During her recent visit to Northern Ireland on 22nd August Professor Charlotte Deane met the RIED team to hear about the latest concepts and new technologies in engineering design. Professor Deane, who is the Executive Chair of EPSRC, was joined by Marie-Louise Cairns, the Head of Regional Engagement Northern Ireland and other senior colleagues from EPSRC and UKRI: Andrew Bourne (Executive Director Partnerships), Neil Robinson (Head of Private Office to the EPSRC UKRI Executive Chair), Caitlin McAuley (Senior |Portfolio Manager EDI & People), Luke Davis (Joint Head of Research Infrastructure) and Patrick Middleton (UKRI Deputy Director of Communications and Engagement). Their meeting with RIED was part of a regional visit to explore the wider Northern Ireland research and innovation community and to showcase and discuss the role of EPSRC in collaboration between academia, industry, and government.
Professor Mark Price, the RIED Principal Investigator, took the guests through the evolving story of engineering design research at Queen’s and how EPSRC’s innovative approach to creating a conveyor belt from ‘Feasibility Studies’, ‘Boosters’ and ‘Programme Grants’ allowed the team to grow and create the current RIED partnership of QUB, University of York and Loughborough University with an amazing industrial partnership with innovative, forward-looking, companies. This partnership has developed very low TRL concepts and is delivering prototype tools for tackling complex real-world challenges in engineering design.
The latest results from the programme were demonstrated showing how artificial evolution can be used to create special ‘cyber-seeds’ containing all the information needed to create an innovative design instantly. The most interesting designs had been 3D printed and shared with the guests so they could see the physical realisations of the concept designs.
The EPSRC guests also heard how RIED was now working closely with the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre and the High-Value Manufacturing Catapult (the National Composites Centre) to explore how these new concepts and tools can be honed and deployed in UK industry as quickly as possible.
The RIED researchers based at QUB were able to meet the EPSRC team and we were joined by our Strategic Governance Board members, Professor Sam Turner (CEO of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre – AMIC), and Dr Pamela Walsh from Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at QUB.