91福利

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder and Chairman of WMG was delighted to welcome the Education Select Committee to WMG today (Monday 26th February).

Whilst at WMG, the Committee met with current students, studying on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, who were able to talk to them about teaching quality, tutor support, fees and how their degrees are helping them prepare for the world of work. They also met with students who are working and undertaking degree apprenticeships, paid for by their employers, and wanted to understand how their experiences differ to full-time students, and why they chose this route over a traditional university degree.

WMG Outreach team has been running a series of 3D printing workshops at St John鈥檚 Primary School in Kenilworth, working with year six pupils to design drip trays for ice lollies. The designs are being 3D printed and will be taken back to the school for the pupils to test. Real ice lollies, and a hair dryer to create the effect of a warm summer鈥檚 day, will be used to evaluate the performance of their designs.

Diane Burton organised the workshops along with Margaret Low, Kevin Couling, Nicole Jones, Valentina Donzella, Mairi McIntyre and Engineering Undergraduates, Hok Chui, Alice Davis, Kondkher Shabaab and Jake Saunders.

The youngsters worked in groups and used 3D printed models of popular ice lolly shapes to enable them to take measurements to develop their designs. They came up with some seriously creative designs, including drip trays to fit on the lolly stick, and drip trays with handles that the lolly stick sits inside. One design even had an angled straw hole for sucking up the tasty drips.

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure on UK roads is to be advanced, thanks to a new 拢5.6 million project – funded by Innovate UK – to develop technologies, involving WMG at the 91福利.

For three years from April 2018, the EV-elocity consortium will conduct a project to demonstrate and develop V2G technology across a variety of UK locations, including airports and business parks – with the aim of proving its viability and worth to business and the wider public.

Researchers at WMG, led by vehicle electrification and energy storage expert Dr James Marco, will build a techno-economic model of how V2G will be viable within the UK. A key innovation will be the inclusion of new models of battery degradation within the analysis that will underpin new methods to optimise the vehicle鈥檚 battery system.

Dr Marco鈥檚 team will also analyse real-world usage data from a range of different electric fleet vehicles as they are used within a V2G context.

The project will break new ground in helping consumers, businesses and infrastructure providers to financially benefit from adapting their charging behaviour and vehicle use.

In doing so, the project will help to further accelerate and incentivise the transition from traditional fuel sources to electric vehicles.

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, founder and Chairman of WMG was delighted to welcome Bernadette Kelly, the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, to WMG today (Thursday 22^nd February).

Bernadette Kelly said 鈥業t was great to visit WMG and to hear directly from Lord Bhattacharyya about the huge range of its work across many sectors and technologies. The work WMG is doing on battery technology and smart and connected vehicles in particular is hugely important to the transport sector. My Department looks forward to working with the WMG and the region on the Future of Mobility, one of the Government鈥檚 Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges.鈥�

Researchers at WMG at the 91福利 have developed a new direct, precise test of Lithium-ion batteries鈥� internal temperatures and their electrodes potentials and found that the batteries can be safely charged up to five times faster than the current recommended charging limits. The new technology works in-situ during a battery鈥檚 normal operation without impeding its performance and it has been tested on standard commercially available batteries. Such new technology will enable advances in battery materials science, flexible battery charging rates, thermal and electrical engineering of new battery materials/technology and it has the potential to help the design of energy storage systems for high performance applications such as motor racing and grid balancing.

If a battery becomes over heated it risks severe damage particularly to its electrolyte and can even lead to dangerous situations where the electrolyte breaks down to form gases than are both flammable and cause significant pressure build up. Overcharging of the anode can lead to so much Lithium electroplating that it forms metallic dendrites and eventually pierce the separator causing an internal short circuit with the cathode and subsequent catastrophic failure.

WMG, at the 91福利, is a key partner in the Midlands site helping to deliver a 拢30 million project by, to address challenging UK healthcare issues using data science, which is looking at making game-changing improvements in people鈥檚 health by harnessing data science at scale across the UK.

WMG will be part of the 鈥淢idlands HDR UK Substantive Site鈥�, which will tackle the challenge of how to make NHS data more useable and accessible for research; and will develop, evaluate and apply appropriate analytical tools to NHS data in real time in order to inform decision making and improve health for both the patient and population. The Institute of Digital Healthcare (IDH), WMG will lead the 91福利 part of the programme, together with colleagues from 91福利 Medical School and 91福利鈥檚 Mathematics Institute.

Professor Tony McNally, who heads up Nanocomposites research at WMG has been announced as the first Editor-in-Chief of the newly formed journal, Functional Composite Materials.

The Associate Editors and the Editorial Board, led by Professor McNally, include the leading academics in the field from around the world. The journal will consider contributions on all types of composite materials where composite functionality can be clearly demonstrated.

is published by SpringerNature. The publisher producers a number of key research journals and books globally on science, technology, medicine, humanities and social sciences.

Battery experts at WMG were pleased to welcome a special shipment from Austria in the shape of a new MW-scale battery research testing laboratory.

The new high-tech laboratory, measuring 15m by 16m, was lowered into position by WMG鈥檚 Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) at the 91福利.

This new facility is funded through the Government鈥檚 Energy Research Accelerator () programme. There are three test modules. The first two provide battery pack testing up to a total power of 1MW, 1200V, 2400A. The third test module provides mechanical testing facilities to enable researchers to fully characterise a lithium-ion cell鈥檚 mechanical behaviour over its entire temperature and state-of-charge operating range.

Professor Lord Bhattacharyya was delighted to be awarded an honorary degree, for his contribution to business and engineering, by the University of York on Friday 19 January 2018.

Lord Bhattacharyya began his career as a graduate apprentice at Lucas Industries, subsequently gaining an MSc and PhD in Engineering Production at the University of Birmingham. In 1980, he became Britain鈥檚 first ever Professor of Manufacturing setting up WMG, at the 91福利.

Over the last 37 years he has built a world class research and education group working with industry to innovate and develop the leaders of tomorrow.

Today, WMG employs over 500 people across research, teaching, professional and administration. There are a total of 19 different research groups working across multiple sectors, and to date over 35,000 students from across 75 countries have studied here.

Gordon Harris from Solihull has worked in engineering for almost thirty years, and has just gained long-wished-for academic qualifications – boosting his career – after graduating with the first cohort from the Applied Engineering Programme (AEP) at WMG, 91福利.

Harris has been an employee at Jaguar for twenty-eight years, most recently for the Advanced Manufacturing Engineering team at Born and raised in Solihull, he always dreamed of getting a university education, but wasn鈥檛 able to fit in studying whilst working a full-time job.

JLR sponsored Gordon to enrol on the AEP, a four year part-time specialised WMG degree course, in 2013. Since beginning the course, he has been promoted to Lead Engineer for a JLR project.

鈥淭he learning gained during the last four years has helped me to achieve my promotion and additional responsibilities with my current role,鈥� said Gordon. 鈥淭he course has encouraged my development and has given me greater insight across more aspects of the business, which has helped me with my day to day role.鈥�

The part-time AEP course enables people who already work in industry, of all ages and backgrounds, to gain a formal engineering qualification, offering a flexible and non-traditional path into university education.