Bristol appoints its first Business Fellows to build links with industry
Research and Enterprise Development at the University of Bristol has announced its first Business Fellows – five research scientists at Bristol who will take the lead in supporting a culture of collaboration between academics and industry.
The first Business Fellows are:
Dr Jenny Jennings in Veterinary Pathology and Infection and Immunity, Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences
Simon Mcintosh-Smith in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering
Dr Tom Scott in the Interface Analysis Centre, Faculty of Science
Dr Bo Su in the School of Oral and Dental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry
Dr David Matthews in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences
Fellows are expected to commit half a day a week to the role, supporting their colleagues and stimulating business collaborations in ways that do not impact on their teaching, research and administrative work. The University has been working with London Technology Network (LTN) which has experience in helping science-based university researchers to increase their interactions with business. The new Fellowships involve intensive training and mentoring provided by LTN, who will also facilitate interactions with industry around specific projects.
Bristol Fellows will take part in training programmes and activities alongside researchers from other universities in the spring of 2011.
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Bristol engineering students receive prestigious awards from Boeing
Six students from the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering have been awarded prizes from global aerospace giant Boeing for their innovation in integrated aerospace systems.
Bridget White and Joshua Shimmin both received scholarships for their final year of study whilst James Wilcox, Samantha Huntley, Sky Sartorius and Ben Buxton all received awards for their final projects which ranged from intelligent vehicles to fluid mechanics, helicopter design and ultrasound radio echoes.
“These students have excelled and are worthy winners of these awards. They have demonstrated the significant prerequisites for becoming the engineering leaders of the future,” said Shane Bennison, Director of Engineering for Boeing Defence UK and the company link for the University of Bristol.
One of the winners, James Wilcox, was awarded the best MEng project in Electrical and Electronic Engineering for his project entitled ‘Fully autonomous Scalextric vehicle using MEMS inertial sensors’.
Dr Mike Barton, project supervisor and Senior Lecturer in Microelectronics in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, said: “James designed and built instrumentation to be mounted inside a Scalextric car to allow it autonomously to negotiate a track at optimum speed while transmitting telemetry data via Bluetooth – and he achieved a working demonstration on time.”
Professor Nick Lieven, Dean of Engineering, added: “Once again our students have shown that they are highly capable individuals who have demonstrated a talent for engineering. They are without doubt amongst the best engineering graduates in the world and it is to their credit that they have been recognised for their achievements during their studies.”
The awards were funded by Boeing along with a contribution to support the student robot test arena and the University of Bristol Aeolus wind powered car project. The support to these students, facilities and projects are hugely important to help inspire the interest of future students and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of advanced engineering.
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Imaging beauty down to 1nm in Bristol
Scientists at the University of Bristol now have a new tool that will yield yet more and unprecedented levels of information without disturbing the physical state of the object under scrutiny.
Monmorillonite particles, cut apart to reveal that one of them is hollow.
Physicists at Bristol’s Interface Analysis Centre have been using the Helios dualbeam instrument, which “unlocks the key to a whole new world,” says Centre Director Dr Tom Scott. The dualbeam looks at surface structures with a resolution of less than a nanometre – the equivalent of ten millionths of the thickness of a human hair. The resolution of the images produced is just one nanometre, one millionth of a millimetre.
The dualbeam uses a focused ion beam (FIB) and a high spec field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) with gallium ions derived from a liquid metal ion source that are directed at the surface in a tightly controlled beam . The ion beam can be precisely controlled to remove material from tightly defined areas – essentially performing micro and even nano-surgery on almost any material.
Unlike other techniques used for dissecting materials, the dualbeam can extract information and capture images without causing any detectable damage except over a tiny area. It can also deposit materials such as gold and platinum, known for their conductivity, on to the surface structure, providing insights into the composition and behaviour of materials.
For physicists looking for quantum wells, biologists looking at the structure of membranes in the ears of tree crickets, and engineers keen to understand the nanostructure of exotic alloys, the dualbeam is invaluable.
A nano-wire made using ion beam milling for gas sensing applications. It also happens to look like a small-scale version of the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol
“It makes things possible which were previously considered impossible, it’s at the heart of what makes science beautiful,” says Dr Scott. “It can do things in such a precisely defined way to such a high degree of accuracy that it really is incredible. In fact, it’s difficult to comprehend just how small a scale this thing works on.”
Some of the project proposals under consideration that would make use of the dualbeam include an examination of the ears of Indian tree crickets, where the dualbeam could be used to slice and view in three dimensions reconstructions of cricket ears. The findings could ultimately inform medical advancements in hearing devices for humans.
The dualbeam could also be used in quantum cryptography, to devise ways of transmitting messages in a way that is resistant to attempts to tap into the source, using emitters constructed from a single photonic light source so small and so intricately encoded as to be virtually undetectable.
In biochemistry, researchers are looking at making actuators – “gold sandwiches” with a polymer filling which could swim through the bloodstream, collecting information that could be used to inform medical approaches to human disease.
Dr Scott is keen to seek out other collaborations that will test the boundaries of every discipline: “The dualbeam instrument is a clear example of the University’s commitment to groundbreaking developments in research,” he said. “If we are going to be the leaders in the UK and internationally in terms of research we need to be pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible, and this new piece of equipment will certainly enable us to do that.”
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SouthWest electronics firms shine in Barcelona
Deltenna in Chippenham is highlighted in the Computer Weekly roundup of UK firms making a splash at the global gathering of mobile phone companies in Barcelona, Mobile World Congress, later this month. The story at looks at what Deltenna is doing with a specialist antenna system for the home to boost reception and provide broadband WiFi access in rural areas.
But there are several others from the region: chip makers picoChip in Bath, Icera in Bristol and Nujira, which has a design centre in Bath, are also at the show showing the latest mobile phone technology, while equipment makers Ubiquisys of Swindon and AceAxis, with a radio design centre in Bristol, are also present at the show and chip and system maker IPWireless is also driving mobile phone technology forward from Chippenham with deals with Ericsson and Apple.
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