Southampton EngD's 'Three minute thesis'

Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland which challenges research higher degree students to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance in just three minutes in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

Daniel Lurcock, an EngD research student, entered the University of Southampton's Faculty of Engineering and the Environment heats and reached the Faculty final, where he narrowly missed going on to represent Engineering and the Environment at the University final.

The Three Minute Thesis is a good example of how academia can be made more accessible to non-academic audiences. We've found other examples in the UK including the PubhD ("InngD, maybe"? - post) and the Science Showoff (post).

EngD team racing underwater

A team of EngD students from the University of Southampton are competing in the 2nd biennial European International Submarine Races (eISR - see Subrace.eu) at QinetiQ's Ocean Basin in Gosport, UK this summer. The overall objective of the eISR is to encourage innovative design in submarine engineering.

The teams have to design and build a human powered submarine ready to race in the competition in July. The submarines will race several times and will be judged on aspects of the design as well as speed.

Keep an eye on this page for updates of the team's progress in the run up to the competition.

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.)

Advanced materials research showcase

The Materials KTN is hosting the 2014 Materials Research Exchange (at Coventry's Ricoh Arena on 25 February 2014) to showcase the UK's Centres of Excellence in materials research and development. The event's aim and scope include:

• Showcasing the richness of UK materials research to support the government's view that advanced materials are among UK's Eight Great Technologies
• Closer collaboration between industry and UK materials research base
• Increased public and private funding for UK materials research
• Private equity support for commercialising UK materials research

Exhibiting organisations are invited to send graduate research students to present their academic work by poster and a prize will be awarded to the poster that is judged to be the best by the audience.

Backed by the Technology Strategy Board and EPSRC, further information about the event is here.

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.

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.