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

Rolls-Royce holds 3rd EngD conference

Rolls-Royce held its third Engineering Doctorate Conference on 21st November at the Learning & Career Development Centre in Derby. This exhibition provided Rolls-Royce sponsored Engineering Doctorate (EngD) researchers to showcase their cutting-edge research, promoting the EngD scheme through innovation.

The Rolls-Royce EngD Network hosted this exhibition, providing a gateway to provide EngD researchers with an opportunity to communicate and collaborate with other EngD researchers across all sectors of Rolls-Royce. The Network was founded in 2012 by EngD researchers Oliver Nowers, Maria Felice and James Pettit, to promote awareness of the EngD scheme and the benefits that it has provided to Rolls-Royce.

Presentations were given by previous and current EngD researchers, ranging from a novel diamond rotary concept for grinding aerospace materials to the In-Situ Patch Repair of Thermal Barrier Coatings, revealing a high-level summary of background knowledge and ongoing research efforts that are being incorporated into their projects.

Invited keynote speakers included Frank Kirkland, Chair of Rolls-Royce Fellows and Chief Designer for Civil Aerospace, who has worked on a range of RR aerospace engines since he joined Rolls-Royce in 1981. Invited speaker Sam Turner, Chief Technical Officer of the AMRC with Boeing, who is responsible for technology strategy, capability growth and support to the AMRC departments and relationship management with major stakeholders. He had delivered high impact projects in manufacturing research and its application towards the industry.

Mark Jefferies, Chief of University Research Liaison presented insight into the effectiveness and strategic development of key academic research partnerships for Rolls-Royce. This includes the company's worldwide network of 31 University of Technology Centres engaging with hundreds of academics and researchers. Also presents the critical impact of collaborative research, developing the fundamental technology, tools and skills required by Rolls-Royce, maintaining scientific excellence.

EngD poster events were held at the Heritage Museum in addition to a variety of DTC stands, exhibiting their research with potential application to Rolls-Royce technologies. Universities including Nottingham, Bristol, Southampton, Surrey, and Birmingham have participated.

This event demonstrates the continued commitment from Rolls-Royce to invest in the next-generation of engineering challenges, and the value of the EngD programme for the transfer of skills and development from academia towards the industry.

(contributed by Lee Pardoe, EngD research engineer at Southampton University)

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.

Science Show-off (can be Engineering Show-off too)

Some of the Bristol EngD community have been tweeting today about Science Show-off. This seems to be similar to PubhD (or InngD, as we called it):

It’s a chaotic open mic night for scientists, science communicators, science teachers, historians and philosophers of science, students, science popularisers and anyone else with something to show off about science.

It happens at least once a month in London (the next one is at the Bloomsbury Theatre on Wednesday 5 February), and also all over the country - the Bristol gig is on 23 January at the Grain Barge at Hotwells and according to a @ScienceShowoff Tweet: "Woop. We'd love to have engineers on stage".

Signed-up performers take to the stage to show off their science (engineering). They might:

• Show a film they just made
• Try out a new demo
• Practice a new science comedy set
• Tell us about their new discovery
• Perform a 9-minute play about science
• Play their new song about protons
• Tell us what they’ve been up to
• Predict the future
• Give us a taster of their science-themed Edinburgh show
• Read us their latest science poem
• Try out a bit of a new science lesson on us
• Play us a short radio documentary
• Experiment on the crowd
• Read us a blogpost
• Perform an interpretive dance about science

Or anything else…

Update (13 January 2014) - EngD Research engineer Natasha Watson (from the IDC in Systems at University of Bath, and sponsored by Buro Happold) is talking at the Bristol Science Showoff event on 23 January (see post) at the Grain Barge:

Natasha will be telling you the story of the three little pigs… with a twist: building houses from sticks and straw isn’t too bad after all.

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.

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.

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?).

AEngD bloggers and Tweeters

EngD research engineers are often keen to share their ideas online, so we have started to collate a list of blogs that relate to all aspects of EngD research.

Some blogs have been created by industrial doctorate centres (the Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments centre at University of Reading, for example), while others have been created by REs. For instance, the TSBE blog links to two further examples created by Reading REs involved in research into renewables:

• Marek Kubik writes about his research and, in his own words "frequently ventures into territories such as engineering, economics and politics. The occasional escapade off topic into things that interest me might also find its way in here."
• Peter Burgess's Set in Etch-a-Sketch covers his "views on all things renewable and sustainable energy."

Twitter also provides some useful links to EngD bloggers. @The_AEngD currently follows several REs who resort to 140 characters, some of whom write substantially more on their blogs. For example...

• Maria Felice is a mechanical engineering-focused research engineer at the Systems IDC at University of Bristol.
• Laura Daniels' Energy Assortment is a recently re-started blog by another RE at TSBE in Reading
• Mesut Pala is researching construction supply chains at Loughborough's CICE (though it appears his blog has been neglected of late, and has no RSS feed)
• Ben Betts is Stoatly Different, and is a RE at Warwick's International Digital Lab.

Please let us know if you have an EngD-related blog that you'd like to be added to our AEngD blog-roll.