Naval Architect Grads Secure Jobs

Strathclyde graduates are helping the construction of the UK's biggest aircraft carriers. Glasgow based Henry Abram & Sons, has won an £85 million contract to deliver blocks built at shipyards around the UK to Rosyth dockyard, in Fife, where sections of the Navy super carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be assembled. The family firm currently employs 22 people in Glasgow and plans to take on more staff.

Speaking on Scottish Television, Stephen Abram from Henry Abram & Sons said, “It has allowed us to employ young naval architects and design engineers from Strathclyde University, and we will continue to take extra new graduates during 2010.” 

Michael Abram added, “We now plan to employ naval architects, structural engineers, design engineers, graduates, and administration staff to work alongside our existing staff and consortium partners to ensure safe and successful delivery of all cargoes to Rosyth.”

Head of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, Professor Atilla Incecik said, “Our priority is top produce top quality graduates with a professional ethos.Our aim is to provide scholarship, innovative teaching and applied research. As a result and through our huge network of industrial links worldwide  we find that our graduates take up challenging careers and make positive contributions to the marine industries.”

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said: “These contract awards are great news for Glasgow, the Scottish economy and Scottish jobs. There has never been any doubt how important the aircraft carriers are to Scotland as a multi billion pound project securing thousands of jobs. This latest news underlines the importance of the UK defence industry to Scotland.”

Student Success at European Electronics Industry Awards

Simon Brown, an EngD student, of the Institute for System Level Integration (iSLI), has won “Student Engineer of the Year” at the European Electronics Industry Awards. 

The award, which has been won for a third year in a row by an iSLI student, is given to outstanding students in the electronics and software disciplines, and the recipient must demonstrate an exceptional combination of both technical knowledge and practical application of skills.  Simon (pictured) received his award for his work with industry sponsor, Teledyne Defence Ltd, Shipley, on a ground-breaking radar threat warning receiver, which is an order of magnitude smaller, lighter and less power hungry that any other system on the market. 

Simon commented: “I am delighted and honoured to have been presented with this award.  Full credit must go to my tutors.  The guidance they have given me over the course of my time at the Institute has been invaluable, and in all honesty, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this level of success without their help and advice.”

Simon has also been working with the MoD Defence Scientific and Technology Laboratory on a new emitter identification algorithm and will be performing field trials in conjunction with DSTL to verify the overall system performance, and to build a deployable operational support tool to generate library information for the system.

iSLI is the world’s first centre of excellence for postgraduate education and research in the methodology and applications of system-on-chip design, system level integration and related software and hardware technologies. More details can be found at http://www.sli-institute.ac.uk/

Research Wins The Day

Almost 300 students presented their research at the recent Faculty’s annual Research Presentation Day.

Captains of industry attended in force, with BAE Systems, British Energy and Scottish Enterprise among the companies represented in a show of confidence in the quality of Strathclyde postgraduate research. The event has already led to one offer of collaboration.

The day started with an opening speech from Professor Alex Duffy, Vice Dean of Research for the Faculty. Presentations then commenced followed by a poster presentation lunch session which gave first year students a chance to present their work, and highlight their backgrounds and aspirations.

The day ended with a very inspirational talk by the keynote speaker Dr Franck Chevalier, a former PHD student and now an expert within the telecommunications industry.

Prizes were awarded to students for the best presentations and posters. The organising committee passed their thanks on to academics and research staff who supported the event by participating as judges with notable mention to EEE department.

EWB-UK Scottish International Development Conference

Fresh from building wind turbines from scarce resources with renewable energy company SgurrEnergy, Engineers without Borders (EWB) Strathclyde will be hosting a two-day International Development Conference.

The event, organised by the student led charity, will be held on campus on 26th - 28th February. It will give engineering students and professionals from across the UK the opportunity to gain enjoyable, hands-on experience in topics key to development of the world's poorest countries.

The event is being run with support from the David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability,the EEE Gambia project, international charity RedR, the Institution of Civil Engineers and many more organisations related to worldwide engineering and development work.

The weekend will open on the Friday evening with a keynote speech from Dr Yusef Samiullah, Head of Infrastructure for the Department for International Development (DfID) followed by a networking buffet with various engineering and development organisations. Practical workshops will run throughout Saturday and Sunday on topics including electricity generation, infrastructure, sanitation, emergency shelters and water supply, with a focus on sustainability.

