engineering - university of strathclyde

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Engineering

Issue 8, Winter 2012

Success at Scottish KTP Awards

Faculty Top for KTPs in Scotland

Scottish Space School Students Visit NASA

Oscar Pistorius Awarded Honorary Degree

Strathclyde Named University

of the Year

engineering insight [ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ]

Contents

[ Introduction ]

02

03

15

17

21

26

Strathclyde Named Universityof the Year

Knowledge Exchange

Outreach

Research

Success Stories

Successful Alumnus

Faculty of EngineeringUniversity of StrathclydeRoom 5.25Royal College Building204 George StreetGlasgow G1 1XW

t: +44 (0)141 548 2749e: [email protected]: @StrathEngWeb: www.strath.ac.uk/engineering

The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263.

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Faculty Office Contacts Faculty Manager Faculty Academic Development OfficerDr Gayle Wilson Gabrielle Weir [email protected] [email protected]

Marketing Development Coordinator International Recruitment AdvisorAnnabel Dalgleish Christine Donald [email protected] [email protected]

Faculty Administrative Assistant Dean’s SecretaryAndrea Roy Susan Pawson/Mary [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Faculty Administrator (Research and Knowledge Exchange) Carol Brady [email protected]

Faculty Development Officer Modern Apprentice (Administration)Marianne Ballantyne Chloe [email protected] [email protected]

Professor Scott MacGregor Dean, Faculty of Engineering

INTRODUCTION

Welcome from the Dean of Engineering Welcome to the latest edition of Engineering Insight, which focuses on our recent knowledge exchange activities and some of our major successes.

2012 has been a very successful year, not just for the Faculty of Engineering but also for the University of Strathclyde as a whole. The University was recently named ‘UK University of the Year’ at the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) awards. This award is seen as one of the highest accolades in Academia and further strengthens our vision to be a leading international technological university. The award is also recognition that the hard work and dedication invested by our staff and students are being acknowledged and celebrated within the sector. The University of the Year Award 2012 is a significant achievement and follows on from the Faculty of Engineering’s success at the Times Higher Education awards in 2011, when Strathclyde was awarded the Research Project of the Year.

Strathclyde’s focus and determination to grow and expand knowledge exchange engagement has helped distinguish us from other Universities. Knowledge exchange has always been a key activity within the Faculty and we are pleased to have such strong links with many leading industry partners. This provides our staff and students with opportunities to work on real-life problems with industry and also brings significant benefits to the companies in terms of giving them access to world-leading expertise and facilities that are capable of transforming their businesses.

Always keen to explore new ideas and opportunities for collaboration the Faculty is excited and honoured to be working with Olympic and Paralympic athlete Dr Oscar Pistorius to design and manufacture a low cost prosthetic foot for the developing world. Dr Pistorius recently visited the University to collect his Honorary Degree award and to deliver a keynote lecture marking the creation of the Faculty’s new Department of Biomedical Engineering.

We are also leading the way in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), with the Faculty now having over 20 KTPs in progress; more than most Universities in the UK have as a whole. The quality, as well as the quantity, of these projects has also been recognised nationally with Strathclyde recently securing the Best Partnership Award at the Scottish KTP Awards.

With 2012 having drawn to a close, we look forward to building upon our achievements this year to make 2013 even more successful and we wish all of our staff, students, colleagues and partners, a prosperous and happy 2013.

[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ]

Caption

Strathclyde Named University of the Year

[ Strathclyde Students Win Internship Opportunity of a Lifetime with BP ]

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The University of Strathclyde has been named the UK’s University of the

Year in the 2012 Times Higher Education Awards.

Praised for its close links with business and industry and its commitment to making an impact on the global economy, Strathclyde was chosen ahead of five other shortlisted institutions to take one of the highest accolades in higher education.

Judges described the University as a “bold, imaginative and innovative institution” and said the University’s dedication to working with industry took concrete form in the past year, giving a modern slant to its 18th Century founder’s vision of a ‘place of useful learning’.

University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Jim McDonald received the award at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, on Thursday 29 November 2012.

Sir Jim said: “This has been a transformational year for the University of Strathclyde, and to be recognised by the Times Higher as University of the Year is a great honour. The award reflects the hard work of staff across the University and their commitment to making a difference to our students, to our community and to wider society.

“Our vision as a leading international technological university has attracted overwhelming support from our partners in both the public andprivate sectors.

This is yet another endorsement of our strategy.

“By working together, we can continue to touch lives around the world, by accelerating the development of new technologies and medicines, informing the development of public policy, supporting the economy, producing graduates ready for business and the professions and helping our industries compete on the global stage.”

John Gill, Editor of the Times Higher Education, said: “The University of

Strathclyde stood out as an institution that had an extraordinary understanding

of where it was, where it wanted to be and how it was going to get there. Its focus on ‘useful learning’ had come together in an

impressive way in the past 12 months and the judges were clear that it was a worthy winner of the University of the Year title.”

The ceremony was hosted by comedian David Walliams and attended by more than 1,000 members of the higher education community from around the United Kingdom.

There were more than 500 entries across 18 categories of the THE awards which are now in their eighth year.

The University was also shortlisted for three other categories, Entrepreneurial University of the Year, Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers and Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community.

The Times Higher Education University of the Year award is sponsored by Santander Universities.

Cover image: Professor Sir Jim McDonald being presented with the award by David Walliams and Steve Pateman, Head of UK Banking, Santander UK plc


[ Knowledge Exchange ]

Knowledge Exchange

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A collaboration between the University’s pioneering space

engineers and their colleagues at top firm Clyde Space scooped one of two Best Partnership Awards at Scotland’s prestigious Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) awards, after developing a next-generation ‘CubeSat’ micro-spacecraft.

Meanwhile, Strathclyde engineering alumnus Liam Hastie was awarded the Best KTP Associate Presentation prize following a two-year placement between the University’s Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management and Glasgow furniture manufacturer, Aquapac Ltd.

The KTP scheme is Europe’s leading programme to help businesses and organisations to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the use of knowledge, technology and skills from higher education institutions. The KTP project will now go forward to the finals of the UK-wide competition.

Professor Colin McInnes from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who helped lead the Clyde Space project, said: “Strathclyde is proud of its strong links with business and industry, and we are delighted this collaborative partnership has been recognised in this way.

“The KTP scheme has enabled us to work closely with our colleagues at Clyde Space and accelerate research on high-performance ‘CubeSat’ microspacecraft.”

Through the scheme, KTP Associate Stephen Greenland worked with Clyde Space CEO Craig Clark and head of Engineering Andrew Strain to develop the UKube-1 CubeSat, due for launch in March 2013. Stephen is now employed by Clyde Space as a Senior Systems Engineer.

The Strathclyde side was led by Professor Colin McInnes and Dr Malcolm Macdonald from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and also saw Research Associate Dr Derek Bennet seconded part-time to the firm. The project has catalysed ongoing Technology Strategy Board and UK Space Agency funded work on CubeSat technologies at the University led by Dr James Biggs and Dr Massimiliano Vasile.

The University is Scotland’s largest and most successful participant in the KTP scheme, ranked number one in Scotland and in the UK’s top five.

Since the KTP scheme started, the University has worked with around 200 KTP projects supported by more than £26 million of Government funding. Its clients come from all industries and sectors, many of them concerned with overseas markets and supply chains.

Working with the West of Scotland KTP Centre – one of the premier centres

of its kind in the UK – the University is supporting companies by delivering tailored expertise from across the four faculties, with Engineering leading the way, with 18 current KTP projects (out of 20 in the University) and further projects in the pipeline.

Professor David Nash, Vice-Dean Knowledge Exchange in the Faculty of Engineering said: “Knowledge Exchange is at the heart of Engineering at Strathclyde and KTP is at the heart of Knowledge Exchange. The KTP scheme is a key mechanism for industry to get the best research and expertise from the academic community and to deliver practical business-focussed benefits for industry.”

Three out of the 14 nominated KTPs in the Scottish award scheme were based at the University of Strathclyde. To find out more about KTPs at Strathclyde visithttp://www.strath.ac.uk/businessorganisations/researchservices/ktps/

Success for Faculty at Prestigious KTP Awards

Colin McInnes and staff from Clyde Space being presented with the award by David Erdal



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In August the Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde welcomed a number

of very senior delegates from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a key player in the China Aerospace Science and Technology Cooperation (CASC) and a key designer and manufacturer in the recent successfully manned Chinese space station launching and docking mission. Managing Director, Mr Hong Li was accompanied by Vice Managing Director, Dr Guoqing Wang and five more senior engineers for the official opening of the new Space Mechatronic Systems Technology (SMesTech) research laboratory which will be located at Strathclyde.

The SMesTech laboratory, a brand new facility housed in the Royal College Building at Strathclyde, was established following the successful execution of a collaborative research project between the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM) at Strathclyde and CALT. The aim of this new collaboration, which is the first University collaboration made by CASC through CALT outside of China, is to advance research and development into space mechatronic systems technology, such as mechatronic mechanisms, space robotics for satellite servicing and refuelling, sustainable space exploitation and related manufacturing technologies.

The prestigious laboratory will be funded by the Chinese Government for the next five years, with a commitment of a minimum of two million Chinese Yuan per year. CALT will also provide at least two seconded senior engineers from the company to work on the projects within the laboratory at Strathclyde. The research collaboration investment will provide a minimum of £1.5 million over the next five years.

