We were delighted to have held our third annual RIED Conference at The MTC from 14-16 May 2024. This event was kindly hosted by The MTC, one of our ten Industrial Partners on the RIED Programme. The overarching theme for the Conference was:
Beyond Darwin!
Ideas on the Artificial Evolution of Engineering Components, Systems and Factories
The Conference was attended by circa 42 people each day, including team from Queens University Belfast, the University of York and Loughborough University along with representatives from our Industrial Partners including Rolls-Royce, Airbus, the MTC, Spirit Aerosystems, FAR-UK and members from our International Scientific Advisory Board and from our Strategic Governance Board.
The exciting program of over 20 papers were presented by the Researchers and our PhD students. The structure of the program and presentations included six themed sessions, each facilitated by senior academics. Each session was followed by an open panel discussion between the presenters and the audience.
Day 1
Ross Trepleton from the MTC and the RIED Principal Investigator, Professor Mark Price gave an opening overview of the conference. The two sessions on Day One were on “Rapid Concept Generation” and on “Modelling, Decisions, Rules and Frameworks” with 4 papers being presented in each session.
Day 2
On Day 2, two sessions were held: “The Path to Manufacture” and “Generalization, Innovation and Diversity” with total of 7 papers being presented in these sessions. Once again, these were followed by an open panel discussion between the presenters and the audience.
“Imelda Friel presenting”
Additionally, Professor Sam Turner, the CEO of AMIC, CTO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and a member of the RIED Strategic Governance Board gave an address too.
Day 3
On the third and the last day of the RIED conference, the two sessions held were on “Factory and Supply Chain” and “Applications” where again, 7 papers were presented.
Summary
Over the three days, the level of discussions and interactions was really pleasing and will help us to frame our efforts in the following two years of the research for RIED Programme which runs up to April 2026.
The RIED Programme Team and all the participants at the Conference also enjoyed the evening dinners out at the “Cosy Club” and “Pierre Bistrot” in Coventry on Tuesday and Wednesday where everybody had a chance to meet and relax with the team. Everyone had an enjoyable time too!
With abstracts of the papers presented at the conference, already shared with the attendees, the full papers will be made available to the RIED Programme Team, our Industrial partners and our Advisory and Governance Boards later in June. It is envisaged that a number of these papers will further develop into full Conference and Journal Papers in the future.
Finally, on behalf of Professor Mark Price, the whole of the RIED Team and Conference delegates would like to thank Vijay Patel, Phivos Ioannou and The MTC for hosting the Conference. We would also like to thank the MTC Events team including Ellen Ruff and Lorraine Kerry. Their help and support, throughout the organization phase as well as the three days of the Conference, was excellent. All the guests and participants were very complimentary about the venue, refreshments and the meals.