RIED Research Publicity

In Episode 1 of this QUB Research to Reality Podcast roundtable discussion, Dr Imelda Friel from the RIED and DECIDE Programmes was featured along with three other academics from Queen’s University Belfast School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Dr Oana Istrate, Dr Aislinn McAleenan and Dr Beatrice Smyth. The discussion was hosted by television presenter and journalist Tina Campbell, this conversation delved into the overarching theme of “Advanced Manufacturing: How Materials and Design are Shaping Future Technologies”. 

Can engineering design be radically accelerated while improving, rather than compromising, trust, safety, manufacturability, and performance? Through Imelda’s research at Queen’s University Belfast, working on RIED Design – Reimagining Engineering Design; is transforming how complex engineering systems are designed to generate viable engineering solutions in seconds rather than months.

If you’d like to find out more about Imelda’s work on RIED and DECIDE, tune in to the latest Research to Reality Roundtable episode – Post | LinkedIn

Over 5 days in June, Learning Tree delivered high-quality specialist training on Python software development best practices, helping to enhance and further develop the coding and software development capabilities of RIED staff and other QUB staff and students for application in future RIED-related research and design engineering projects. The training covered key topics including clean coding practices in Python, test automation, continuous integration, and target deployment environments.

Research at Queen’s University Belfast is transforming how complex engineering systems are designed, moving from slow, linear, iterative processes to intelligent, integrated design systems capable of generating viable engineering solutions in seconds rather than months.

At the heart of this work is the ReImagining Engineering Design (RIED) programme, a multidisciplinary collaboration combining engineering design expertise at Queen’s with computational intelligence from the University of York and advanced manufacturing research at Loughborough University, alongside major industry partners including Rolls-Royce.

The research introduces a fundamentally new design paradigm based on the concept of the “cyber seed”- a computational representation of embedded engineering knowledge that can generate design solutions based on environmental and manufacturing constraints, having previously been evolved to learn design decisions through iterative developmental and evaluation stages. 

This enables a shift from designs that are driven by constraints, where the space for innovation becomes confined, to dynamic, adaptive designs that respond to real-world conditions from the earliest stages of the design cycle.

By Dr Imelda Frield (RIED Project) and Maire Mullin from Queen’s Global Marketing and Reputation

The Marketing Team from the QUB School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have produced a dynamic and informative video showcasing the RIED Programme. With the October 2025 RIED conference in full swing, the team was able to capture live presentations of RIED papers, conduct insightful interviews with Professor Mark Price, Tony Phipps (Chief of Future Methods from Rolls-Royce), Caitlin Sands (PhD student) and with Professor Sam Turner, the CEO of AMIC. This short video aims to provide a vivid overview of what RIED is all about, highlighting its impact on doctoral research, its value to the University, and the strong connections it fosters with industry.

RIED is inspired by nature. we are observing natural systems at work and codifying these into engineering systems to produce innovative designs and processes. Nature also inspires art. Our great friend and outstanding photographic artist Clare Newton has produced an amazing exhibition where art and technology and nature are brought together. The Seeds of Change project explores the nature around us and gives alternative perspectives to the amazing world of engineering design that is being created in RIED.

“Exposing innovative science to the public is very important for me. The reason I made this a big part of the Seeds of Change project, is that I have not seen the inside story of science before and in particular in a non-scientific context.  
    Although there are science museums, they look at subjects that are around us, to enable children to easily relate to a subject.  There is very few informative science projects that are portrayed in local exhibition form, and in a non-scientific public place. The purpose of this project is to reach out to a different sector of audiences and bring an unusual aspect of science that they can be inspired by and make the imagery immersive, so that the viewer feels the same excitement as I did when shooting the project.
    Over the years, I have brought different worlds together to widen a viewer’s point of view. This project I reach out to the non-scientific communities in public gardens, nature museums, churches, and other resourceful places. I know the public enjoy something different and will become fascinated by what I uncover.”

Clare’s exhibition can be viewed from the 6^th June to 28^th August 2023 in:

Gilbert White’s House,

The Wakes,

High Street,

Selborne,

Hants,

GU34 3JH,

T: 01420 511275,

Open daily Tuesday to Sunday 10:30am to 4:30pm

Queen’s University Belfast & University of York – RIED: ReImagining Engineering Design

Framework Training supported Queen’s University Belfast & University of York with specialist training on best practices for software development to support a new interdisciplinary project called RIED: ReImagining Engineering Design – to drive the generation of new methods for design engineering.

Independent Online Newspaper Article

The ‘seed’ grows algorithmically in a CAD environment – and while the outcomes are random now,
researchers say it could develop incredibly quickly