Professor Kenny Miller, the Vice Principal of Strathclyde, welcomed the delegates to the event. Professor Scott MacGregor, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering then expressed how pleased Strathclyde are that CALT have chosen to collaborate with Strathclyde. Following on from this Professor Xiu T Yan from the Department of DMEM who initiated, led and secured the agreement, discussed how the collaboration will benefit those involved.

Mr Li, the Managing Director of CALT, said during the opening event: “I

am delighted to be here to open the SMeSTech laboratory. CALT is genuinely seeking to collaborate with Strathclyde, a University which is well known for a

number of innovations that have helped change the world in which we live.

We are pleased to see the SMeSTech laboratory is now open shortly after the collaboration agreement was signed at the end of February this year. We look

forward to fruitful collaborative research achievements from researchers working

in this joint laboratory.”

Professor MacGregor also commented; “We are delighted to welcome Mr Li and his delegation who have made a special visit to Strathlclyde to open SMeSTech laboratory.”

Director of the SMeSTech laboratory, Professor Xiu T Yan commented on Strathclyde and CALT celebrating this milestone achievement; “I am delighted to see the opening of a new space related technology laboratory with a clear international collaboration remit to develop new technologies which will benefit Scottish, British and Chinese space research development in generating new conceptual solutions to the challenges faced in space explorations driven by the ambitions of mankind. This laboratory will provide another platform to extend the University’s reputation in space research and has and will continue to provide students and researchers with a productive and inspiring environment for developing high impact space solutions.”

Faculty Collaboration with China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology is a World First

Professor Scott MacGregor and Professor Kenny Miller with Mr Hong Li


The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) has

had an extremely successful year in developing new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.

Established in 1975, the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme is a UK-wide programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through partnering and knowledge transfer with an academic institution. Part-funded by 18 Government organisations, and led by the Technology Strategy Board, KTP projects apply the world-leading knowledge and expertise of academics to business-critical projects.

To help facilitate this, a talented graduate/postgraduate (known as the KTP Associate) is appointed to work within the business, supported by an academic supervisor. Each KTP project

lasts between 12 and 36 months, depending on the time required to deliver tangible outcomes.

The Department of MAE has grown its portfolio of projects from two to seven over 2012 and a key factor in the Department’s recent success has been the willingness of staff to partner and build KTP teams. Overall, the Faculty of Engineering has built a substantive KTP portfolio, which is anticipated to exceed 20 over the next month. The Faculty is top of the KTP league table in Scotland and Strathclyde is one of the top five Universities in the UK in terms of KTP projects supported.

The Department’s portfolio of KTP projects covers the range of MAE activity from medical engineering through to modelling of low carbon energy systems in buildings. Industry partners range from micro-scale businesses to blue chip companies.

The current projects are as follows;• Helping Vascutek to develop

a robust vascular graft device performance modelling capability using Finite Element Analysis.

• Capturing future built environment load profiles and understanding their impact on the UK’s electricity network for SP Power Systems.

• Working with Capital Steel to generate a finite element analysis (FEA) capability, integrating this with existing ProjeX design tools and delivering a full Design-by-Analysis service.

• Creating a finite element ‘design-by-analysis’ capability for advanced structural design and optimisation for MacPhee Bros. in Blantyre.

• Working with Integrated Environmental Solutions to develop an optimisation control strategy and integrating it with the dynamic simulation environment and real-time building energy performance models.

• Improving measurement and modelling of turbulence around wind farms with Oldbaum services.

• Helping Turnbull and Scott Engineers of Hawick to develop an integrated heat exchanger design process incorporating thermal, structural and weld design components, facilitating rapid business expansion in key markets such as Nuclear.

MAE departmental staff are continuing to explore possibilities for new KTP partnerships with a view to enhancing further the Faculty and University’s reputation as the partner for KTP.

KTP Success for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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One of the new KTP projects within the Department of Mechanical

and Aerospace Engineering initiated over the last year is between Scottish Power and the Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU). The project seeks to provide the company with some of the essential technical data they need to help develop their distribution network to cope with future increasing demands. The KTP Associate charged with delivering this ambitious project is Luke Tait, who recently graduated from Strathclyde with an MSc with distinction in Renewable Energy Systems and the Environment. Engineering Insight asked Luke what attracted him to apply to the KTP programme and how was the project progressing;

What is the key objective and purpose of the KTP project you are working on?The aim of my project is to provide Scottish Power (SP) with future demand profiling data that will be fundamental to the way that they design and operate their distribution networks. SP relies on energy demand data for consumers to inform on capacity of networks, sizing of equipment such as transformers and design requirements. The data available for current energy demands is limited and with low carbon technologies becoming common, as well as improvements being made to building performance, there is a real business requirement to have better energy demand data to meet the needs of the future network.

How did you get involved in the KTP project?I found out about the job from one of my friends on my MSc course. I had never heard of the KTP scheme before but when I read the job description I could see that it would be completely different to the graduate jobs that I was applying for at the time. I could see that the skills I had developed during my MSc, such as energy modelling, would be a good fit with the goals of the KTP.

What do you actually do while working as a KTP Associate?I am working within the Future Networks department of SP, who are overseeing the use of new technologies and innovations on the network. At the start of my KTP, I had to learn how SP functions and how the network operates. As a KTP Associate, it is my job to manage the KTP project and ensure that the KTP team work together to meet our milestones and objectives. A lot of my job requires me to plan ahead where we want to monitor and specify what equipment we require before installing at various sites. Recently, I have secured innovation funding from Ofgem, which will allow me to purchase equipment to monitor more of the network. To do this I had to put together a business case and budget that was presented to the internal SP research and development approvals panel.

I have assisted SP engineers with installing monitoring equipment at sites and I have developed tools to analyse the data that we are receiving back from them. At the moment I have some monitoring equipment on the network at different sites and am planning a rollout to further sites to maximise the data available and hence increase the benefit for the company.

One good feature of the KTP scheme is the investment in training - there are quite a lot of training opportunities for KTP Associates. I was sent to Leamington Spa for two residential

courses which lasted for a week each time, these were really good opportunities to meet other associates and improve my project management skills. Within SP I have also been placed on their graduate training scheme.

What has been the best part about working as a KTP Associate?The best part is that it’s a totally different job to a regular graduate one; I have so much more responsibility in the KTP scheme than I would have had under normal circumstances. The projects that I am working on are vitally important to the business and I am reporting to senior management including directors. At this early stage of my career I am responsible for critical projects for the business and I have the chance to make a significant impact on the way that SP operates.

What advice would you give toanyone else thinking of becoming a KTP Associate?I would definitely recommend it, especially if you relish a real challenge and are looking for something different in graduate employment. I would encourage people to keep an eye on the KTP website for vacancies and look out for opportunities within the University. I would also recommend getting in touch with the West of Scotland KTP office staff, who are all very helpful and based within the University.

When does your time working as a KTP Associate end and what are your plans for the future?As my KTP ends in January 2014, it is too early to say exactly what my plans are for the future at this stage. I think that regardless of what happens between now and the end of my KTP, I will be in an excellent position to further my career.

Visit the West of Scotland KTP Centre website www.ktpws.org.uk for more information.

Profile of a KTP Associate

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Craig Hunter and Alexander Dewar from Strathclyde working with Aggreko on their internship

The SSE team with Brian Dickson, Finlay McCutcheon and Professor David Nash

Roy and Karyn at the conference

The Faculty of Engineering joined with delegates from SSE (formerly known

as Scottish and Southern Energy) at their Glasgow office to recognise and boost engagement with the new Project Management Academy on International Project Management Day. Professor David Nash, Vice-Dean Knowledge Exchange in the Faculty of Engineering, and Mr Finlay McCutcheon, Director Offshore Renewables, gave an overview of the programme and emphasised its strategic importance to the company, along with presenting delegates with a certificate of performance.

To date, some 40 professionals have successfully undertaken the Principles of Project Management module at Strathclyde, led by Mr Brian Dickson from the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering. Students engage with the programme in a block delivery format coming on campus for four to five days at a time for each module. However some modules are flexibly delivered

Roy Bowers and Karyn Ross of the National Centre for Prosthetics

and Orthotics, within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, were part of a small, international multidisciplinary teaching team at the first conference on prosthetics and orthotics hosted in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) in Southeast Asia, in September. The conference was organised by the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) in partnership with the Centre of Medical Rehabilitation, Lao Ministry of Health, and the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO). The aim of the conference was to strengthen work already undertaken in the

region to treat club foot and to introduce new innovative methods to manage cerebral palsy.

The conference brought leading experts from around the globe to collaborate on regional initiatives and discuss innovative ideas in the field of orthotics. Over 120 prosthetist/orthotists, orthopaedic surgeons, physiotherapists and occupational therapists from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh, joined their Lao colleagues over the course of the week. The international experts representing ISPO covered topics relating to multidisciplinary rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy, and the role

via the University Virtual Learning Environment, MyPlace. The programme has been designed with flexibility in mind and students can graduate with a Postgraduate Certificate, Diploma or a MSc, depending on the total number of modules completed. Whilst most SSE staff that have joined the programme come from an engineering background, some have come, and participated successfully, from other backgrounds.

The programme will deliver a further five modules at Masters level during the remainder of the 2012-13 academic session. The new programme encompasses the following core modules: Principles of Project Management, Commercial Management, Financial Management, Risk Management, Design Management and Quality Management.

