Engineering Brochure

ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL

ENGINEERING EPSRC, keeping the UK at the heart of global engineering research

EPSRC

ENGINEERING PRIORITIES

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in

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engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training across

engineering research •

the research landscape – from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials

Safeguarding the long-term sustainability of Inspiring current and future leaders of engineering research

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science – to help the nation handle the next generation of

Aligning excellent engineering research to specific industrial or societal challenges

technological change. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for

Priority areas in the EPSRC Engineering

everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture.

theme include:

As the single largest public sector funder of engineering

Water Engineering

research, EPSRC stimulates creativity and long-term

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Design and optimisation of technologies relating

thinking in areas with the potential for long-term impact. We

to water resource management, treatment and

take a holistic view of our portfolio, focusing on core

distribution systems – with the overall objective of

engineering skills, knowledge and resources, and integrating

contributing to the global challenge of clean water

research policies so that they successfully deliver against

for all

EPSRC’s priority challenge themes of Energy, Healthcare Technologies and Manufacturing the Future. These challenge

Synthetic Biology

themes depend on underpinning engineering research, as well

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The application of engineering tools and principles

as a flow of leading researchers between disciplines – and

to the design and manufacture of biologically-based

EPSRC is at the heart of this activity.

parts, devices and systems Power Electronics •

Underpinning research linked strongly to industrial need with the potential to deliver many

£2.2 billion

low-carbon technologies Microsystems •

Total value of EPSRC’s research portfolio

Underpinning microengineering research to develop a diverse range of novel miniaturised microstructured devices

Cross-cutting areas important to EPSRC where engineering makes a significant contribution include:

39%

Percentage of EPSRC-funded PhD students who entered business or the public sector during 2010/2011

Resource Efficiency and Sustainability •

Developing strategies for materials efficiency, recovery, replacement, re-use and recycling with the potential for impact across sectors

Infrastructure •

Supporting ambitious engineering research that contributes to meeting long-term infrastructure challenges for the UK, set in an international context

44%

Percentage of EPSRC’s research portfolio that is collaborative with business and other research users

In addition, engineering has a major contribution to make to the technologies identified by the UK Government for growth, in particular, advanced materials; robotics & autonomous systems.

RECENT INVESTMENTS Green engineering fellowships

sandpits provide and promote. The resulting research projects

Four leading academics from the universities of Exeter, Sheffield,

are both exciting and have great potential for long-term benefit.”

Bristol and Cambridge have been awarded substantial fellowship grants, totalling £2.38 million.

Earth moving research to help protect UK infrastructure A three-year programme of engagement and collaboration

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Professor David Butler, from the University of Exeter, will

between EPSRC, the academic community and engineering

be understanding the key characteristics of sustainable and

industries has resulted in £4.7 million funding for new

resilient water systems and then applying that

engineering research.

understanding to develop and test new and improved ways to tackle problems associated with water scarcity,

Three new projects will help improve the understanding and

urban flooding and river pollution.

prediction of earth movements to protect major infrastructure; provide greater confidence in the durability of composite

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Professor Keith Worden, from the University of Sheffield,

materials for use in civil engineering industries and develop new

will be focusing on structural health monitoring –

self-healing materials for construction.

providing a means for industry to optimise management of

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their assets by allowing them to diagnose potential

Further information on these and other awards are available on

problems in operation at as early a stage as possible.

the EPSRC web site, www.epsrc.ac.uk.

Dr Simon Neild, from the University of Bristol, will be developing a computer validation programme to analyse the behaviour of mechanical structures, focusing on the aerospace and wind energy sectors.

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Dr Jean-Francois Mercure, from Cambridge University, will be constructing a computational modelling system which can be used by government to shape energy policy and will provide new data for climate change scientists.

The most valuable global commodity today is not oil, gold or grain: it is ideas. Fresh thinking and collective knowledge must flow between nations as readily as investments and goods.

Green engineering projects In July 2012 EPSRC brought together academics from a number of disciplines to take part in a collaborative, five-day creative

Excerpt from a letter to The Times, signed by some of the 400

workshop known as a ‘sandpit’. Their task was to find innovative

engineers, scientists, industrialists and thought-leaders from

long-term sustainable engineering solutions to some of the

around the world who will meet at the first Global

most pressing challenges for the UK, such as the country’s

Engineering Grand Challenges Summit in March 2013.

limited resources and high material dependency.

The sandpit generated four exciting new engineering projects, funded by a grant of just over £5 million by EPSRC, to help the UK develop new lightweight materials; clean contaminated land to reclaim valuable metals; and design products so that they last longer and are more easily recyclable.

The projects will be run from four universities Bath, Birmingham, Loughborough and Warwick, and involve academics from a total of 12 institutions.

Professor David Delpy, EPSRC’s chief executive, says: “Finding answers to complex problems such as how to manage our resources efficiently and sustainably requires creative and considered thinking and a willingness to explore ideas with others. That is exactly the sort of environment and ethos our engineering

CASE STUDIES Keeping mum An ultra-low-cost scanner that can be plugged into any computer to show images of an unborn baby has been developed

by EPSRC-sponsored engineers at Newcastle University.

