Research Associate in Systems Engineering in Civil Infrastructure

The AEngD regularly publishes details of research engineer opportunities leading to an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) qualification, but we are also keen to help those who complete their EngDs to take their next career steps.

For example, former AEngD steering group chair Professor Patrick Godfrey, strongly associated with the Systems Centre at the University of Bristol, has highlighted a full-time opportunity in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. It is seeking a Research Associate in Systems Engineering in Civil Infrastructure.

The Research Associate will carry out leading research to investigate challenges of the digital transformation of civil infrastructure from a systems engineering perspective. The post requires specialist knowledge of systems approaches (which may be in resilient, safe, secure, digital and/or socio-technical systems) and of qualitative data collection methods for research within engineering project organizations and infrastructure owners. Familiarity with qualitative data analysis is needed and with statistical analyses and programming tools is an advantage.

The closing date for applications is 15 January 2017. For informal enquiries about the post please contact Professor Jennifer Whyte, Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at j.whyte@imperial.ac.uk

EngD alumni writes "UK Networks Transition Challenges - A Systems View"

A new report from the Energy Technologies Institute identifies the challenges facing energy networks for the UK to transition to a low carbon future. Written by a 2008 EngD graduate of the University of Manchester's manufacturing centre, Liam Lidstone (now Strategy Manager – Energy Storage and Distribution at ETI), the report, "UK Networks Transition Challenges - A Systems View", says:

• Existing networks will need to be adapted or enhanced, new efficient networks created and all networks integrated to optimise performance across different energy vectors

• Whole energy system thinking is critical – the challenge is one of knowing where, when and to what extent to enhance and adapt the UK’s energy networks

• Current governance and regulatory frameworks are simply not designed to enable and incentivise the radical transformation needed

(If you know of other EngD alumni or research engineers in the news, please let the AEngD know - email webadmin@aengd.org.uk)

Post-doctorate research fellowships

EngD alumni (and main AEngD contact for alumni), Marek Kubik is now business strategy advisor to Northern Ireland-based AES (who sponsored his EngD). He is keen to invite applications for two post-doctorate Research Fellowship positions with Queens University Belfast and AES Energy Storage. Candidates with engineering backgrounds are invited to join a team deploying the Kilroot Energy Catalyst - the first phase of one of the world’s largest battery storage projects.

The Fellowships are Belfast-based, £31-41k, working with AES and QUB's world leading & internationally excellent ranked School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computing Science. Closing date: 2nd June 2015. For details on the two roles and to apply see:
(1) http://tinyurl.com/kpwjuks
(2) http://tinyurl.com/l2a9upd

EngD graduate leads Belfast Energy Storage event

Marek Kubik,the AEngD's alumni rep, now at AES in Northern Ireland (who sponsored his EngD research at the TSBE centre at University of Reading; Marek is also featured in this week's New Scientist, which mistakenly describes him as a PhD - shame) is co-organising a seminar on energy storage at Stormont in Belfast on 10 November 2014.

The seminar for the Northern Ireland Assembly All-Party Group on Science and Technology, in association with AES, the Energy Institute and Pinsent Masons, features two meetings in the Senate Chamber, Parliament Buildings, Stormont, Belfast, on Monday 10th November 2014 on the subject of Energy Storage.

The first, an Industry session, will take place from 3.00pm to 5.00pm, and the second, a Seminar, from 6.00pm to 8.00pm, will be joined by Arlene Foster MLA, Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

The theme will be: ‘How can energy storage help reduce energy costs, improve security of supply and meet decarbonisation goals?’’ (more details available via the AEngD website news page)

Materials researchers highlighting EngD opportunities

Two EngD research engineers have recently written website articles about their activities.

The EngD: Dr Who?

Richard Howard, studying in the Non-Destructive Evaluation industrial doctorate centre and based at London's Imperial College, wrote a feature, The EngD: Dr Who? for the college's online publication, Felix. He is clearly enthusiastic about both the programme itself and the immediate and long-term benefits it offers. Here's a few soundbites....

Merging the academic with the practical, it is a fulfilling way to apply the piles of knowledge that you have accumulated over your undergraduate years to real world problems. ...

... the doctoral students become experts in a key industry that will be relevant for many years to come. The remit of the doctorate is also to train future business leaders in these areas as well as furnishing them with technical expertise. For example, the UK’s renewed interest in nuclear power underscores the need for a new generation of nuclear engineers and since there is a dearth in nuclear experts (of all types) the current cohort of EngD nuclear engineers will be the ones running the industry in the future.

Importantly, the scheme is NOT just for engineers, scientists are actively encouraged...