SSE staff have found the programme extremely beneficial and highly relevant to their daily work practices and needs, albeit challenging, especially for those

who have been away from studying for some time. The programme is underpinned by online material for both pre-reading and post-course support, and this has proven popular with delegates.

Mr Finlay McCutcheon, Director of Offshore Renewables, noted the strategic importance of the programme to the company and reiterated SSE’s ongoing commitment in delivering high quality project management training for the business.

Faculty Boosts Engagement with SSE

Biomedical Engineering Staff at Cerebral Palsy and Club Foot Conference

of orthotics in treating this condition. The final two days of the conference involved a hands-on programme, during which participants worked under supervision in smaller groups to assess and treat patients, incorporating the skills they learned during the plenary sessions of the previous days. Several children with cerebral palsy were fitted with ankle-foot orthoses to prevent deformity and to improve ambulation. Both Roy and Karyn contributed to the development of the ISPO consensus conference report on the treatment of cerebral palsy, published in 2009.

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An award-winning Strathclyde spin-out company has been

awarded £1.4 million to help it harness tidal energy.

Nautricity will use the grant towards the total cost of building and testing its CoRMaT tidal current turbine in the sea south of Machrihanish, Argyll, Scotland.

The award was part of the £7.9 million WATERS 2 funding package announced by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, aimed at helping Scottish firms to secure an increased share of the international marine energy market – which could be worth up to £4 billion to the country’s economy by 2020.

Cameron Johnstone, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Chief Executive Officer of Nautricity, said: “We are delighted to be chosen as one of the companies to take a new generation of tidal energy technology forward.

“We were already well advanced with plans to deploy our CoRMaT technology – but this award will help significantly to accelerate this deployment.

“Nautricity welcomes the Deputy First Minister’s announcement of the launch of the WATERS 2 programme, further demonstrating Scotland’s renewable technology expertise in being the vanguard for the deployment of next generation wave and tidal energy.

“This award accelerates Nautricity’s business development by facilitating the commercial demonstration of its CoRMaT technology; thus providing a springboard for both domestic and international market development.”

Ms Sturgeon said: “The WATERS 2 funding sends a further clear signal that Scotland – already blessed with some

of the world’s greatest concentrations of marine energy resource and with unrivalled offshore energy engineering expertise – will continue to provide the optimum research and investment environment for developers and commercial partners.

“By supporting a range of wave and tidal technologies at various stages of development towards commercialisation and the goal of large-scale, sea-powered electricity generation, we can stimulate innovation, investment, job creation and help protect the planet for future generations.”

Glasgow-based Nautricity’s device – capable of generating 500kW of electricity – uses a patented rotor system that allows it to overcome many of the problems that previously made tidal energy production economically unviable.

The innovative Nautricity design uses two rotors which turn in opposite directions, making it extremely stable and removing

the need for expensive, fixed foundations. It can be deployed in depths of up to 500m and does not emit any pollutants.

The firm has signed a lease agreement to develop the Kintyre installation with The Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed out to 12 nautical miles. Nautricity will engage with the local community to ensure the project proceeds with its understanding and co-operation.

The CoRMaT marine turbine was honoured by the Energy Institute who awarded it their prestigious Technology Award in 2009.

WATERS is a collaboration between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, with funding from the European Regional Development Fund. The WATERS 2 fund opened for applications in February, to projects that could be completed by the end of March 2014.

University Spin-Out Company Shares in £7.9 million Marine Energy Funding Boost

Cameron Johnstone

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EDF Energy Knowledge Exchange Project

Second Design Creativity Conference a Success

The EDF Energy Advanced Diagnostic Centre, based in the Institute

for Energy and Environment in the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering (EEE), has recently delivered new versions of two intelligent decision support systems to EDF Energy. These software systems support the graphite core project team at EDF Energy in making assessments of the health of the nuclear reactor cores of the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) stations currently operating in the UK.

Novel data analysis techniques were developed by EEE researchers, in conjunction with data and expertise of engineers at EDF Energy, to assist with the analysis of the condition of the graphite bricks that comprise the nuclear reactor core.

These techniques were implemented as a standalone prototype software tool for proof of concept before being developed into robust, industrial strength systems following strict software design procedures. Both systems are now in regular use and are used to assess every refuelling event that occurs at both Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B power

The Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering

Management hosted the second international conference on Design Creativity (ICDC 2012) at the Radisson Hotel from 18 – 20 September 2012. It was a successful and popular event, attended by over 100 delegates from 21 countries.

The first ICDC was held in Kobe, Japan. The aim of this biennial conference is to provide an international forum to present and discuss the latest findings in the nature and potential of design creativity from both theoretical and methodological viewpoints. It is an official

stations, with roll-out to Torness and Heysham expected later in 2013.

The benefit to EDF Energy is that it provides a reliable and repeatable way of assessing and managing monitoring data related to the condition of their fleet of nuclear reactors which supplements the detailed information gained from inspections undertaken during statutory station outages. This provides valuable evidence that the stations are safe to operate and provides confidence in extending the operational lifetimes of the stations beyond their initial design lifetimes.

“Seeing the results of my research being used by nuclear engineers to assist them assess the health of our

nuclear reactors gives me a great deal of satisfaction” said Dr Graeme West, Lead Researcher in the EDF Energy Advanced

Diagnostic Centre.

The project is a great example of where university-based research has successfully transferred to an industrial partner to provide business benefits of

continued and extended operation of valuable plant items.

The EDF Advanced Diagnostic Centre was launched in 2007 as a strategic alliance between EDF Energy (formerly British Energy), the Institute for Energy and Environment, the Industrial Control Centre, both within the Department of EEE, and the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. The aim of the Centre is to deliver industrially focused research in the four areas of automated data analysis, diagnostics and decision support, modelling and simulation and sensors and sensor systems within the nuclear power industry.

For more information visit: http://www.strath.ac.uk/eee/research/iee/centresofexcellence/edfenergyadvanceddiagnosticcentre/

Graeme outside Hunterston B Power Station

conference promoted by the Design Creativity Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Design Society. 31 podium papers and 46 short presentation and poster papers were accepted for inclusion in the final conference programme. The conference was opened by Professor Scott MacGregor, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde and Derek Mackay MSP, Minister for Local Government and Planning. Keynote speakers included Gilad Tiefenbrun (Linn Products), Caroline Parkinson (Creative Scotland), Shona Kinloch (Sculptor), Colin Burns (Elmwood Design) and Will Mitchell (4c Design). These provided fascinating

insights into the role that creativity is playing in the development of our city and the Scottish economy, from innovative technological companies to inspirational artistic practitioners, and showed how design creativity is underpinned and supported by our statutory bodies.

Delegates enjoyed a civic reception at Glasgow City Chambers where they were welcomed by Baillie and former Lord Provost Liz Cameron. The conference dinner was held at Strathclyde’s Barony Hall, where Peter Hughes (Scottish Engineering) provided an entertaining, and musical, after-dinner speech.

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Mike Anusas, Lecturer in Design in the Department of Design,

Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM), recently won a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Secondment award. This award enables an academic to gain experience of cutting-edge industry practices to enhance the quality and industrial relevance of their teaching and expand their research and knowledge exchange activities. Since September, Mike has been positioned within the award winning Glasgow Product Design Company, 4c Design, where he will work for a period of six months with the established design team and engage in live industry projects. His experience will focus around a theme of ‘Product Design Engineering: Advanced Techniques in Creative Form Generation’ whereby he will be exposed to current practices in aesthetic and mechanical form generation and state-of-the-art creative design methodologies.

Does chemical engineering affect your life? There was no doubt

as to the answer when Chemical Engineer, and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton, Professor Sir William (Bill) Wakeham delivered the Faculty of Engineering public lecture on 6 October 2012. With the aid of a curious, but surprisingly simple, coffeemaker brought back from China, the recent past president of the Institution of Chemical Engineers entertained his audience by illustrating many of the important and founding principles of chemical engineering. While preparing cups of coffee he highlighted many of the governing

Mike Wins Industrial Secondment Award

Engineering Faculty Hosts Another Successful Public Lecture

Mike said: “To date I’ve been working

on project and business planning around new innovation and conceptual

mechanical design work in relation to this. In terms of design skills,

I’m getting a chance to develop my creative thinking, sketching skills

and digital modelling skills. It’s been great to get my hands on the latest

version of SolidWorks - a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) system - and I’m impressed as to what a highly accessible, advanced and rapid

modelling system it has matured into. I’ve also been getting some really

informative experience in experimenting with and observing the use of another

3D CAD system, Rhino, which allows for freeform and programmatic approaches

to CAD. This experience is helping to consolidate my understanding of surface

modelling and its relevance within industry, as well as introducing me to new ways of thinking about product

form generation.”

His experiences will enable the creation of new, exciting and industry relevant teaching content for undergraduate and postgraduate students within DMEM. His exposure to everyday design practice and extended industrial networks will inform new developments in future research and knowledge exchange.

