Research strategy consultation: join our town halls and share your thoughts

Update from Professor Dame Jessica Corner  I am delighted to announce a series of town halls to update you on the development of our five-year research strategy.   We encourage our whole community – colleagues from all job families as well as researchers and staff who support research – to join us and help shape …

Students engage MPs with scientific research

PhD students from the Faculty of Engineering had the opportunity to present their research at the House of Commons before Members of the Parliament and the wider research community on 7 March. They attended the annual SET For Britain research showcase, held in Portcullis House, a government building opposite Westminster Palace. SET is short for …

Multidisciplinary Aerospace Research Challenge

Prof Hervé Morvan, Director of the Institute for Aerospace Technology, gives some background on the Aerospace Research Challenge, an opportunity for researchers across all faculties to receive project funding up to £50,000. The Institute for Aerospace Technology (IAT) is running a multidisciplinary Aerospace Research Challenge (MARCh) aiming to seed new ideas for research with applicability …

Engineering — not just for boys

It’s International Women’s Day today. So it seems appropriate to share the thoughts of one of our top engineers on the subject of how STEM subjects are VERY DEFINITELY #notjustforboys Being in an engineering faculty means working closely with industry, and seeing the impact of our work on real systems. That’s certainly #notjustforboys — says …

Addressing the imbalance — WinSET conference 2014

I attended a planning meeting for the WinSET conference 2014 yesterday, and the programme is looking good. I’ll give you a quick overview… The keynote speakers are Baroness Brenda Dean, honorary president of WinSET, and Sarah Dickinson, Policy Manager at Athena SWAN. Baroness Dean was created a Life Peer in 1993 and a member of …

Technician – and proud!

The blog post below first appeared on the Guardian’s Higher Education Network last week. Written by Kelly Vere, a senior technician at the University, it outlined the technician’s lot and painted a picture of an invisible layer of University and research sector employees of whom little is heard. But it’s very clear that, without them, …

Gurkhas get lunch!

Some nice pics here on the Practical Action Flickr stream. UoN engineers are working with Practical Action and Kathmandu University on the Score-stove – which is designed to be a clean cooking stove. This is of particular relevance in Nepal as cooking on open fires in popular – and as it’s so cold there, this …

Design at Nottingham – you really should have a look

I was wandering back from Chemistry earlier (where I was talking to Sam Tang about some very interesting video material we have – watch this space…) and my route to the office took me past the Engineering and Learning Sciences Centre. I was confronted by these… I was intrigued, so ventured in. Turns out it’s …

Being a lab rat – driving simulator

I’ve worked for the University for six years now. One of the things I like most about the job is getting access to cool stuff. I get to hear a lot of the calls for volunteers that researchers put out, looking for guinea pigs to help prove, or disprove, their latest theory. I’ve been in an MRI …

3D printing – watch this space

Have been talking to the engineers setting up the (deep breath, because this is a mouthful…) EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Additive Manufacturing at the University. The centre will launch on July 1st, home to more than 40 researchers. They’re among the best in the world in the field of 3D printing and additive …