If you are looking for a career in a particular industry, or at particular company, then an EngD can easily be far more than a foot in the door; more like a whole leg! You’ll work closely with your sponsor’s researchers and will make a raft of contacts, setting you up nicely.

Finally, when it comes to pay there should be no beating around the bush; an EngD candidate gets one of the highest academic postgraduate stipends available... This is the way it should be, treating you like a graduate research engineer with a pay scale to match.

Maria's Diary

Maria Felice, is also an EngD research engineer with the Non-Destructive Evaluation industrial doctorate centre, but is supervised from its University of Bristol site. She is based at Rolls Royce plc and was a finalist in the 2013 AEngD Research Writer of the Year competition. For the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) she wrote a diary entry highlighting her recent activities. She clearly valued the AEngD conference, and is worried about recent changes to EngD funding:

There was a meeting for EngD students - or ‘research engineers’ - at the conference, which was a great opportunity to talk to students from other EngD centres. At each university there are not many EngD students so we tend to become part of the PhD community, but there are actually quite a lot of differences between the two programmes e.g. EngD students tend to be based in industry.
...
A few days prior to the conference, it had been announced that funding for EngDs will be drastically reduced. This was a big shock since all stakeholders seem to be in agreement that the EngD is a highly successful scheme that is beneficial to the UK industry. It was not a surprise, therefore, that this was the main topic of conversation at the conference. However, it was still a fantastic celebration of the EngD scheme and the funding decision is going to be challenged.

EngD centre coordinators meeting - new date TBA

Each year, a meeting is held of managers and coordinators of EngD industrial doctorate centres. In 2013, it was hosted at the TSBE centre at the University of Reading, and in 2014, it will be hosted by the IDC in Machining Science at the AMRC Training Centre, Catcliffe, Sheffield ("the AMRC is well worth seeing if you haven’t visited before").

Most centre managers will have been contacted about this, but if you think you may have missed the notification or would like to know more, please contact Andrea Haworth, centre manager in Sheffield - her email address is a.haworth@sheffield.ac.uk.

(Updated on 7 March to reflect date change - now looking at dates in late Spring, early Summer.)

Understanding the EngD impact

A highlight of last week's AEngD annual conference in London was the presentation of initial findings from a pilot study looking at the impacts of EngD research.

The study, funded jointly by the AEngD and the EPSRC, was undertaken by a team from Manchester Business School, led by Dr Fumi Kitagawa, and the interim summary identified five main areas of impact:

• generation of new knowledge - "increased in-house knowledge and research outcomes in the short/mid-term, as well as a long-term approach to technology problem solution and business change."
• innovation-related outputs and outcomes - these included licensing of patents, formation of spin-out companies, new product/service development, new market entry, business process improvements and faster time to market.
• pan-industry knowledge networks and collaboration - "Knowledge generated by one firm often diffuses into the industry as a whole through collaborative relationships, through supply chains or through movement of human capital."
• human capital and skills development - EngD research enhanced REs career paths, industrial partners' skills and the pool of talented future leaders across a sector
• economic benefits - Examples include EngD researchers identifying annual cost savings for sponsors of £2.4m and £3.0m. A patented therapy eventually valued at £20 billion. For every pound invested by EPSRC, one centre identified a further £1.77 industry investment in EngD research.

#AEngD2013 One EngD researcher (with an environmental bent) reduced their sponsor's operating costs by £5,000,000. Wow.
— Bengt Cousins-Jenvey (@BengtCJ) November 26, 2013

There were also direct economic benefits to the EngD researchers themselves. During her conference presentation, Fumi highlighted that EngD candidates were more likely to command higher salaries than researchers who had undertaken CASE PhDs: 33% of EngD graduates earn over £35,000 per annum compared to c. 13% of CASE PhDs.

There was also an interesting discussion about retention of EngD graduates by their industry sponsors (the study suggested that only about a quarter of EngDs remained with their sponsor upon completion of their research project). Fumi suggested some employers regarded the research as a fixed-term project; it was also evident that some employers didn't make competitive offers of employment to their EngD graduates with the result that they moved to other employers.

Applications for 2014 Industrial Fellowships invited

What does the Great Exhibition of 1851 have to do with studying for an engineering doctorate in 2014?

Well, applications for 2014 Industrial Fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 are now being invited (see AEngD news). The Fellowships are worth up to £80,000 over three years, and the most recent cohort of successful candidates included three EngD candidates.

A 2012 Fellow, Maria Felice, will be at the AEngD conference in London on 26 November as one of the shortlisted finalists in the AEngD Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition (post).

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851

The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 was established in 1850 by Queen Victoria to organise the Great Exhibition. Prince Albert was appointed President and took personal charge of the whole complex operation.

