recent CICE REs have won prizes from prestigious institutions like the Institution of Structural Engineers and the centre has attracted high-profile companies such as Eon and Tesco to support its projects. So, anyone keen to get involved should attend the Open Day – it’s the best opportunity to find out more and talk to project teams at all stages of the EngD experience.

The CICE Open Day will take place in the morning of Tuesday 29 May, finishing with lunch and informal discussions. CICE’s friendly management and administration team will also be available to answer your questions.

To book your free place or simply find out more about undertaking an Engineering Doctorate at Loughborough, please contact us soon on: CICE@LBORO.AC.UK

International Digital Laboratory, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL

Find out how working with our International Engineering Doctorate Centre could help your business and the research challenges you may face. Our open evening will give you the opportunity to learn more about the International Doctorate Centre at WMG and to hear first hand from past and current students, academic staff and our Business Development Team. Find out how the Engineering Doctorate programme can help your business or your personal and professional development as an individual.

Please contact hannah.reese@warwick.ac.uk to register

AEngD launch conference 2012

On Thursday 1 November 2012, the Association of Engineering Doctorates, the umbrella group for UK university research centres offering the EngD qualification, will hold a launch conference at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.

The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will be addressing the launch conference of the Association of Engineering Doctorates on Thursday 1 November 2012, at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London.

The event also features a keynote address from Dr Paul Golby, chairman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and of Engineering UK, and presentations from industry organisations who sponsor and have benefited from EngD research.

The event will bring together representatives from almost all 28 Industrial Doctorate Centres, along with key stakeholders from EPSRC, industry sponsors and other organisations, and will highlight the positive impacts to the UK economy of investing in industry-specific engineering research.

Registration for this invitation-only event will open at 3pm, with refreshments and a poster exhibition by UK Industrial Doctorate Centres. The conference starts at 4pm. After the conference, from 6pm, the AEngD will host a drinks reception.

Programme (Conference flyer)

The event will be chaired by Prof Patrick Godfrey (chairman of the AEngD steering group), and speakers will include:

• Dr Paul Golby, chairman of the EPSRC
  EngD: starting a revolution in postgraduate training
• The Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science
• Prof James Powell, University of Salford
  Happy 20th birthday, EngD!
• Prof Kees van Hee, 3TU, Netherlands
  The EngD in the Netherlands
• Prof Nick Weston, Renishaw plc
  The commercial impacts of EngD research
• EngD alumni
  How EngD research helped our careers

UCL Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience will be holding the 1^st International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience on 5-6 November 2012, UCL, London, UK.

We are inviting papers to be considered for oral or poster sessions at the conference and we will be sponsoring a prize for the best young researcher presentation delivered at the conference.  To be considered, please submit a short 500 word abstract by 4^th July 2012, to conference@usar-conference-2012.org

A selection of the best papers will be published as a book after the conference. 

Keynote speakers include Sandy Halliday (Gaia Group).  Sandy is a chartered engineer working in research and design of sustainable buildings and places at the Gaia Group. Her degree in Engineering Design & Appropriate Technology focused on socially and environmentally responsible engineering, in 1982, when such things were very unfashionable. She is the author of Sustainable Construction (2008) Butterworth-Heinemann.

Full conference details and registration instructions can be found at this address: http://www.usar-conference-2012.org         

The 1st International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience will bring together world experts from across a wide range of engineering, science and social science disciplines with three main objectives:

• Bring together a strong research community committed to address some of the most pressing issues that human societies have ever faced;
• Take stock of the current state of knowledge in the field of urban sustainability and resilience
• Put forward a coherent future research agenda in the field.

The central themes of the conference will be:

• Facets of urban resilience
• Integrating and engineering sustainable and resilient urban systems
• Feeding the city
• Towards a low-carbon urban environment

Registration includes an optional extra conference day on Wednesday 7th November 2012 to take part in one or more exciting technical tours, workshops and site visits in London. This is an excellent opportunity to see London in action and the tours have been specifically selected to relate to the conference themes. Excellent for visitors to London and Londoners alike.

IDC administrators and managers meeting hosted by TSBE at University of Reading. If you want to attend and haven't received an invitation, please contact Emma Hawkings at TSBE (email e.e.hawkins@henley.reading.ac.uk)

STREAM Project Open Day
Wednesday 20 March, 2013 - 12noon-2pm (with buffet lunch)
Newcastle University

Please email justine.easten@ncl.ac.uk for further details on meeting the lead Project and Programme Academics here at Newcastle University, and to book your place.

Visit this IDC's website

Academia and industry working together for a collaborative future

This conference, on 20 June 2013, at BRE near Watford, is being developed with colleagues in Constructing Excellence, BRE, the wider CE movement, and people from universities involved with built environment and related disciplines.

The CE Movement has strong formal and informal links with universities, and visa versa. The value that all parties get from this relationship could be greater. We therefore consider that a conference to discuss each other’s agenda would be valuable.

The objective is to bring together people from the higher education (HE) sector with the CE Movement and BRE to discuss issues of mutual interest including research priorities, curriculum content, graduate employment, and engagement, enterprise and impact with industry, and develop a SMART action plan to work together for mutual benefit. How can we best support each others’ aspirations?