This award sees an extended commitment from the Royal Academy of Engineering to enhancing the capability and profile of the Faculty of Engineering; complimenting the Academy’s current support of the Faculty’s Visiting Professors in Innovation scheme.

principles of chemical engineering encapsulated within the ‘contraption’.Daniel Craig as 007 may have travelled from Shanghai to Glencoe in the latest James Bond movie Skyfall, but Sir Bill took his audience on a far greater journey. Travelling from Glasgow where he pointed out that James (Paraffin) Young had, for the first time ever, used the term chemical engineering here at Strathclyde, he journeyed through most of Europe, the US, Mexico, India, Australia, New Zealand and Japan finally arriving in China and to the Tianjin Coffee House where he had been served coffee. Along the way, he visited products and processes that most of us take for granted each day, and

met many of those behind them such as Fritz Haber that led to the production of fertilizers which revolutionised agriculture, not to mention the grandfather of chemical engineering, George E Davis, who was instrumental in establishing the world’s first ever Environment Act of 1863 to tackle the growing problems of control pollution.

While Sir Bill’s historical and geographical tour, which extended back 500 years, may have been enlightening, his message had a serious point. He presented the challenges of the past and the challenges of the future which affect us and the generations ahead, and the vital work to be done by engineers today in tackling the world’s requirements for food, water, energy and health, as well as the importance of education. The next generation of chemical engineers will certainly have their work cut out.

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In November 2012, Professor Martin Judd of the Department of Electronic

and Electrical Engineering travelled to Wuhan, China to initiate a collaborative research programme on condition monitoring of electrical plant with Professor Li Zhaohui of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). HUST is one of China’s premier technological Universities and has strong links with the large hydropower projects on the Yangtze River around Yichang City.

Professor Judd gave invited lectures on power transformer monitoring to staff and students at both HUST and Wuhan University. He was then taken on a technical visit to the hydroelectric schemes at both Gezhouba Dam and the Three Gorges Project, the latter

The Department of Architecture’s collaboration with the Prince’s

Foundation for Building Community started successfully in September 2012, offering Education and Research in Architecture and Urban Design. The Foundation hosted a three-week Summer School in London and Dumfries and some of the Department’s postgraduate students were offered funding to attend. The participants collaborated in teams to design and construct a summer house using traditional building methods. There were approximately 30 participants in the three-week experience, including four postgraduate students from Strathclyde.

The first week took place at the Foundation’s headquarters in Shoreditch,

being the largest hydropower plant in the world with an installed generation capacity in excess of 18 GW (expected to rise to 22.5 GW by 2015).

Professor Li has developed advanced on-line monitoring systems for the turbine generators that continuously log vibrations, shaft orbit, temperatures and many other parameters that can be analysed concurrently to identify correlations between various aspects of each machine’s health indicators. At a subsequent meeting with senior management of the China Yangtze Power Company, it was agreed that a proposal would be prepared for a project to evaluate advanced power transformer monitoring systems using an ex-service full-scale generator step-up transformer.

At the conclusion of his visit, Professor Judd was appointed as a Guest Professor at HUST for three years. He said: “I look forward to developing research proposals with Professor Li for full-scale experimental studies on electrical discharges in power transformers and seeing monitoring techniques pioneered at Strathclyde being applied at some of the world’s most high-profile electricity generation facilities. It is an honour to be appointed as a guest professor and I hope that this will provide a foundation for building a strong international collaboration between our institutions for many years to come.”

Strathclyde Establishes Collaboration with Chinese University on Condition Monitoring of Hydropower Plant

Three Week Summer School with the Prince’s Foundation

London. The week was centred around the students developing their hand-drawing skills through guided drawing time at various locations in the city and three life-drawing sessions in the studio. The students learned about the principles of geometry and also made some models.

The next two weeks took place at Dumfries House near Cumnock in Scotland. The first week focused on learning and practicing traditional building methods on the Dumfries House Estate, and the second week was the design week. Participants, in seven teams, had backgrounds in planning, architecture and joinery and had to design a Summer House in the Walled Garden on the Dumfries House Estate. The design needed to be unique

and creative, but also had to incorporate traditional materials and building methods. The seven teams were whittled down to the top four, and at the end of the design week a winner was chosen by popular vote. Two Strathclyde students were in the winning team and their design was constructed in the grounds of Dumfries House in Cumnock.

As a continuation of this partnership with the Foundation, fifth year students from the Department of Architecture are currently working on an urban design framework for Cumnock and surroundings, in collaboration with East Ayrshire Council.

Jacob Dibble, a postgraduate student studying Urban Design in the Department of Architecture participated and commented on his experience; ”The Prince¹s Foundation Summer School was one of the most edifying educational experiences I have ever had.”

11


[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 12

Feedback from undergraduate civil engineering scholars, who

have visited construction projects and consultant design offices, reveals that learning about real engineering problems helps students to feel more like ‘an engineer in training’. Where outward site visits are not possible, practitioner civil engineers can bring ‘the site’ and ‘design office’ into the classroom. They can provide real project documentation that can be the catalyst for students to experience a heightened affinity with their studies and future profession.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have set up a series of workshops for undergraduate students, to allow them to gain more real-world experiences and to allow students to use the knowledge learned at university in a work-based environment.

The Civil Engineering 4 Real (CE4R) campaign started in October 2012 with Mr Paul McBurney, Project Manager with Graham Construction, opening

the first workshop and establishing a firm benchmark for the following eleven events. Paul’s input, and that of the other industrialist, will be in the form of a ‘surrogate’ visiting teaching fellow. The practitioners will help to enrich the engineering curriculum through providing real-life problems that graduate engineers may face when they first enter industry.

Paul arrived at Strathclyde with a ‘problem at hand’ concerning the bespoke temporary works used to stabilise the Grade A listed, Royal Commonwealth Pool (Edinburgh) building. The pool complex, opened in 1970 has recently undergone a two and a half year, £37 million major refurbishment. Paul provided an overview of the contract and then drilled down to the five key risks associated with the works. Working in groups of four, the students were then tasked to provide their solutions for temporary works for particular aspects of the project whilst considering issues such as logistics management health and safety, constructability, cost and risk

issues. Each group was then required to submit their proposals for consideration by Paul who also ‘mirrored’ these to all attendees for discussion. The question and answer session that followed provided evidence that the students had indeed engaged in creative problem solving through periods of ‘thinking’ characterised by personal and shared analysis and synthesis.

Scott Ashwood, a fourth year undergraduate student from the

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering commented on the first

CE4R workshop he attended; “A great experience overall. I think the best way to develop the core skills required for

full time employment is by learning how past problems in construction/

engineering have been overcome in real projects like this. I really

enjoyed the workshop challenges and presenting our ideas to the

professional then receiving feedback, I am looking forward to

the next one!”

Civil Engineering 4 Real (CE4R) Workshops for Undergraduate Students

Paul McBurney working with some of the students



Remanufacturing is a process of returning used products to

“as new” functionality with warranty to match. It is considered a key strategy in sustainable manufacturing because it is profitable and less environmentally damaging than conventional remanufacturing. The Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM) at Strathclyde has the UK’s and possibly the EU’s largest research group in remanufacturing, consisting of 10 researchers and four academics. DMEM is also home to the Springer Journal of Remanufacturing, the only academic journal in the discipline.

Earlier this year, the Department of DMEM’s remanufacturing group went to China as part of a two-month knowledge exchange programme in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the Research Centre for Eco and

Environmental Sciences (RCEES) in Beijing.

The visit was part of the GREENet Project, an ongoing research programme involving eight internationally acclaimed universities and research institutions from around Europe and China. The purpose of the project is to develop state-of-the-art research around globally sustainable Waste Electrical and Electronic (WEEE) Management systems. By teaming up transcontinental researchers in the areas of WEEE, this project seeks to establish an active international research community dedicated to transferring knowledge and research synergies in the area of e-waste management.

Within the next few years, China is set to overtake the United States and become the world’s largest consumer of electronic products. As each new product is bought, often an old version is discarded. It is important that sustainable WEEE management systems are put in place in order to responsibly handle the growing amount of old products entering the waste stream, and to ensure their remaining value is recovered.

Representing Strathclyde University in Beijing were researchers David Stewart and Gillian Hatcher. Their role within the project was to investigate existing remanufacturing and recycling practices

within the electronics industry in a bid to develop global WEEE remanufacturing strategies. The outcome of which is to be implemented into the overall GREENet architecture and used to update the status of existing European/Chinese WEEE remanufacturing research.

This was achieved through the investigation of existing WEEE treatment practices at five separate Chinese companies involved in the Electronics Industry. At each company, the researchers received a tour of the facility, conducted interviews and held in-depth discussions with managers from each business. In doing so, the researchers were able to learn about the current capabilities of each business and the potential future opportunities for the integration of remanufacturing in the electronics Industry.

These investigations were then further reinforced through an examination of existing research and through the delivery of specialist lectures, at both Tsinghua and RCEES.

The GREENet project is still in progress, with further exchanges between the partner universities set to take place later in 2013. It is expected that the full extent of the research’s overall contribution will not be fully realised until all of the investigations have been completed.

AFRC Host Business Breakfast

DMEM Transfer Remanufacturing Expertise and Knowledge to China

The Strathclyde Remanufacturing group at

Tsinghua University

13

On 10 September, the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC)

hosted a Business Breakfast event for Scottish Enterprise on behalf of UK Trade and Investment (UKT&I). An invited audience of around 100 industrialists, academics and policy makers attended, creating great excitement within the Centre as many were from organisations who

were visiting for the first time.

The delegates watched a speech by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg which was streamed live from Lancaster House in London, in which he extolled the importance of manufacturing and research to the British economy. This was followed by a live debate at Lancaster

House with panel members drawn from high-profile engineering companies such as Rolls-Royce, Airbus, JCB, Jaguar Land Rover and others.