The Exhibition was an enormous success and made a substantial profit. The Commission, about to be dissolved, was enjoined by Royal Charter to remain constituted and to administer the profits for charitable purposes. The Charter charged the Commission with 'increasing the means of industrial education and extending the influence of science and art upon productive industry'.

To this end the Commission purchased 86 acres of land in South Kensington and established the unique cultural site of three great museums, the Royal Albert Hall and what have become renowned institutions of learning, including Imperial College and the Royal Colleges of Art and Music. It continues to own the freehold of, and manage, much of this estate.

When this huge undertaking was largely complete, there remained sufficient funds for the Royal Commission to set up, in 1891, an educational trust to perpetuate its aims. In spite of generous funding of many worthy enterprises right from the outset, these slender resources have been carefully husbanded over the years. Today, with capital assets of over £60m, annual charitable disbursement approaches £2m.

Giving fellowships and grants to pure research in science and engineering, applied research in industry, industrial design and other projects, the Commission supports the development of science and technology, and its profitable exploitation by British Industry. The first Industrial Fellowships were awarded in 1990

Improving public understanding of STEM subjects through communication

It's not just the AEngD which is focused on the need to improve public understanding of STEM subjects through communication (through, for example, our Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition, and local initiatives by industrial doctorate centres such as the Systems Centre).

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) recently announced that the 2013 winner of the CIPR President’s Medal will be decided by CIPR member nominations for an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of science through effective communication.

This initiative, led by current CIPR President Sue Wolstenholme, intends to highlight the contribution of a non-professional communicator in the fields of medicine, mathematics, technology and engineering. If you would like to suggest a nomination, it may be worth seeking out a CIPR member (many university PR departments and in-house communications team include CIPR members), but do it soon; the deadline is 22 November.

The future of the EngD

The annual conference of the Association of Engineering Doctorates, to be held in London on 26 November, will debate the future of the EngD qualification in light of new research into EngD impacts and recent changes in EPSRC funding (AEngD news).

New AEngD/EPSRC-funded research from Manchester Business School looking at the impact of the EngD qualification (see previous post) will be presented by Dr Fumi Kitagawa at the AEngD conference at the Building Centre.

The event will also consider the Engineering Council's view of the route from EngD to Chartered Engineer status (recent post), and recent changes to the EPSRC funding affecting various industrial doctorate centres. Details of the full impact are currently sketchy; most if not all affected centres have been informed, but an official announcement is expected from EPSRC later this month - just before the AEngD conference.

The conference also aims to stimulate discussion among current and recent EngD research engineers about what the AEngD could do to support them during their four-year research terms. If you are a current RE, this is your chance to influence and get involved with the future activities of the AEngD.

Lastly, but by no means least, finalists in the AEngD Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition (shortlist post) will also present their papers at the conference - which, with the Manchester Business School research impacts presentation, makes it ideal for existing and potential industry sponsors to learn about EngD research benefits and outcomes.

Book your place at the AEngD 2013 conference here (opens in new window).

DesigningBuildings / Development Securities ideas competition: £500 prize

DesigningBuildings (an expert wiki devoted to the built environment - and so relevant to a good number of EngD research centres, though admittedly some more than others) is running an ideas competition, in conjunction with Development Securities focused on the question: How do we keep investors interested in UK property?

It's different to our recent Engineering Research Writer of the Year award (finalists to present in London on 26 November - book your seat now) which looked for 800 word essays. Instead, short and fresh ideas are welcomed, and there is a £500 prize for innovative ideas.

Julian Barwick, Director, Development Securities says:

“We need to harness the creative thinking of practitioners if the UK is to succeed in the global market. This competition is about harvesting good ideas and a bit of crystal ball gazing. We are looking for free and lateral thought, particularly from those with a fresh view.”

Sounds like a good place for EngD researchers and alumni to show their originality....

Shortlist for 2013 Engineering Research Writer of the Year

To mark the first anniversary of the formal launch of the Association of Engineering Doctorates, we are holding a further conference - to be held at the Building Centre, London, on 26 November - and promoting the outcomes of EngD research by getting researchers to write about their studies. The Engineering Research Writer of the Year competition attracted some great entries, which were wittled down to two shortlists:

EngD graduates/alumni: actual impact (describing tangible benefits actually delivered during and/or as a result of the researcher's project):

• Javid Khan (Centre in Optics and Photonics Technologies, Heriot-Watt University) - Holographic volumetric 3D displays
• Marek Kubik (Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments, University of Reading) - The winds of change

EngD research engineers: potential impact (potential benefits that could be delivered during and/or as a result of the researcher's project):