The hand-held USB device works in a similar way to ultrasound scanners, using pulses of high frequency sound to build up a picture of the unborn child on the computer screen.

Tracks to the future

However, unlike hospital technology, which can cost from

EPSRC-sponsored engineering students and staff at the

as £40.

University of Birmingham have designed a futuristic locomotive

The team hope the device will be used to provide medical teams

powered by hydrogen, the first of its kind in the UK.

working in the world’s poorest nations with basic antenatal

The team hope the project will encourage the rail industry to

information that could save the lives of hundreds of thousands

take a closer look at the technology, which provides a clean and

of women and children.

£20,000-£100,000, the scanner can be manufactured for as little

efficient example of how hydrogen power could work for future trains on non-electrified routes.

The narrow gauge locomotive (pictured above) is a hybrid design, combining a hydrogen fuel cell and lead acid batteries similar to the ones used in cars. Hydrogen provides a clean source of energy and offers a considerable extension in range compared to battery-only operation.

Over 5,000 litres of hydrogen are stored in a solid state metal hydride tank at relatively low, and safe, pressure. This is achieved by using one of the train’s 10 advanced hydrogen storage units. The train’s fuel cell is used both to power the permanent magnet electric motors and to charge the batteries.

The locomotive also features regenerative braking to capture, store and re-use braking energy.

Pipe dreams

Clever coatings to reduce carbon footprint

OXEMS, a company created to

Researchers at the University of Surrey have invented a new

commercialise EPSRC-funded research,

process to make bespoke coatings that could one day reduce the

has developed a unique sensor device to

drag resistance of ships and aeroplanes and thereby lower

detect underground assets such as

fuel consumption.

waterpipes, sewers and cabling without

Using their simple, low-cost process, it is possible to create

the need for excavation.

plastic coatings with small bumps and ridges in sizes ranging

The tough, low cost, low maintenance

from less than a millimetre to a couple of centimetres. With the

sensor identifies and detects ‘tagged’

right design, this texture will reduce the drag forces when large

piping rather like a barcode reader. The ‘intelligent’ part of the

vessels pass through air or water. In turn, vessels will consume

technology is on the surface. OXEMS believes the technology

less energy in propulsion.

could reduce the costs to utilities or street works by at least

There are numerous potential applications for the technology,

40 per cent.

including micro lenses in digital cameras, photocopiers, and

OXEMS arose from the EPSRC-funded Mapping the Underworld

solar cells.

project, a multidisciplinary, multi-university collaboration to

The team is collaborating with six companies through funding

develop techniques for identifying the range of services that

from an EPSRC Knowledge Transfer Account (KTA) to develop

underlie our streets. It is researching the use of vibro-acoustics,

ways for industrial manufacturers to use the process to create

low frequency electromagnetic fields, passive magnetic field

novel coatings for household goods.

technologies, ground penetrating radar and other technologies.

Image credit: Nissan Leaf, Department of Engineering Science, Oxford University

The drive of your future life EPSRC-sponsored researchers at Oxford University have

The technology is controlled from an iPad on the dashboard

developed low-cost technology that enables cars to literally drive

through which on-screen prompts can ask the driver if they

themselves – and could one day be a feature on all cars.

would like to take over control of the vehicle for a portion of a

The project is co-led by Professor Paul Newman, an EPSRC

familiar route. Touching the screen switches to ‘auto drive’

Leadership Fellow in the university’s Department of Engineering

where the robotic system takes over. At any time a tap on the

Science, and Dr Ingmar Posner.

brake pedal will return control to the human driver.

The team use the mathematics of probability and estimation to

Professor Newman says: “Our approach is made possible

enable computers in cars and robots to interpret data from

because of advances in 3D laser mapping that enable an

cameras, radars and lasers, aerial photos and road plans.

affordable car-based robotic system to rapidly build up a detailed

The team’s low-cost in-car navigation system uses 3D laser

picture of its surroundings.

mapping, and can recognise its surroundings using small

“Because our cities don’t change very quickly robotic vehicles

cameras and lasers discreetly built into the vehicle’s body and

will know and look out for familiar structures as they pass by so

linked to a computer in the boot.

that they can ask a human driver ‘I know this route, do you want

Unlike the automated technology that has already found its way

me to drive?’ and the driver can choose to let the technology

into some production road cars, the Oxford team’s system does

take over.

not rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) for the cars to find

“The discreet sensors used in the system are getting cheaper all

their way. Such systems cannot provide anything like the

the time. It’s easy to imagine that this kind of technology could

coverage, precision, and reliability autonomous cars need to

be in a car you could buy.”

safely navigate, and, crucially, GPS fails to tell a robotic car anything about its surroundings.

The latest version of the Oxford team’s technology has been installed in a Nissan Leaf electric car, part of the team’s collaboration with the Japanese manufacturer, and gives a glimpse of what the driver’s experience of what an ‘autonomous’ car of the future might be like.

Further examples of how EPSRC-funded research generates growth and prosperity for the UK can be found on the EPSRC web site. www.epsrc.ac.uk

WWW.EPSRC.AC.UK

Image credits: istockphoto