A brief Q&A session followed at the AFRC, and delegates had the chance to network with each other and with Scottish Enterprise and AFRC staff. Finally, AFRC staff took many delegates on a tour of the facilities, explaining about the wide range of capabilities the centre offers to industry.


[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 14

The Scottish contribution to this year’s International Architecture

Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Critical Dialogues, showcased projects from four emerging practices that explore the social role of the architect and the creative boundaries of architecture.

Scotland’s creativity and innovation were on display in ‘the greatest showcase of architecture in the world’. The four featured practices in this year’s Biennale; DO Architecture, Stone Opera, GRAS and Pidgin Perfect, all have close connections with the Department of Architecture at Strathclyde University as ex-students and as design studio staff.

A week-long series of events included the community by hosting a tour of the main Biennale for a group of local residents who had never before crossed its threshold. Scotland Week culminated with the screening of edited footage and documentation of the weeks’ actions and events and a public party.

The 13th International Architecture Exhibition was titled Common Ground,

Department of Architecture Contribute to Top Architecture Showcase

organised by la Biennale di Venezia. It comprised 69 projects made by architects, photographers, artists, critics and scholars. This year Dr Jonathan Charley of the Department of Architecture at Strathclyde was appointed as Project Director with the task of developing the brief for the project and constructing a narrative that placed the diverse entries into an intellectual and historical context. This included the production of graphic material and the editing and writing of a commemorative book. The decision to appoint Dr Charley reflected his background in both teaching and research into alternative forms of architectural and urban practice, and the pivotal role he has played over the last two decades in building a critical agenda for architecture in Scotland.

Funded by the Scottish Government, Creative Scotland and Architecture and Design Scotland, this is the fourth occasion on which Scotland has presented work at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Critical Dialogues recognises the vital contribution that the Department of

Architecture at Strathclyde has played in building a vibrant culture of architecture in Scotland. The decision to have an independent Scottish presence at what is the world’s biggest and most prestigious architecture festival, reflected a renewed sense of national confidence that was inextricably linked to the opening of Scotland’s parliament in 1999 and by the unveiling in 2001 of its own Architecture Policy.

The Scottish delegation in 2012 showcased some of the cutting edge ideas and innovative approaches to architecture practice that have emerged in recent years in Scotland. Through a programme of events and activities on the theme of Common Ground, the group highlighted their unconventional ways of working, such as using new technology to provide new perspectives on place, working in collaboration and working with community groups and young people to develop good design practice.

A downloadable version of ‘Critical Dialogues’ is available at:http://www.ads.org.uk/access/noticed-board/scotland-venice-2012-critical-dialogues



Ten Scottish secondary school students were selected from the group of 100

that attended the Faculty of Engineering’s Scottish Space School in the summer to go on a Learning Journey to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The students had a non-stop week full of amazing experiences that they would never forget. Among the many highlights of the visit was a VIP tour of the Johnson Space Center. They were able to sit in the Flight Director’s chair in the Apollo Mission Control Center and were also present in the viewing gallery of the current Mission Control Centre as the International Space Station (ISS) passed over Superstorm Sandy on the eastern seaboard of the USA.

At NASA they were also able to see a number of impressive examples of their engineering research such as full scale mock ups of the Deep Space Habitat and Space Exploration Vehicle, and a 15m x 10m asteroid ‘landscape’. The students were also lucky enough to visit the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and watch two Japanese astronauts carry out their training underwater for a future space walk on the ISS.

At the Challenger Center they took part

Scottish Space School 2012 – Mission Accomplished!

in a simulated mission to Mars, which, despite a few scares, proved ultimately to be successful. This was followed by a spectacular star gazing session at the George Observatory, observing a globular cluster, a double star and the full moon though a large telescope. It was then on to Lockheed Martin’s Exploration Development Laboratory, where all ten students tried out the seats in the Orion Capsule before attempting a docking manoeuvre with the ISS on the simulator.

An astronaut trainer from the Apollo programme provided a fascinating guided tour of the Saturn V rocket, and on the last day of the formal programme it was back to school, with five presentations on a variety of space topics including the legendary Apollo 13 Flight Director, Gene Kranz.

There were also visits to Rice University and the Wood Group PSN, and at the former the students got very excited when the mystery guest speaker turned out to be NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino, who is also known for appearing in the popular TV show ‘The Big Bang Theory’. At the Wood Group PSN they learned about the latest technologies in subsea engineering and laser scanning, and they were impressed by the attractive salaries for engineering graduates in the oil and gas sector.

The Learning Journey ended with a formal dinner when each student was presented with a commemorative plaque by British born astronaut, Mike Foale.

The quotes below provide a flavour of the ‘Space School effect’:

Before the Space School I was planning on a career in medicine. The week at Strathclyde and the Learning Journey to Houston have inspired and convinced me to study engineering at university. The week at Strathclyde gave me a valuable insight into engineering careers as I didn’t know much about them beforehand. Houston has completely inspired me and opened my eyes to a career in engineering and I have now decided to study mechanical engineering at university. Before the Space School I wanted to study dentistry at university. I have now completely changed my mind and I want to be a chemical engineer. Houston 2012 was the greatest experience of my life!

For a full account of the Learning Journey visit:http://www.scottishspaceschool.org.uk/HOUSTON2012/Pages/Home.aspx

The students meet Derek Blackwood from Wood Group PSN

The students in the Orion Space Capsule

15

[ Outreach ]

Outreach

[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 16

[ Outreach ]

In August 2012, four students and two staff members from the National

Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics (NCPO), within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, made a visit to the Mukti charity in Chennai, India. The charity provides free prostheses and orthoses to people with disabilities that would otherwise go untreated. Following a visit in January 2012 by staff from the NCPO it was decided that a collaboration would be established between the University and the charity, with the NCPO looking to work with the staff of Mukti to improve their knowledge of prosthetics and orthotics and the quality of the devices they currently manufacture.

The four students chosen to go on the trip, with staff members Dr Kevin Murray and Dr Anthony McGarry, were Astrid Blake, Katy Leslie, Andrew Hunter and Frances Timmons. A number of fundraising activities, including sponsored cycles and collecting old clothes, raised enough money for the students to go on the trip and a number of future activities are planned to help pay for future visits to Mukti.

The students were given the opportunity to work with patients and assist in the manufacture of prostheses/orthoses at Mukti. The week started with an induction and the rest of the trip was spent

treating amputees and manufacturing prostheses – four below-knee and three above-knee amputees were fitted by staff and students. The trip was a great opportunity for the students to see for themselves how prosthetics and orthotics worked in a non hospital environment, and also to put the skills they learned at University into practice in a new setting.

It is hoped that the relationship between the NCPO and Mukti will continue to develop, with more trips planned for the future.

To donate to the project visithttps://www.alumni.strath.ac.uk/sslpage.aspx?pid=361

Biomedical Staff and Students Help at Mukti Charity in India


Academics in the Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde are

set to investigate the removal of space debris and deflection of asteroids – leading the first research-based training network of its kind in the world.

The ‘Stardust’ project will train the next generation of scientists, engineers and policy-makers with Strathclyde leading 14 partners across Europe in a new €4 million programme.

The European Commission-funded network will launch early next year and its pioneering research will have a significant impact on the future decisions of Europe on some of the most pressing issues in current space research. The University is already home to Scotland’s largest space engineering centre.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal of the University of Strathclyde, said: “To be selected to lead this

international area of space research is an excellent achievement and demonstrates the strength of our

research capabilities and our success in working with partners in academia

and industry.

“The observation, manipulation and disposal of space debris and asteroids represent one of the most challenging goals for modern space technology.

Stardust will provide Strathclyde with the opportunity to make the significant

advances needed to help protect our planet.”

Stardust will be led by Dr Massimiliano Vasile of the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, which is also the base for the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory – a pioneering research hub which is delivering

new approaches to space systems engineering to underpin new space-derived products and services for science, telecommunications and Earth observation.

Also based within the department is the Centre for Future Air-Space Transportation Technology, a research base dedicated to revolutionising future air and space travel – and putting Scottish space engineering on the map.

Dr Vasile said: “Asteroids and space debris represent a significant hazard for space and terrestrial assets and could have potentially devastating consequences for our planet.

“The two share a number of commonalities. Both are uncontrolled objects whose orbit is deeply affected by a number of gravitational and non-gravitational interactions, both have an irregular shape and an uncertain attitude motion, and both are made of inhomogeneous materials that can respond unexpectedly to a deflection action.

“Such a significant multidisciplinary technical challenge, with real societal benefit for the future, represents a compelling topic for a training network. I am delighted that we have secured this level of funding and we are looking forward to pushing the boundaries of current technologies and developing the next generation of space experts.”

The work at Strathclyde will involve collaboration between the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory, the Centre for Future Air-Space Transportation Technology and the Institute of Photonics. Stardust’s 14 partners across Europe include: the European Space Agency, two national research centres (CNR in Italy and CNRS in France), three major companies (Astrium, Deimos and Telespazio) and seven academic institutions (Strathclyde, Southampton, DFKi Bremen, the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade, University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Pisa, University of Madrid) and one SME (Dinamica).

Strathclyde Takes the Lead in Space Research

Dr Massimiliano Vasile

17

[ Research ]

Research

[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 18

[ Research ]

A pioneering surgical blood salvage technology developed

at Strathclyde is set to transform the way major surgery is carried out by reducing blood loss in patients.