• Laura Daniels (Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments, University of Reading) - Diesel generators and demand side management
• Christos Ellinas (EngD in Systems, University of Bristol) - An engineer imagines. Again.
• Maria Felice (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Bristol) - Let's get cracking!
• Rob Hughes (Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation, University of Warwick) - Pushing the limits of materials testing

To reach the shortlists candidates have all demonstrated that they have thought about and understood their audience and can convey information about their engineering challenge, and their research response to that challenge, in a readable way. They have all been invited to deliver a short presentation (no longer than eight minutes) at the AEngD conference on the afternoon of Tuesday 26 November - if they can't make it, we may get them to summarise their research in a short video! The winners, each receiving £250, will be announced during the post-conference drinks reception immediately after the conference. To register to attend the conference, please click here.

Last call for entries for Engineering Research Writer of the Year 2013

The deadline for entries to the AEngD writing competition is midnight on Monday 30 September 2013. We want EngD research engineers and recent alumni to write short articles promoting public interest in their research. The writers of the two best articles will each win £250.

As part of its commitment to promoting the EngD qualification, the AEngD is seeking articles that address any area of engineering and would be suitable for publication in a magazine (for example, the RAEng magazine) and/or a broadsheet newspaper. Shortlisted writers, who should be current EngD research engineers or recent alumni, will be invited to present their papers at a London event in November 2013, and the writers of the two articles judged best will each win £250.

EngD in Systems now an Engineering Council-accredited degree

In case you missed the announcement in August, we thought we'd highlight the news that the EngD in Systems, delivered by the IDC in Systems at the University of Bristol and the University of Bath, has been officially accredited as providing a pathway to Chartered Engineer (CEng) status by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and the Institution of Civil engineers (ICE).

The industrial doctorate centre (IDC) for Systems is one of the first EngD centres to be recognised by the UK regulator, the Engineering Council, as providing a route to CEng registration for future leaders in industry and academia. Professor Patrick Godfrey, director of the centre and chairman of the Association of Engineering Doctorates' steering group, says:

"Accreditation is a mark of assurance that the degree meets the standards set by the Engineering Council in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). An accredited degree will provide you with some or all of the underpinning knowledge, understanding and skills for eventual registration as Chartered Engineer (CEng). Some employers recruit preferentially from accredited degrees, and an accredited degree is likely to be recognised by other countries that are signatories to international accords".

The decision was relayed to the IDC in Systems following a visit by the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB) in November 2012.

AEngD website update

Regular visitors to the AEngD website may know that we have been experiencing sporadic problems with its performance, with some pages being slow to load, or sometimes not loading at all (we noted this in May too).

We are now undertaking a major overhaul. The site is to be moved to a new hosting provider, the supporting content management system will be updated, and - once the migration and update are tested and found to be working satisfactorily - we will be fixing various minor issues relating to how some information is currently processed and displayed.

In the meantime, there may be occasional outages as we undertake this work, for which we apologise in advance, and we will keep users updated via Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

Improving public awareness of STEM

Many EngD researchers contribute to efforts to promote uptake of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. Some initiatives are undertaken by industry sponsors; some are promoted by institutions - for example, the IET has supported events marking Ada Lovelace Day; and other STEM projects are undertaken by universities or by industrial doctorate centres (IDCs).

Sophie Causon-Wood of the IDC in Systems at University of Bristol has sent word of two great projects undertaken by EngD researchers this summer:

• The Systems Centre recently organised a two-day event in which students learned the skills of writing and creating a short film to communicate their research in an accessible way. The event was led by Kate Butler, a highly-experienced ex-BBC journalist and documentary producer. Read more about it here.
• The Centre also hosted two outreach sessions, welcoming local school students to the centre to introduce them to engineering and its flavour of systems thinking. Read more about it here.

For those of us engaged in research it is reminiscent of the Einstein quote: "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself."

Let us know if you are engaged in any interesting STEM initiatives (and did you know the AEngD is currently running its own Engineering Research Writer of the Year Award to promote public understanding of EngD research projects?).

Understanding the EngD Impact - share your experiences!

A short-term pilot study, supported by the AEngD and EPSRC, aims to understand the various forms of impact which EngD programmes have made over years. The key objective is to define and understand what is the ‘impact’ of EngDs and identify how it can best be evidenced. Dr. Fumi Kitagawa, lecturer in enterprise studies at Manchester Business School is leading the project and has provided the following overview:

The focus of the study is on understanding the impact of the EngD, with specific focus on:

1. impact on industry partners providing some hard evidence of the value of EngD project sponsorship to industry, and
2. career pathways, identifying how the EngD experience shapes the career paths of Research Engineers/ EngD Alumni.