Key HE drivers include the methodical generation of new knowledge, esteem, accreditation by professional institutions, and research council funding with a focus on outcomes/impact not just outputs. Benefit for Constructing Excellence and its members include access to ideas, innovation, inspiration, challenges to conventional wisdom, and outreach to the best students.

One outcome of the summit may be an agreed joint vision along the following lines:

“The vision is of a future culture of innovation in the sector, realised in a ready interchange of access, knowledge and ideas for and from university research, modern fit-for-purpose curriculum content focused on leading edge thinking, and a quality pool of graduate talent for the industry.”

Practical outcomes may include stronger relationships between individual members and universities, analysis of Constructing Excellence data from KPIs and demonstrations, intranet access for all students and faculty to the Constructing Excellence library of members’ content, and engagement of Constructing Excellence members in influencing and delivering curriculum content. Success would also be a desire by participants for the event to become annual.

If you are interested in attending, please email Don Ward at Constructing Excellence: don.ward@constructingexcellence.org.uk

2nd Annual EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Conference
17-18 September 2013
Cranfield University

www.ukmanufacturing.org

Call for ABSTRACT Submission

This conference is the only national manufacturing research conference focusing on the leading edge (TRLs 1-4), taking a broad perspective on manufacturing.

• The aim of the conference is to build and network the manufacturing research community, exchange best practice and work in progress and communicate the value of the community to stakeholders.
• The conference is the national forum for defining and debating the objectives and approaches for Scientific Excellence in manufacturing research.

The conference is for, and led by, the community and is sponsored by EPSRC's Manufacturing the Future Theme as part of their objective to develop the UK's reputation for excellence in manufacturing research.

The conference will be open to all from academia and industry. All EPSRC Centres for Innovative Manufacturing will be represented as will other current and earlier EPSRC and TSB sponsored activities in manufacturing including the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centres, Centres for Doctoral Training and EngD Centres, the Technology Strategy Board High Value Manufacturing programme and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

Presentations will be academic, industrial, and from EPSRC. The presentations will also include keynotes from senior international academics. Networking will be further enabled by an Exhibition and Poster Sessions. Academic plenary oral presentations will be selected from abstracts by the Conference Steering Committee to allow the showcasing of the best and most relevant work. All those submitting abstracts will be given the opportunity to present a poster. All abstracts will be published in either electronic or printed format. There will be opportunities to organise informal workshop sessions at the conference to exchange best practice and discuss topics of importance to the community, and for those other than EPSRC Centres to exhibit.

FOCUS of the conference:

The conference welcomes abstracts from all areas of manufacturing research in the UK, including:

• Sustainable industrial systems: Meeting testing targets for reducing resource consumption and CO2 generation, whilst doubling production output of manufacturing industries, requires a measured approach towards sustainable manufacturing.
• Manufacturing informatics: Advanced manufacturing is knowledge-intensive and ICT has a major role to play in improving manufacturing intelligence, supporting collaboration, increasing efficiency, speeding up innovation, and enabling new business models and technologies.
• Innovative production processes: The development of an efficient production process is a key enabling step in the transfer of innovative research from the research laboratory to industrial application.
• Frontier manufacturing: Cross-disciplinary research that involves taking novel scientific insights towards new manufacturing initiatives that could impact or create manufacturing businesses in the future.

KEY DATES for the conference:

• Deadline for abstract submissions: 01 May 2013
• Speaker notification of acceptance: 01 July 2013
• Deadline for presentations: 01 September 2013

CONTACT for any queries:

Eleanor Collins
Outreach Coordinator,
EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Through-Life Engineering Services, Manufacturing and Materials Department Cranfield University, UK
E: eleanor.collins@cranfield.ac.uk
T: (0)1234 750111 x 4031
F: (0)1234 758292

Much progress has been made over the last decade in introducing concepts of sustainable development into both undergraduate and post graduate engineering curriculum.  Many specialist lecture courses and even whole programmes have emerged which have steadily gained acceptance alongside the more traditional skills associated with the physical sciences. However there is still a need to educate and develop a new kind of engineer who can add to the familiar analytical problem solving skills  new approaches to deal with wicked and messy problems, and who can apply a wider set of choice or assessment criteria when formulating solutions.

Engineers need to be educated to understand the effects of issues such complexity, uncertainty, environmental limits, social acceptability, and full whole life cost accountability. In addition they need to work in multidisciplinary teams and engage across a broad spectrum of policy, governance and ethical dimensions. To achieve these goals there is a fundamental need to rethink the engineers role and contribution in society, the skills needed to be effective, and how University education can help deliver a reconfiguration of an engineer’s professional outlook and responsibilities.

This conference will address these themes and share best practice across academic disciplines and educators and explore how to move beyond only advocating the next technical fix to increasingly difficult and diverse problems.

Web link for further event details: http://www-eesd13.eng.cam.ac.uk/

Email Address for further details: s.colling@cranfield.ac.uk

CDT in Applied Photonics is holding a biannual Summer School in Innovation&Entrepreneurship in Photonics in St Andrews from 16-22 June 2018. More details at: https://www.cdtphotonics.hw.ac.uk/epsrc-summer-school-photonics-2018.

The CDT in Applied Photonics is holding a biannual Summer School on the theme of Photonic Sensing, Imaging and Analysis in St Andrews from 15-20 June 2020. A limited number of bursaries are also available.

More details here.