HemoSep is set to revolutionise the health care sector after gaining the CE mark (a declaration by the manufacturer that the product meets the requirements of the applicable European Directive(s)) and receiving Canadian national approval, following highly successful clinical trials in the world-leading University of Kirikkale University Hospital in Ankara, Turkey.

The device is designed to recover blood spilled during open-heart and major trauma surgery and concentrate the blood cells for transfusion back to the patient. This process, known as autotransfusion, reduces the volume of donor blood required and the problems associated with transfusion reaction.Professor Terry Gourlay, who led the development of the technology in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, said: “This is a fantastic example of real collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and the medical device industry to take this device from concept to clinical delivery.

“The introduction of HemoSep to the medical device field will make a significant difference to people’s lives and greatly reduce the cost and risks associated with blood transfusions. The technology has distinct advantages over traditional techniques which are not only costly but technically challenging and involve the use of a complex centrifuge and pumping apparatus by specialist technicians.

“We expect further developments in the form of a derivative of this technology for use in children undergoing open-heart surgery where the challenges of blood conservation are even more critical.”

New Technology to Transform Blood ProcessingIn the clinical trials, carried out in over 100 open-heart surgery operations, the use of the HemoSep device significantly reduced the need for blood transfusions together with preservation of normal clotting mechanisms and a reduction in the inflammatory reaction often encountered after such surgical procedures.

The device consists of a blood bag which employs a chemical sponge technology and a mechanical agitator to concentrate blood sucked from the surgical site or drained from the heart-lung machine after the surgery. The separated cells are then returned to the patient by intravenous transfusion.

Professor Serdar Gunaydin, Head of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Kirikkale where the trials were conducted, said: “The technology is a real step forward in the field of autotransfusion for cardiac surgery, being highly effective, easy to use and associated with a reduction in the need for donor transfusion and blood loss in these patients.

“In the climate of national blood product shortages and concern for disease transmission and immunosuppression, every effort should be made to optimise blood recovery and reduce allogeneic blood usage.

“The HemoSep technology has produced impressive results; it is the easiest method we have ever used. There is no interference with the ongoing operation and product is ready to use following a very short processing time. It quickly and safely

recovers substantial proteins, clotting factors and cell concentrates for all types of cardiac procedures.

“We believe this new technology will be one of the essential components of the routine heart surgery in the near future. We even think this technique may be useful for blood preservation during transplantation, orthopedics and neurosurgery.”

Further clinical trials are planned, but the CE mark means that the device will now be sold to the healthcare sector. HemoSep has been licensed to Advancis Surgical Ltd. The company will market and sell the device in all European territories, other regions which recognise the CE mark and Canada.

Dr Laurie Sheddon with the Hemosep

Technology


Interdisciplinary research into the design and manufacture of

biocompatible artificial bone scaffold structures is being investigated in the Faculty of Engineering. The project has attracted funding from the Scottish and Chinese Governments to support a researcher and PhD research exchange programme. The project is led by Professor Xiu-Tian Yan from the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM) and Professor Helen Grant from the Department of Biomedical Engineering. This project is in collaboration with long-term partner Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xian, P R China, where a team of supporting researchers are working closely with researchers at Strathclyde.

The research aim, in the long term, is

Collaborative Investigation into Making Biocompatible Artificial Bone Structure

to manufacture rapidly personalised bone scaffolds for any section of the bone structure of a patient from the patient’s CT scan. This can then be used to construct a three-dimensional computer model for further manipulation. The team have already completed the design of a three-dimensional binding machine. In addition, a collaborative working relationship and support from a major dental solution provider (DTS International) in the UK has been established. Good progress has been made in processing scanned images for a section of bone which can then be used to control the construction of a scaffold. Excellent progress has also been made in investigating five different binders both for toxicity and mechanical properties by EngD student April Dunham, who paid a

three-month visit to NPU as part of the Scottish and Chinese PhD research exchange programme. A Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) funded project to investigate the feasibility of applying similar technology to high precision dental solutions digital manufacture has also been secured and is under investigation to develop specific solutions for dental products.

UK manufacturing is worth £130 billion to the UK economy each

year and results in the employment of 2.5 million people. As a result, the UK Government and EPSRC are doing further research into innovative manufacturing. This is evident from EPSRC’s new priority theme ‘Manufacturing the Future’. Within this theme, EPSRC recently launched a Forum in Manufacturing Research. Through a panel review of proposals submitted, Dr Siddharth V Patwardhan from the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering has been selected as one of the 20 members for this forum from 70 applications. This position is for two years and Dr Patwardhan aims to contribute new ideas for innovative manufacturing, shape EPSRC and Government policy,

Strathclyde Secures a Place on EPSRC’s Manufacturing Forum

and help the UK to achieve excellence in manufacturing.

“I believe that the selection was possible due to a combination of ongoing research in my group that is aligned to Manufacturing the Future as well as available support and capabilities within the University, especially in manufacturing research” said Dr Patwardhan.

Dr Patwardhan is developing manufacturing technologies for functional nanomaterials using biologically inspired green routes. Whilst the manufacturing of powders and particles is a mature area, there is a lack of ability to produce high-value functional nanomaterials such as quantum dots on a large scale due to

complicated chemistries or perhaps environmental concerns. Green routes developed by Dr Patwardhan’s group can produce a range of technologically important nanomaterials while minimising energy usage and reducing waste production. The University of Strathclyde has an ideal environment for encouraging and supporting new and innovative manufacturing research. The Department of Chemical and Process Engineering is involved in the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation. The Department has also launched a new Centre for Nanomaterials Engineering (CNE) with a specific focus on continuous production of nanomaterials.

For further details, see “EPSRC Launches Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research”http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/Pages/ecf.aspx

19

Professor Yan, Professor Grant and April

[ Research ]


Drs. Lina and Vladimir Stankovic from the Centre for Intelligent

Dynamic Communications (CIDCOM) in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering have recently secured a four-year FP7 Marie Curie grant to develop novel, video-quality, driven multimedia streaming solutions for mobile wireless networks. The project, QoStream, brings together leading and complementary research teams from Europe, USA, Brazil, Japan, and South Africa. They will work in the of multimedia processing, communications and networking, user experience enhancement, machine learning and embedded system design with the objective of developing light-weight multimedia processing solutions suitable

Dr James Windmill, from the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering, in

collaboration with Professor Deepak Uttamchandani, from the Centre for Microsystems and Photonics, both based within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, has recently secured a joint PhD project grant, worth almost £170,000, with Professor Michael Greenfield at the University of Tours, France.

FP7 Marie Curie Grant

Researchers Develop New MEMs Microphones Inspired by Insect Hearing

for implementations embedded in mobile receivers.

The focus of the research is to provide real-time quality assessment feedback to all levels of transmitter-side processing, which will allow the delivery scheme to adapt to network conditions and simultaneously ensure the desired quality-of-service at heterogeneous receivers.

Dr Lina Stankovich commented: “This project will be an opportunity to explore the value of single-view and multi-view image and video processing in applications ranging from healthcare to security, smart homes and asset monitoring. Specifically, QoStream will

support our rehabilitation work with the Department of Biomedical Engineering, embankment monitoring, as well as our EPSRC project on appliance retrofitting for smart homes.”

The project facilitates staff and researcher exchanges among consortium members and the project’s first output is a workshop that will be held in conjunction with the International Conference on Communications (ICC), one of the flagship conferences of the IEEE Communications Society, in July 2013.

CIDCOM is a major research grouping within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Strathclyde. It brings together internationally respected groups in both Communications Technology and Digital Signal Processing.

This project has been funded through the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) UK-France joint PhD programme. The research project involves the development of new Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) microphones inspired by insect hearing systems. The MEMS microphone

development will seek to aid the detection and targeting of acoustic activity and threats. The PhD student who will be working on this project will spend the next three and a half years jointly between the University of Strathclyde and the Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte in Tours, France. The student will undertake both the development of new MEMS microphone systems (at

Strathclyde) and fundamental research into the directionality of moth hearing (primarily in Tours).

Dr Windmill said: “This research project funding provides an excellent basis for our next step in the development of biologically-inspired acoustic sensors here at Strathclyde.”

The DSTL UK-France PhD joint programme aims to develop research in key areas of mutual interest to France and the UK and is now in its second year. The PhD joint programme was agreed at the 2010 Anglo French Summit as one of the ten priorities in 2011 for the Anglo French Defence Research Group (AFDRG). The programme is managed by Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

For more information visit:https://www.dstl.gov.uk/phds

20

Achroia grisella, the Lesser Wax Moth, one of the insects they are working with.

[ Research ]


Arun and Ashwin on the NAME Department yacht with student Theo Hoole

21

[ Success Stories ]

Olympic and Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was awarded an

honorary degree from the University of Strathclyde at a Faculty of Engineering graduation ceremony on Monday 12 November at the Barony Hall in Glasgow.

The South African sprinter was joined by hundreds of Engineering graduates as he was made a Doctor of the University. The award builds on the Faculty and University’s relationship with the sports star, who gave the keynote speech at the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics (NCPO) Sporting Prosthetics Conference last year.

Having made history by competing in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London this year, Oscar has become a role model for sport and physical activity for all, and is being recognised by the University for his sporting success as well as his inspirational work with humanitarian causes.