Rationale

Whilst benefits and strengths of EngD programmes are recognised over years and anecdotally acknowledged, there is a need to provide frameworks that answer the question – “What is the nature of EngD Impact?”, and then demonstrate the extent of such impact by identify tangible data-sets and evidences. This is a pertinent question to ask after 20 years since the Parnaby report was published, by examining the accumulated impact of the EngD. Demonstrating the impact is imperative for the future of the EngD programmes and the future of doctoral training that is relevant to industry and societal needs, especially in times of austerity.

Help needed

This pilot study is being conducted by a small research team at Manchester Business School. We are conducting telephone interviews in July 2013 (interview duration about half an hour). We would like to talk to RE Alumni, and key industry partners with various EngD experiences, illustrating different impacts from the EngD programmes. In order to complete this study, the support of the IDCs/EngD Centres is essential. It would be extremely helpful if the AEngD member Centres could give contacts of alumni and industry partners. We are looking for 2-3 alumni and key industry contacts from individual Centres.

Thanks for your kind attention and co-operation in advance. Please get in touch for any queries and suggestions. You can email me at Fumi.kitagawa@mbs.ac.uk.

More EngD bloggers and websites

The AEngD steering committee met yesterday at Reading University and during a discussion of various aspects of the web, PR man Paul Wilkinson highlighted the launch of this blog and its 'blog-roll' feature.

Since that meeting, a few more blogs have been identified. For example, Paul Jeffrey of the STREAM IDC sent details of three water-related sites:

• Jo-fai Chow's 'Blend it like a Bayesian!'
• Jack Bloodworth's 'Catchment Jack'
• Ben Ward's Integrated Infrastructure ​Asset Management

(Ben's isn't, strictly, a blog - Wix sites are more websites than blogs and so don't have the RSS update capabilities of blogs. Updates won't appear in the listing, but it's well worth a look.)

If you have a blog related to your EngD research, please let us know and we can share it with other people in the EngD community.

Website issue

Our web host has alerted us: "SRV19 is currently under a huge DDoS attack and is therefore offline." In short, this means the server hosting the AEngD website is temporarily unavailable. We are monitoring the situation with the webhost and will post further updates via Twitter and our Facebook page.

Update (1830hrs) - The website is now back up again, having been down for approximately 140 mins. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Longer term, we will also be looking to review our hosting. There have been sporadic issues with page download speeds (the vacancies section can be verrrrry slowwwwww!) with pages occasionally timing out. Hopefully, once normal service has been resumed at our host, we can then discuss changes to our hosting regime.

To RE or not to RE?

An email from Dr Andrea Haworth, Centre Manager at the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Machining Science (University of Sheffield) has got people talking about "how IDCs refer to EngD students/Research Engineers (and perhaps more importantly how EngDs refer to themselves)."

We appreciate that there is good reason and a strong steer to call them “Research Engineers”, but many people have a job title “Research Engineer” and aren’t EngD candidates. 

I really do try, but if I refer to  “Research Engineers”, most people don’t know that I’m talking about, or might, at best, assume that I mean someone who has gained the EngD qualification.

I tend to alternate between “EngD student” (which I don’t like but which is sort of understood) or ”EngD Research Engineer”, or as a complete get out, just “EngD”.  On business cards the students are referred to Research Engineer/ EngD Candidate or similar.

I was wondering whether “Postgraduate Research Engineer” might do (cf “Postgraduate Research Student”).  Or have I just invented something else to confuse? How do other IDCs handle this? 

Responses

• Sally Hawthorne at Southampton's IDC on transport and the environment said: "the students themselves wish to be known as ’EngD researchers’ and that’s what’s on their door signs and on their business cards."
• From the Manufacturing Technology centre at Nottingham, David Shipley said: "We tend to call ours Research Engineers or EngD Research Engineers. They seem to appreciate not being referred to as students externally. ... Ours tend to have Research Engineers on their business cards."
• Steven Yeomans (Loughborough's CICE) also said: "I use Research Engineer when dealing with anyone other than internal university systems, where I then use the term EngD student."
• David Stanley (Nuclear Engineering IDC) adopts the same approach: "externally we try to use 'Research Engineers' as much as possible and we also get them to put this on business cards. It adds a bit of kudos at conferences etc."
• Justine Easten from STREAM's Newcastle location, says: "I use EngD Research Engineers, and our researchers have business cards to say this, followed by their industrial sponsors name...."

The AEngD has tended to use 'Research Engineer' too, but what do you think? If you are engaged in an EngD programme, what title do you prefer?