This will be the largest event of it’s kind organised by EWB-UK’s Scottish members, and will provide the opportunity for engineers of all ages to gain interest - and experience - in the field of international development work.
The cost of the weekend conference is £29 non-students and £19 students. Food and drink will provided all weekend. Alternatively, participants can attend the Friday night talk for only £5.

Places are limited so to sign up for this event visit:
www.ewb-uk.org/programmes/training/events/scottishconference2010

For information about EWB Strathclyde please visit www.ewb-strathclyde.org or email strathclyde@ewb-uk.org.

Mac Robertson Scholarship Win for PhD Student 

Philip Orr, a PhD student in the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious Mac Robertson Travelling Scholarship enabling him to visit Australia to undertake a three month project at the University of Sydney. 

Philip will be based in the University of Sydney’s Interdisciplinary Photonics Laboratories from February to May 2010, undertaking the development of customised low-birefringence fibre Bragg gratings for use as magnetic field sensors.  The project aims to develop a long-term relationship between Strathclyde and this leading optical fibre research institution.

The scholarship, run jointly by Strathclyde and Glasgow University, funds young postgraduate researchers who have shown academic distinction and promise during their PhD studies, to undertake research overseas to further enrich their experience and research achievements.

Philip said “I am delighted to be given this valuable and exciting opportunity to undertake part of my research at this world-leading facility. I have no doubt that the experience will be beneficial not only for my research but also for the department via the fostering of this new relationship.”

DLCS Launches MRes and MSc Excellence Awards 

The Department of Civil Engineering/David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability is offering Fees only Excellence Awards to UK/EU students for MRes degrees in Geo-Environmental Engineering; Infrastructure Adaptation for Climate Change; and Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control.

In addition to these degrees, £1,000 Excellence Awards for overseas students are also available for any of the MSc degrees in Environmental Engineering; Environmental Entrepreneurship; Environmental Forensics; Environmental Health; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Geotechnics; Global Water Sustainability; Hydrogeology; and Science, Technology & Sustainability.
           
All applicants are eligible for the awards, which will be allocated based on quality. Applying early increases the chances of success, and more information and how to apply is available at: http://www.strath.ac.uk/civeng/pg/excellenceawards/

DMEM: Responding to Manufacturing!

Dr Winifred Ijomah of DMEM recently returned from Ningbo, China where she represented the University as one of twenty people worldwide invited to participate in the workshop on Responsive Manufacturing.
 
The invitation was due partly to British Standards Institute (BSI) adopting the definition of remanufacturing obtained from her research and her work as part of TDW/004/0-/05 Design for MADE BSI, to obtain the BSI product and process standards and specifications currently under public consultation. BSI/004/0-/05 Design for MADE is a technical committee that determines standards for end-of-life products and processes.
 
Other factors that played a part include her workshops for BSI as part of their sustainable design conference last June and invited lectures to various institutions (e.g. Warwick University) to forward design-for-remanufacturing.

CUE Lecturer Receives BBSRC Grant 

Dr James Windmill, a lecturer in the Centre for Ultrasonic Engineering (CUE), Electronic and Electrical Engineering, has recently been awarded a ‘New Investigator’ grant by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The grant of £304k provides three years of funding to investigate the structures and mechanics of insect tympanal hearing systems. Also working on the project will be Dr Joseph Jackson, a postdoctoral researcher in CUE, and researcher co-investigator on the grant award.

This biological study into the insect tympanal ear will provide both fundamental scientific advances in our understanding of how hearing and sensory systems work, and the groundwork for future engineering research and development in ultrasonic transducer systems.

For more information please contact Dr Windmill: james.windmill@eee.strath.ac.uk or visit http://www.cue.ac.uk

In Brief 

Dr Neil Muir, from Schools & Colleges Liaison (Engineering), is running the 2010 Virgin London Marathon in aid of AbleChildAfrica on 25th April. This will be Neil’s first Marathon attempt and he is hoping to raise £1400 for the charity.

AbleChildAfrica exists to improve the lives of the estimated 50m children and young people who are living with disability in Africa. The programmes that AbleChildAfrica run include rehabilitative healthcare, inclusive education, parents support groups, children's after school clubs and campaigning work which seeks the full inclusion of disabled children and disabled young people in policy and practice everywhere we work.

If you would like to show Neil you support please visit  http://www.justgiving.com/Neil-Muir