He was awarded the honorary degree after meeting with patients, students and staff of the NCPO within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which is helping to develop the health technologies of the future.

Honorary Degree for Superstar Sprinter Pistorius

Speaking before the ceremony, Oscar said: “I am incredibly honoured to be

awarded an honorary degree from such a prestigious University as Strathclyde – I have had a great history working with them and believe they lead the way in prosthetic research and development

and have very much enjoyed the work I have done with them in the past and look forward to continuing a great relationship

with them.

“Today is a very proud day for me. The people of Scotland are always so warm

and welcoming towards me and I think of it as my second home here. Thank you to everyone at the University for their support, this truly does cap what has

been an amazing year for me.”

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal of the University, said: “We are delighted to welcome Oscar back to the University. His sporting success, combined with his determination to help people affected by disability, has made him an excellent role model, not only for our graduating students here at Strathclyde, but for millions of people across the globe.

“It is fitting that Oscar’s visit has included a visit to our Department for Biomedical Engineering – an excellent example of what can be achieved by bringing together innovative technologies, determined people and excellent teaching to improve lives.”

Professor Bernie Conway, Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, gave the oration for Oscar at the graduation ceremony. He described Oscar’s sporting achievements, as well as his support for charities associated with humanitarian causes.

He said: “There can be no doubt that Oscar Pistorius is a remarkable person and athlete, where the will to prepare to win is strong but is rooted in a positive life philosophy that centres on trust, equality and respect for others.

“A winner whose winning habit has been powered by dedication, commitment and an unshakable determination to live a life without limitations or barriers, Oscar’s road to success has been both inspirational and immensely challenging.

“We see our own mission to provide training and innovation that can better people’s lives and with this honorary award to Oscar, we wish to recognise not only his remarkable past achievements, but his future commitment and drive to help people and children affected by disability.”

As well as having a tour of the NCPO and meeting with staff and researchers from the Faculty of Engineering in the morning, Oscar was also the special guest speaker at a public lecture hosted by the Faculty of Engineering in the evening.

He shared some of his life experiences to a packed crowd of over 400 people and discussed his plans for the future.

A video of the lecture, along with videos of other Faculty of Engineering public lectures, can be found atwww.strath.ac.uk/engineering/videos Oscar meeting with students from the NCPO

Success Stories

[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] engineering insight [ Autumn 2012 – Issue 07 ]

Students from the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory (ASCL), within

the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have won a number of awards recently and gained recognition for their space research.

Charlotte Lücking, a PhD researcher from the ASCL has done particularly well, first winning the Gold Medal for best individual graduate student paper at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples. She was also part of a team of 11 students, led by undergraduate project manager Ruaridh Clark, who won the Hans-von-Muldau Award for best team project.

The annual conference is the largest international gathering of space researchers and professionals and was attended by nearly 3,000 people from around the world. The prizes are the latest in a series of awards recognising the excellence of space research at Strathclyde.

Charlotte struck gold with her proposal for a CubeSat mission to demonstrate passive orbit transfer. The paper, presented to a panel of international judges, contains a system design for a CubeSat space research satellite and a method for its use which may enable novel missions for small satellites and provide new launch opportunities for CubeSats.

Charlotte said: “I am very honoured to have won this medal. It shows that there is a growing interest in the expansion of applications for

small satellites and CubeSats. This success would not have been possible without the support of my supervisor,

my research team, my university and my travel sponsors, the British

Interplanetary Society.”

The student team has been working hard over the last 12 months on StrathSat-R, an experiment testing novel inflatable structures in space conditions. Its aim is to launch two spacecraft on a parabolic trajectory with a European rocket next year.

The spacecraft, carrying deployable space structures developed at Strathclyde, will experience minutes of zero gravity and vaccum during the flight. If the structures can be proven to work correctly, they could one day act as light-weight, stowable antenna dishes, help clean-up space junk or be used as a sail for solar pressure. The team is funded by the University of Strathclyde Alumni Fund.

Charlotte had further success, going on to win the Sir Arthur Clarke award for her PhD research. She was nominated in the student achievement category together with two other doctoral researchers from the ASCL: Jeannette Heiligers and Pamela Anderson.

Multiple Award Success for Space Research Students

The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, better known as ‘The Arthurs’, are presented to those individuals or teams that have made notable or outstanding contributions to all Space activities, particularly in the UK, over the past year. This year the ceremony took place in the House of Lords in the Palace of Westminster in London, hosted by The Lord Cobbold, DL. The Master of Ceremonies for this prestigious event was the well-known

space enthusiast, celebrity impressionist and comedian Jon Culshaw.

Eighteen nominees for six other awards for contributions to industry and academia, outreach and education, media and lifetime achievement were invited. The three nominees for the student achievement category were all students of the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde this year. Charlotte was nominated for her outstanding and award-winning research in space mission analysis and orbit control of satellite-on-a-chip devices and CubeSats.

Jeannette Heiligers was nominated for her excellent contributions to the field of orbital dynamics. She also won the Gold Medal at the SET for Britain awards earlier this year. PhD student Pamela Anderson, who has recently returned from a placement at NASA in California, was the third nominee. She is an enthusiastic STEM ambassador and helped a Scottish school win in the European Cansat competition earlier this year.

Charlotte and her Gold Medal

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[ Success Stories ]


Researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental

Engineering, in collaboration with Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global engineering and construction management firm, and National Grid, have landed a prestigious Brownfield Briefing Award for their work in developing a new method to identify where contaminants in the ground have originated.

The awards have become the flagship event for the brownfield community and the award for the ‘Best Scientific Advancement’ is one of the highest industry accolades available for the innovative research.

The collaborative work carried out involved extensive analysis of coal tar, a carcinogenic by-product which causes the most concern on former gasworks. Coal tar is a pollutant associated with former gasworks, which were once common across the world. With around 4,000 former gasworks sites across the UK alone, coal tar is a major ‘Brownfield’ issue and one with significant health risks which requires sophisticated and costly identification and clean up. The work developed from Research Council EPSRC grants to Professor Robert Kalin, and was enhanced by Scottish Funding Council Glasgow Research Partnership in Engineering (GRPE) investment at Strathclyde’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The

A prestigious prize was recently awarded to Emeritus Professor Bill

Banks of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Professor Banks, a renowned world expert in the field of composite materials technology, was awarded the James Clayton Prize

funding supported researchers Dr Laura McGregor and Dr Caroline Gauchotte-Lindsay to work with Professor Kalin on the development of the new approach.

He said: “It is a significant achievement for our work to be recognised at the Brownfield Briefing Awards, and particularly in a newly created category focusing on scientific advancement.

“By working in partnership with industry leaders we have been able to undertake research into a critical area in the field due to the health risks associated with coal tar. The analysis we undertook and the conclusions of the research will provide the industry with an effective process to identify it, greatly enhancing current techniques.

“The validated results clearly show that a unique, cost-effective new method for forensic analysis of tar has been developed and is available for application.”

Parsons Brinckerhoff is one of the world’s leading planning, engineering, and programme and construction management organisations. The company used its own projects and third party sites to allow the research to be undertaken.

Dr Russell Thomas, Technical Director at Parsons Brinckerhoff, said: “This has been an excellent example of

University Researchers Land Prestigious Brownfield Award

IMechE Prize for Mechanical Professor

industry and academia interdisciplinary working and I’m immensely proud of our colleagues and students at Strathclyde for their contributions in what has been a very demanding and complex project.

“It has always been a major challenge to find a fast, efficient and cost effective method of analysing coal tars in order to identify the composition and locate the source. And with that knowledge, various statistics and historic gasworks production records, we now have a straightforward method to identify the original production process. This is valuable information if you are trying to pinpoint the source - which may have been built-over many times - whether for legal reasons or remediation purposes.”

Parsons Brinckerhoff funds a number of environmental PhD and Masters students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Strathclyde. This work was also supported and funded by National Grid, and the tri-partite research work forms part of an on-going commitment by all three organisations into the continued funding of high quality academic research.

23

from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The Prize is awarded to one or several members of the Institution who contributes most in that year (or over recent years) to modern engineering science - by way of research, invention, experimental work or a treatise or a

paper on a modern engineering subject or originality in engineering design or by service to engineering. Professor Banks was awarded the prize “For his high reputation both nationally and internationally, for research achievements and higher education activity”.

Professor Robert Kalin, Dr Russell Thomas and Dr Laura McGregor

[ Success Stories ]


The problem of weather and ocean forecasting remains one

of the greatest challenges in modern computational science. Its practical importance grows as climate change results in more intensive mass and energy transfer and, consequently, more extreme weather events. The current forecasting method (called 4D-Var) used in the majority of weather and ocean prediction centres, including the UK Met Office, lacks proper uncertainty quantification tools, resulting in a particular lack of ability to predict extreme events, such as the storm that hit Glasgow early in 2012. Dr Igor Gejadze, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been awarded a prestigious three-year

Kristaps Baumanis, a fourth-year MEng Electrical and Mechanical

Engineering student in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering who is currently studying abroad at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), was chosen along with two other students to represent the Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) BrainBeats team at a meeting of Georgia Tech’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board which took place in October. Kristaps was chosen as he was one of the top three performing students from a team of 15 despite only having joined the team in August.

The BrainBeats team’s research is focused on understanding the neural basis of human ability (or lack thereof) to maintain a constant cadence or, in simpler terms, why people can (or cannot) clap along in time to music. The team’s intention is to have open hardware and software, with everything having to

Advanced NERC Fellowship to develop a new method of quantifying forecast uncertainty.

Dr Gejadze comments; “Most extreme events usually originate from strong non-linearity of dynamical systems governing atmospheric and

ocean flows. However, the currently used uncertainty quantification method is essentially based on local linearization and it is only valid for infinitesimal perturbations. A new

be designed from scratch. This includes a means of obtaining an EEG reading, taking precisely-timed measurements (which implies the use of a real-time operating system) and also looking at several ways of artificially recognising the beat of a song by either a pure DSP means or by more complicated approaches like modelling neural networks.

The team is split into sub-groups each of which focuses on a particular sub-goal based on members’ specialisations. The BrainBeats team comprises students from electrical, computer and biomedical engineering programmes as well as biology and psychology students and thus is truly collaborative. Run by an academic member of staff but very much a student-driven process, the students gain academic credit for their work with grades usually obtained by means of peer evaluation, production of logbooks and through presentations.

Taking Uncertainty Out of Weather and Ocean Forecasting

Strathclyde Student is Top Performer on Georgia Tech Brainbeats VIP Team

methodology will be developed to better take into account the nonlinear nature of the phenomena under consideration. This will improve our ability to detect extreme events, such as storms, hurricanes, heavy rainfalls etc, which may be overlooked by current forecasting systems. It is also important to recognise that there exists an observability limit for nonlinear systems, and special tests should be performed to indicate when and where such a situation is encountered.”

This work will be carried out in collaboration with the UK Met Office, the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics at the Universities of Strathclyde, Reading and Warwick, the MOISE team at the University of Grenoble (France), and with the Institute of Numerical Mathematics in Moscow (Russia).

Vertically Integrated Projects were piloted at Strathclyde in early 2012 with four projects currently running and a fifth project planned for 2013. The projects give students

from first year through to postgraduate level the opportunity to work with staff in multi-disciplinary teams on cutting-edge research and development projects.

Kristaps commented: “Students seem to be interested in the chance to be exposed to areas somewhat different to those which they study within their degree programmes as well as the opportunity to conduct research.”

For more information visit:http://brainbeats.gatech.edu/ andhttp://www.strath.ac.uk/viprojects/

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[ Success Stories ]

engineering insight [ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 25

Professor Jason Reese, Head of the Department of Mechanical

and Aerospace Engineering, has been appointed to the Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC).

The SSAC is a group of 17 members from the science and business community who provide independent advice to the Scottish Government on a range of science and technology-related topics.

This includes highlighting new breakthroughs that could impact on public

Following on from what has already been a successful year for the

Department of Architecture, after winning a number of prestigious awards for the work of their students, the Department have now won the top category in the Sir Patrick Geddes Trust awards for 2012, for course work reflecting the Geddes principle of “Place, Work, Folk.” This went to Catriona MacDonald for her Honours dissertation “Aig An Airigh : People and Place.”

Department of Architecture student Helen-Anne Love has won the

‘City of Glasgow Eimear Kelt Medal for Architecture 2012’ for her project ‘Made in Britain - The New Originality’. Two students were also awarded commendations; Alastair Cassell and John Kennedy. The Eimear Kelt Medal for Architecture is the most prestigious student prize in Glasgow; it is awarded by the City Council for the best final year project from either the University of Strathclyde or the Macintosh School.

policy, and identifying ways to strengthen the links between Scotland’s research and industry sectors.

Professor Reese said: “I am delighted to be able to contribute to policy and decision-making on science and technology in Scotland, and see this as an excellent opportunity to ensure that the Scottish economy and society benefits from the research capabilities of our universities.

“I am looking forward to working with fellow members of the Council to provide

Science Council Appointment for Engineering Professor

More Award Success for Architecture Students

The City of Glasgow Eimear Kelt Medal for Architecture 2012

the best possible advice to the Scottish Government.”

Professor Muffy Calder, Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland and Co-Chair of the SSAC, said: “By bringing together people in a range of scientific and business fields we can provide the best available advice to Ministers and ensure Scotland’s people and economy benefits fully from our world-leading research base.

“I look forward to working with both our new and existing members as we explore the range of scientific and technological developments taking place in Scotland and how they can best inform evidence-based policy-making within the Scottish Government.”

Department alumnus Scott Abercrombie, whose Masters project won in 2011, was awarded another prize from the Trust for an individual entry.

The Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust promotes the study of living society in its environment, according to the principles and practice of Professor Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). He was one of the first biologists to stress the

The Department of Architecture have won this medal over consecutive years since 2007.

There will be a celebration lunch in the City Chambers where the award will be presented by the Lord Provost. As well as receiving the Eimear Kelt Medal, Helen-Anne Love’s project also received an APS Award commendation and a GIA commendation. John Kennedy’s project also won a number

prime importance of habitat in what would now be called ecology, using a method of survey and synthesis developed in Scotland, France, the Near East and India and based on the principle of “Place-Work-Folk”.

This is the fourth Consecutive year that a Strathclyde Architecture student has won an award with the Patrick Geddes Trust and a second award for Scott.

of awards and commendations recently, with an APS Award commendation, a commendation in the Alexander Scholarship Awards, the RIAS Drawing Award and a GIA commendation.

Elevation by Helen-Anne Love

[ Success Stories ]

[ Winter 2012 - Issue 08 ] 26

Successful Alumnus

Donna Fisher is a prosthetics engineer who worked as part of the Technical

Support Team at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The 41 year old from Perth, graduated in 1993 after studying Prosthetics and Orthotics at Strathclyde, the first University in the world to offer a degree course in the subject. Donna talks to Engineering Insight about her route from University to where she is today, and her amazing experience of working with 4,200 athletes from around the world repairing, adjusting and replacing equipment at the Paralympic Games.

What made you choose to study Prosthetics and Orthotics at Strathclyde?

I was interested in science and engineering but also enjoyed working with people. I applied to study a few different courses, including Prosthetics and Orthotics at Strathclyde, not really knowing what the course or profession was about, as it was a relatively unknown field at that time. After attending an interview at Strathclyde and visiting the Southern General Hospital Limb Fitting Department, where I encountered my first amputees, I was bitten by the P&O bug. I couldn’t believe I had found a course which involved helping people with the skills of engineering, physics, medical science, materials science and hammers, drills and saws! I have never looked back.

Can you give some details of your career path, from graduation through to your current job

After completing two six-month placements in Belfast and Dundee, I realised I wanted to work in both prosthetics and orthotics rather than choosing a single discipline. I also wanted to work with the younger age group of patients. Through contacts made in Belfast I decided to move to Ireland to a small company based in Cappagh National Orthopaedic Hospital, Dublin. At the time there were two Prosthetist/Orthotists, two technicians and a secretary working in Independent Disablement Services Ltd

(IDS). The demographics of the patient load was quite different to most Prosthetic/Orthotic centres and centred on a paediatric orthotic service in the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC), a school for the physically disabled, and rehabilitation and limb fitting for the National Bone Tumour Unit.

After five months I was given the opportunity to develop my role as lead Prosthetist/Orthotist in the company. My role expanded and following a merger with Otto Bock Healthcare Plc I was appointed as General Manager in 1998. In 2003 I decided to return to the clinic as I missed my contact with the patients and I assumed the role of running the Prosthetic Service and the growing CRC Orthotic Service now in two centres in Dublin and Waterford. In 2010 Otto Bock Healthcare Plc assumed control of IDS, now employing over 30 people, and we became part of the clinical services division of the biggest Prosthetic and Orthotic company worldwide.

Can you share some details about working with the athletes for the paralympic games?

The London 2012 Paralympic Games were an enormous success and I was privileged to be part of the Technical Support Team.

For one month, my colleagues and I (who cam from 20 countries across the globe) repaired adjusted and replaced equipment from wheelchairs to callipers and, of course, the inimitable running blades. We set up a state-of-the-art workshop in the Paralympic Village which was open from 7am - 11.30pm each day. There were also a number of smaller workshops located in the venues which allowed us to experience the competition and atmosphere of the stadia at first hand.

From a personal perspective I was most honoured to be in the Aquatic Centre when one of my patients, a triple amputee, Darragh McDonald, who I have

looked after since he was a baby, swam to Gold in the Mens 400m Freestyle.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

My job is full of highs and lows but the highlight for me is delivering a prosthesis after many weeks of hard work to a new amputee and seeing them flourish despite their disability and to see the joy of a parent when they see their child standing or walking for the first time in their orthoses.

I enjoy working with people who are very often placed in extremely challenging situations when they come to see me. I try to give them hope and confidence in their future and ultimately work with them and their families to achieve their goals.

This can often be a challenge for my skills too, but the satisfaction of seeing someone overcome these difficulties is unequalled.

What advice would you give to those who are considering studying Prosthetics and Orthotics at Strathclyde?

As with all relatively new professions Prosthetics and Orthotics is an evolving science. I hope that in the future we can build on our knowledge and improve our clinical and engineering skills to enhance the lives of the people who depend on us. This is what any student considering a career in Prosthetics and Orthotics should strive for.

[ Successful Alumnus ]

Faculty of EngineeringUniversity of StrathclydeRoom 5.25Royal College Building204 George StreetGlasgow G1 1XW

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■ Largest undergraduate scholarship programme in the UK

Executive Dean, Faculty of EngineeringProfessor Scott [email protected]

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